Is a winter pool build right for me?

Here at the The Pool and Spa Place, we have developed some processes that allow us to build inground pools year round. This is great for a couple of reasons.

The first is that it helps us accommodate several extra projects per year, and we strive to build as many new relationships as possible, without sacrificing quality.

The second big advantage is that sometimes we can slide a project into our schedule sooner. MUCH SOONER! There are times that our backlog of work is 12 months out, this makes it hard to develop new client relationship because people have a hard time waiting that long for the right pool, and make some sacrifices to get a pool sooner. As an impatient person by nature, I completely understand this and can often make recommendations on other contractors that may be a good fit for their projects. BUT sometimes it works out that I can slide them in sooner by taking advantage of a winter build position on our schedule.

Not all pools qualify for a winter build.

There are quite a few factors that come into play. At the top of the priority list are the clients’ needs. The first thing I will always mention when exploring the possibility of building an inground pool in the winter is the time it takes. The inground pool construction process is subject to some crucial workflows that need appropriate weather conditions. This means these projects take a good bit longer as we may need to wait for the weather to cooperate for certain processes. So I prepare potential winter build clients for an extended installation timeline.

The next thing to discuss with the client is the MUD. Winter builds are often times MESSY. It’s simple, we come in to dig and keep it as neat as possible, but from the first rainfall, the ground never fully dries out. This means that the project area, and sometimes path to the backyard, get muddy and stay muddy until spring. 2 considerations for this are

1: Can you stand to look at it for that long?

2: Can you keep it out of your house.

The first one is easy, its knowing yourself and if you will be able to focus on the beautiful pool we designed together and not focus on the muddy backyard for a while. The 2nd is sometimes trickier. We do a pretty good job of keeping the jobsite and our equipment clean, but if you have dogs make sure you will be able to let them out without them accessing the mud. As a dog lover myself I know that my dog has a 6th sense for mud and can find it in the middle of a dry spell in August if given the opportunity. He loves to play in it then come back into the house and “share the wealth” by tracking it all over the house as I try to contain and clean him up. Haha I swear he’s a good boy, just a bit rambunctious when he’s excited.

As I typed that I couldn’t help but think of my 4 year old, and how much he enjoys the mud, too…so I guess I can’t just blame Bruce (our dog.)

So we try to make sure the client is prepared for their own side of things, but we have a few stipulations of our own to make sure a winter build is a safe decision. Our basic checklist is:

Yard Access: Its simple, we need to be able to get material into and out of the work area. Even if you aren’t sure your yard is a good fit, don’t rule yourself out, we own all track driven equipment which affords us a much wider variety of yards we can access in less-than-ideal conditions.

Scope of Work: This is a loaded one that is hard to sum up, but we factor in wide array of things to make sure that the scale of the project and its design allow for winter build process. Sometimes we need to factor in building temporary structures, hillside retention, and planning that can allow construction this time of year.

Proximity to our Construction HQ: That hardly seems fair! But it is what it is. Days are shorter, and weather often makes them even shorter than daylight permits. So if we have a weather delay, we need to be able to make the calls, rally the troops and get to the job-site as quickly as possible. Our Dream Team is dedicated to their craft and makes this all possible, but it still has to make logistical sense. I’m sure this is no surprise to you, the the weather forecast is not always accurate! So we can’t rely on it to tell us if the rain held off, we need to look outside and know its a nice enough day to work. Our region makes that tricky if we are traveling too far from HQ.

First to swim!

There are a couple other perks of a winter build, like you are often time the first ones swimming! If we wrap your project late enough in the season we can often times just let it run and it will be ready for you to turn the heat up on the first nice day. So before other people even have their pools open, you’ll be living that good life! Auto-cover pools play especially nice with this since they hold the heat in so well. Another perk is that if we are fortunate enough to wrap up your inground pool project early enough in the winter that it needs closed, we provide that service free of charge. After all, you were gracious enough to help us fill out winter build schedule!

We evaluate each job carefully with these things and any other factors that may come into play. Being industry leaders and our years of winter build construction mean we are able to make these assessments accurately fairly easily and can often be done in our initial consultation. Hopefully this helped you decide if a winter inground pool build is something you are interested in. If so fill this out and we will be in touch to get you lined up for next winter, or maybe sooner!