On October 1st, 2018 I contacted Presidential Pools to begin the process for designing my pool. On October 8th I had a meeting with the designer and signed off on the design. I have zero complaints with the initial stages and the entire design piece went very smoothly, with no issues.
It took until January 9th for the pool to be released to layout. Other than the financial and loan application, I really cannot provide an explanation for the cause of this long length of time – 3 months. I was prompt with everything that was required of me during this time and I provided everything that was needed quickly. After the loan application process, I added pavers to a small patio and agreed to the out of pocket costs for that, but additional costs of $2,340 sprung up that I had to agree to pay out of pocket. This came from measurements being taken and equipment needing to be moved because of the layout of my house/windows/etc. I was told I could remove a few things from my project to eat that cost, but I declined. I would recommend future customers to wait for measurements to be taken prior to applying for a loan so you have a concrete amount to apply for and prevent out of pocket costs. Additionally, any damage caused to your current landscaping, to include rocks and bushes/flowers, will not be fixed, so that is an additional cost because there will definitely be damage from equipment going back and forth.
I was told by the designer and my project manager that once the pool was laid out, it would take 8 weeks to complete, pending weather. It is now the 29th of April that I write this review, and the project is not completed. I want to point out, that there was one week of rain and bad weather in January, so I am not discounting weather for being a factor during that week, or even the week, maybe two weeks, after that. I understand the contractors were back logged because of rain, but we are now going onto the 17th week of the project. When the pool hole was dug, the Bobcat swiped my concrete wall and broke a section of the wall. As of right now, it has not been fixed, and it’s October 2019, a year later. I have included a picture.
In my opinion, this was a large project, costing almost, if not at least, $55,000 including landscape to complete. With this being said, I expected high quality work. To explain – the pavers that were laid by the company Sanctuary is definitely not to standard. There are large gaps between a large portion of the pavers, so much so that I’ve included pictures of pavers that have collapsed because there was not enough concrete to hold them in place. I expressed my concern that the rain would cause these pavers to break loose, and I was told that they are under warranty so if they break loose in the future I could file a warranty claim. Ideally, I would like the issue fixed now than later, especially because it is not aesthetically pleasing with large gaps between pavers. Sanctuary did end up coming back out to fix the collapsed pavers, but there are still gaps between several pavers.
Two additional issues also arose during construction that was not caught in the beginning that should have been. I have two large fire wok pots on the back wall of the pool. The gas piping was laid in the wrong location, so the pavers that were laid had to be broken up to remove the piping and put in the right location. Also, I added a pergola to the project as well. The beams needed to be buried for the pergola prior to the pavers being laid. The pavers were laid and I questioned the location of the pergola posts because they were not in place yet. The pavers were then broken up so that the posts could be grounded. I’ve included pictures of both. I am not the construction oversight manager and should not have been required to oversee the progress of the pool in order to catch these errors.
Final remarks in this review. The length of time it took to complete was absolutely unsatisfactory. Communication was decent but could have been improved. I was not informed on one of the days contractors would be working in my backyard and did not close off my dog door so my dog was in the yard and escaped when the gate was left open. She was brought back by the contractors but that could have ended terribly.
The end all question, would I recommend Presidential Pools? I would have to say no. The construction from beginning to end was extremely disorganized, to the point that in 2 locations, the pavers had to be broken up and removed because the gas lines were incorrectly laid and they “forgot” I had a pergola. Not to mention the pavers that collapsed/broke because of a lack of concrete and the large gaps. My recommendation is to get rid of the company Sanctuary. Looking at Sanctuary’s negative reviews also speaks volumes. Landscaping is also not included in the pool project’s final price, but it is part of the design process so that the 3D pictures you’re given of your “finished project” look pretty. I had to find my own landscaper, even though I had the option of using Sanctuary. I declined their services. As the weeks came and went I went from extremely patient to everyday asking about completion updates. “This week, next week, the end of next week, I’m hoping by …., etc”. If I was not home watching the progression of the project, I’m curious as to how long it would have been before the mistakes were caught. I had to mention reminders “I have a pergola”, I have “fire bowls”, etc.