Fort Worth Pool LLC review: New inground pool

After too many issues during construction and the contractor showing his incompetence through and through, I asked Fort Worth Pool for their COI and I was told it was none of my business. I then told them that they were no longer permitted to perform work on my property until proof of minimum liability insurance was obtained. Below is a list of the issues that were incurred during the process. I'll try to be brief...

1. The day before excavation they laid out the pool wrong. I told the contractor that his drawings were incorrect and that he needed to update them before moving forward. He said the drawings weren't important and asked if I could show them where to dig the following morning. Met their foreman onsite the day of the dig and informed him that he was about 2' off center.

2. Came home after the excavation and saw that they left a "bench" undug running east and west along the entire width of the pool. I sent the foreman a text asking what this was and I didn't get a response. The next day I was communicating with the estimator (Brad) about this and he said they would bring the excavator out and have it removed. I came home that day and it was removed.

3. After the excavation, I raised concerned to Brad that it didn't look like they dug it out completely for the bond beam as it was illustrated in their detail and he called the foreman who basically said everything was fine. The foreman said he would get with the steel guys to make sure the bond beam was constructed to specs.

4. The steel guys came and immediately upon inspection i realized the bond beam was not constructed to specs. They also used clay bricks as "chairs" underneath the steel which is not acceptable per industry standards. I sent the foreman photos of the steel, bond beam, and clay bricks and asked if he approved of all of this as he was not onsite while they were working and I did not get a response. I also noticed that no piers were drilled at the spa which was also illustrated in their specs. Late the next day I got a text from their foreman saying the steel "looks very good" and I responded by asking why there were no piers and why doesn't the steel at the bond beam look their detail and I got no response. The next day I sent an email to the owner (James) and Brad about these issues and the lack of communication. I also expressed my concern for the lack of safety demonstrated onsite and that they needed to do a better job of securing the site when their subcontractors leave. James said he would be out in 2 days to see with his "own eyes."

5. James called me when he was onsite 2 days later and said the bond beam was incorrect, the use of clay bricks as chairs was unacceptable, that he was going to get it corrected along with the safety issues I addressed. The next day they came out and drilled the piers at the spa. When I came home the safety issues were still there: fence wide open; no fall protection; unprotected steel rebar pointing up all around the pool. These safety issues, along with trash left behind from each subcontractor were never addressed by Fort Worth Pool and still remain to this day.

6. The next day the steel contractor came out and added more steel to the bond beam and replaced all the clay bricks with concrete ones. The bond beam still did not look correct as it didn't appear to have a cantilever edge all along the perimeter.

7. Plumbers came next and installed the lighting in the wrong locations (not centered) and they stubbed-up their conduits for the pool equipment right in front of our kitchen windows. Sent an email asking why the lighting conduits were not in the correct location and why would they put the pool equipment in front of a window. I was told by James that they would move the conduits away from the window later. No mention of the lighting conduits.

8. A few days later, and to my surprise, I came home and they had poured the gunite. Now there's no fixing the uncentered pool lights.
9. About 3 weeks later, I came home to see that they had installed the wrong 1" x 1" pool tiles. Wrong type, wrong color. Sent an email to Brad asking what the deal was.

10. A week or so later they came and removed the pool tiles and installed the travertine coping which I noticed did not have an "eased edge" as we requested. Got an email later on from Brad saying that it would be an eased edge before it was over with. They later used a router to create a round edge which is not what we wanted. To this day Fort Worth Pool is telling me that it's the same as an eased edge and this is not an issue.

11. They also installed stone veneer around the face of the spa which was never selected. They had to come out a couple days later and remove the stone veneer and install the pool tiles as originally planned.

12. About a month later, the concrete sub came out and installed the forms which were incorrect in just about every way. Weeks later James, Brad, and a new foreman met onsite and they agreed everything need to be redone. The next day the concrete sub came out and only addressed a couple of the issues and left the rest the same. When I expressed my frustrations, Fort Worth Pool said there was nothing they could do as they "cannot tell their subs what to do."

13. Told Fort Worth Pool to provide proof of insurance and they haven't been onsite since or shown any interest in fulfilling their contract.

I was promised they'd be done by Thanksgiving, but the pool still lacks decking, pool equipment, and pool plaster. I'm currently getting quotes from contractors to finish this project. My biggest concerns are the bond beam not being constructed properly, the incorrect coping, and regaining the money that I've overpaid them. I asked them for breakouts of the cost of labor and materials performed to date, but that request was immediately refused as James told me "no pool contractors do that."

On 12-30-24, James the owner told me he was walking away from the project and would not further any communication with me. Contractor left the project with no decking, no plaster, and no pool equipment.

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