Jason M.
My wife and I decided to build a pool during the summer of 2012. We didn’t anticipate starting until the Fall/Winter, so we had a lot of time to be patient and select the right pool builder for us. During the process we received full bids from 6 pool builders in the Austin/Cedar Park region. Some were small builders, and some were larger operations. At the end of the process, we had no doubts that we were going with Texas Pools and Patios. There were a couple main reasons:
They had a facility that we could go to and look at different components like the deck overlay, the rock, and other components.
The designer from TPP, Neal, had an excellent vision, even though we were so specific that we provided most of the requirements.
Reputation, they have done many pools in Lakeway, and a close friend had 3 neighbors that all had very good experiences.
Once you sign your contract, the main point of contact during a pool building process is your project manager. We were assigned Kevin De Los Santos. I cannot speak highly enough about Kevin and the job he did for us and Texas Pools and Patios. If you have any detailed questions, Kevin and TPP have me as a reference, you can reference the Rock Waterfall, Blue Pebble Bottom Pool in Cedar Park, and I’m sure they would provide our information as a reference. We built, from what I would describe, a very complex pool. It has significant rock work, a waterfall with 3 spill pools, a jumping rock, a spa spillway of moss rock, dry stack rock, and Wet Edge Antigua Satin Matrix. We also put in two variable speed pumps, and wireless controllers, LED lights and put in TPP Acrylic Overlay deck. Our pool, almost down to the rock, is exactly as we pictured going into this process. I will not say that there were not issues, because we ran into a couple things we did not like. As soon as we talked to Kevin, every single one was corrected. Most of them were just personal opinions, like where we wanted a step, and we didn’t get push back a single time. One of Kevin’s leads on the rock work, Martin, is a patient, artistic mason. He did absolutely fantastic work. One item we can’t comment on is timing. We deliberately built over the winter so that we wouldn’t be in a big hurry, pushing to get things done. I work from home, and my wife is a stay at home mother, so we were both able to see every step of the process. I’m sure that was a nightmare for TPP and Kevin, but we requested they wait for phases for us to get home from things, so the process took a little longer than normal for them. Plus, we built our pool through the Christmas Holiday, which we anticipated it would take some time. With the Holiday, we ran into big delays with Cedar Park inspections, understandable, but still slowed the process down. Even with that, plus the fact that we live next to a rock quarry in Cedar Park, which took more than two weeks of jack hammering to dig our extra deep pool, we still finished in about 90 days total. There were a couple things I will point out: TP&P did everything we agreed to without question.
If the designer doesn’t fit, request someone different. Ours did, but I can tell you that the designer is a big part of your choice, and if the one you’re dealing with isn’t right, I’m sure TP&P will set you up with someone that fits.
Kevin and his team had extensive experience, and I felt overly confident about every detail through the entire process.
There were additions that we hadn’t envisioned (Kevin walked us through different low voltage exterior lighting) and it makes our pool a real masterpiece at night, I mean Wow.
Turn up, we’ve already met Jason with TP&P as the turn up man, and the poor guy stayed late on a Friday walking us through things, he went well above and beyond, and we just met him. Overall, I will tell you that if you are looking to build a pool in the Austin area, or Cedar Park like us, I recommend Texas Pools and Patios, as highly as I can. Cost is a big issue, and that was a big consideration for us, but I would absolutely balance that with the piece of mind, and confidence in the builder, you’re making a significant investment, and TPP earned our trust completely.