La Jolla Pools

La Jolla Pools is really terrific. We came to Bart for a pool remodel and couldn’t be happier. He turned our 40 year old pool into something truly amazing. Bart came to us with a design and the pool is exactly what we saw in the drawings. Bart suggested removing a raised area we thought we wanted, and it saved us about $ 5,000 to skip it, and the pool area looks better for it. Bart recommend this change even though it didn’t benefit him to do it. Bart really looked out for our best interests.
La Jolla Pools shows up on time, does everything they say they will do, and they’re great craftsman. Bart is very low pressure and easy to communicate with as well.

You better be there in person to hand a check over immediately every step of the way or you will threatened with a law suit and lien on your property. Ever heard of net 30 dude? Stick that in your 30 page contract.
Their contractors will leave trash and cigarette butts all over your backyard and dump plaster sludge into your newly planted flower beds. I picked up so many butts it was disgusting.
Their contractors will also show up frequently at 6AM and start jack hammering… one guy actually showed up in my backyard to clean my pool filters at 5:45AM. Brutal.
Make sure you clearly state in the 30 page contract they make you sign your expectations… define words such as ‘remove” because I guarantee their definition will not be the same as yours.
Their craftsmanship is okay but your relationship with La Jolla pools will be a loud, dirty, legal one. Sort of like a trip to the dentist to get a root canal. Necessary but completely unpleasant.
Update: after my brand new pool started leaking I called another company out for a second opinion. Turns out one of the lines La Jolla Pools expertly pressure tested is completely filled with dirt. What a joke.

After almost a year of dealing with contractors and putting almost $ 100K into our house, we saved the biggest, most expensive project for last… our swimming pool I was really hoping La Jolla Pools would prove to be different, but I was wrong.
After meeting with 3 – 4 contractors we decided to go with La Jolla Pools. We have endured a month of arguing, being nickel-​and-​dimed, and sub-​par communication. After spending 5 figures, I have a pool that is inoperable. Early on in the project I notified the business owner that we had an abandoned suction line that was dedicated to the pool vacuum. He claims to have pressure tested it and guaranteed it will work if he re-​plumbs it. I was hesitant but I took his word for it. Low and behold, now that the pool is full, that line is leaking. He tried to blame me for puncturing the line while working on the landscaping around the pool, but it was clear that this damage was done by the prior owner and that this is the reason the line was abandoned. I told him he needed to fix it and he proceeded to quote me some ridiculous prices without even coming to see what the issue was or how severe. I fixed the issue myself fro less than $ 40. The owner would rather sacrifice client satisfaction and his reputation for being half-​ass.
The owner also pushed back on removing stones that were allowing roots to grow into the coping. Had I not forced him to do this, the roots would have grown right back and the coping would not have been properly installed. A clear sign he is comfortable doing the job half-​ass. I also had to complete a demo job on an old water feature that his team did not complete per our agreement, so his mason could properly replace the loose coping… again, unless I had taken the initiative it would have been done half-​ass.
In our final exchange, he said we «complained» during every step of the process. I work in a service industry and if I ever referred to my customer concerns, inquiries, and recommendations as «complaining» I would be fired.
After a month of arguing, being nickel-​and-​dimed, being threatened with the terms of his 20 page contract, and being accused of complaining too much… we were left with an unfinished project. The pool looks nice and we are excited to use it. I’d recommend that Bart just charge more so his margins aren’t so tight and he’s easier to deal with.

After all most a year of interviewing contractors and reviewing quotes my wife and I selected Bart at La Jolla pools to remodel our pool. The remodel included a new deck and retaining wall as well. During the initial visit/​estimating process Bart discussed the actual methods and scope of the work we wanted done to accomplish our design. We had a somewhat complex issue of the pool being a bit too high in relation to the house, which gave us an odd deck slope and poor to no drainage. Bart discussed the options and got into the details of how they would fix the issues. This was different from the other contractors who all seemed to just want to take some measurements and give us a quick quote. Bart also had good construction and design ideas that helped us get what we wanted without blowing out our budget. Bart wasn’t the lowest priced quote but we selected him because we felt he was going to do the job correctly at a fair price. At the end we got exactly what we wanted and our yard/​deck and pool are amazing. We have spent the whole HOT summer in the pool and on the deck and there is nothing we regret or wish we’d done differently.
I’d also like to add that the crew Bart has are great guys, from the demo guys putting in 10 hour days digging jackhammering and hauling stuff away, to Alex doing tile and coping, to Bruce building a beautiful retaining wall and paver deck, they all had pride in what they did and were friendly and easy to have at the house everyday.

Bart earned my trust a few years ago when our new pool motor broke. Two pool companies quoted me approx $ 3K to fix it. One of those companies was Mission Pools. I called Bart for a third quote. He gave me a comprehensive list of what needed to be fixed immediately and what could wait until later. He also had the solar company come out to fix something that wasn’t right. He charged me $ 200. Since then I found out that pool companies are notorious for shoddy work because many will use cheap parts and cheap labor since most people don’t know the difference. Bart is tremendously knowledgeable and honest. Also he is the kind of person you actually enjoy having in your yard /​home because he has a calm, happy disposition. Every service or repair he’s performed since has been an equivalent exceptional experience.