Pool Construction...Hurry up and Wait....

The permitting process has to be the most frustrating aspect of building a pool. You got through the design process, you pick some final colors for tile and pool bottoms, you order pavers, and what do you get? A whole lot of waiting. In Hillsborough County, the permitting process can take several weeks, and you won't necessarily know if anything is wrong until some bureaucrat finally decides to review your pool plans. Luckily for us, we worked closely with our builder, but we still won't know much for several weeks. To learn more about the permitting process visit the following link: Hillsborough County Permits...

See ya later....

Pool Construction Liens & Tropical Storms

Here's a quote from Kevin Shipp, the President of Grand Vista Pools,

"This is standard procedure for suppliers, it just so happens that American Pavers are the only ones that file the notice. It is nothing to be concerned with, everyone gets one. It just protects their lien rights in the event they don’t get paid from Precision."

On to a separate topic. We are getting tropical storm Ernesto today, and I have a feeling that our start date of September 25th will be sliding a bit... Hopefully not, but one must expect weather to become a problem if you try to build a pool in Florida during hurricane season. There is a link to Weather Underground on the home page of this blog if you want to see for yourself!

I might check in later.....Stay tuned.

The Best Way to Find a Pool Contractor

One thing I forgot to mention. Selecting a pool contractor can be a challenge. We found Grand Vista Pools, by calling our Paving Contractor that had built a patio for us (Precision Pavers, if you are interested). Most pool contractors subcontract big portions of a job, like decking and screens, so often the best way to check on who does their pools on time, is with the sub-contractor that have to order materials well in advance (brick pavers and/or specialty tiles). Precision works with about 10 different pool contractors and we had interviewed 5 of them and when we ran those 5 past Precision, only 1 was usually on time. He then suggested we call GrandVista.

Good advice.

Florida Construction Lien Law

I recieved a certified letter today from our paver subcontractor today notifiying us that a lien could be placed on our home if our general contractor fails to pay the subcontractor and it included this ominous statement, "If your contractor fails to pay subcontractor or material suppliers, or neglects to make other legally required payments, the people that are owed money may look to your property for payment, EVEN IF YOU HAVE PAID YOUR CONTRACTOR IN FULL."

This is fully covered by Florida's Construction Lien Law which can be found at this link: Florida Construction Lien Law

The good news is that you can avoid a lien and potentially paying twice by obtaining a written release from the subcontractors and/or suppliers every time you pay your contractor.

I would normally have blown this off, but it wouldn't be fun having to deal with this if you select the wrong contractor. One thing you can do to avoid a contractor with a bad reputation is to obtain their state licensure number and look up their record. If they have a past, it will come up! If they don't have a license number, beware!!!!! The Florida site to look this up can be found at: www.myfloridalicense.com.

Another good resource for regarding construction liens can be found at: http://floridaassetprotection.blogs.com

Permits are in...8/28/2006

We're building a pool in South Florida. Our contractor, Grand Vista Pools, has 9/25/2006 scheduled as our break ground date, and said he'd get it done in about 6 weeks! (that's roughly November 6th) Between now and then, I will be giving you the day by day coverage of what is on our minds as we BUILD our pool!

By the way, this weekend I staked out my yard. It's a good way to see what the pool will look like and helps build excitement. I used concrete screws as anchors in my existing patio, and used galvanized railroad tie spikes I picked up at ACE hardware (www.acehardware.com), and ran string all the way around. It's a great way to figure out what your new patio furniture will look like, and how much you will really need (we have a habit of over buying).