Sun-Aqua Pool & Spa Construction

Boy, where do I start. Probably the worst contractor I've ever dealt with. Terrible communication skills, both to the customer and his staff. Errors in construction happened almost on a daily basis when his people were involved. Sub contractors were professional, however. Pool was completed in Nov of 2011. We immediately noticed a small leak with water coming from the spa. While this work was originally done by a sub-contractor, it took our contractor many weeks to get someone out there to fix it. After about 6 weeks, they finally fixed the issue, which was small. By July of 2012 we started having cosmetic issues (the small tiles around the inside of the pool/spa started falling off). After trying to get the contractor there to fix it, it took a little over 8 weeks (yes, 2 months), after multiple set appointments and no-shows (with no phone call to let us know he wouldn't make it) to finally come and fix the issue (repaired the missing tiles). The issue took less than an hour to fix, after waiting 2 months. Then the contractor tells us "we shouldn't have used that kind of tile because they're prone to falling off in hot water (spa). Really? Might have been a good thing to mention at the time of the upgrade? (We paid an additional $300 to use those tiles) During that wait, further cosmetic issues started showing up. The concrete the spillway was created from, started falling off the front edge into the pool, turning it from a nice sculpted natural (rock) Originally looking edge, to a broken, now obviously concrete mess. Originally the spill-way was to have been made of a single piece of flagstone. Then after a couple of weeks of follow-up with him on the source of the stone, he said, well, it's going to have to be 2 x pieces, because of the slight curve. While not ideal, we said ok. To make a long story short, his staff brought 3 small pieces of stone for color approval. I approved of 2 of the colors. I come home later that day, and the guy installed 1) all 3 colors and 2) used 14 pieces, which frankly looked terrible. After spending $40,000 on a pool, you don't want to have what looks like a piece of crap like that. We told him he'd have to re-do it. Again, (not the first time this happened with this guy) he started screaming at my wife, on the phone, refusing to fix it. He finally fixed it after telling us he was going to charge us an extra $300 to do the work (which was far from spec in the first place). Because he held a gun to our heads, we said sure, just fix it. He did. His guy installed a "rock like" pad of concrete in its place and it actually looked pretty nice! Since that time we have never received an invoice, ever. At first we thought it was because he realized what an idiot he was being and called it a day. After such an incredible hassle with this guy, I started posting negative reviews about him and his conduct, online. I then started receiving phone calls, telling me to stop "spreading lies" about him. He also said because of the negative reviews, he would not fix our issue. He's also saying because we didn't pay him his $300 ransom on the repair of the spillway, he's also not honoring his warranty. I started to take him to the State Contract License Board, but then got a phone call from him (one of many) where he said my reviews have cost him his business and he was going bankrupt, and would be unable to complete the repairs. When I said I was taking him to the Board, he laughed and said, "I'm going out of business, so who cares?" I stopped the action against him, thinking I had better t hings to do with my time rather than come after a contractor who was going out of business. Seven months later, in July 2013, I went to his website, which was still up and running. I thought that odd, and called the number on the site. He answered the phone. He was still in business, now working out of his house. He lied about going out of business. I'm now taking him to the Contract License Board again, because I want these issues fixed. Never in my life have I had to deal with such an difficult contractor. Apparently I'm not the first person he's had warranty issues with. If you Google his company you can find several negative reviews about him, along with many positive reviews, written by himself, the owner of Sun Aqua Pools, Robert (Bob) Perkins. This guy is a real piece of work. There are a lot of good pool contractors out there to chose from. Unfortunately, this guy isn't one of them.

It was great. He was very good. He was out of the site the whole time with his contractors. It all went well. They were also very good about cleaning up after themselves.