Splash Designs

I contacted Steve with Splash Designs when I was getting bids from multiple contractors for my pool/​spa build in spring of 2011. The sole reason I chose him was price. He would not agree to a signed contract (a red flag I should not have let go by). His «process» does not list him as the builder when applying for a permit, rather it is registered as an «owner/​builder» project (another red flag). He did not know answers to questions about the process which he certainly should have. There was a problem with almost every phase of construction, due to his lack of attention to detail in communicating with his sub-​contractors. Luckily I work from home, so I was able to catch the problems before it was too late to correct them. Now I’ll get to the worst thing, as if the preceding isn’t awful enough. He incorrectly installed a top of the line Hayward system. Shortly after it was filled and much of it operating (or so he said), there was a massive failure in the acid feeder and so much fed into the system via the in floor cleaning system, it stained the beautiful gray plaster almost dark black. He blamed me adding acid manually for the problem, despite how obvious it was that the staining patterns matched the in-​floor jets exactly. I fired him at that point and was lucky enough to get advice from another pool contractor who I’d considered. The local Hayward-​approved service tech came, along with the multi-​state regional manager to assess/​repair and finish the installation. At this point I was told that besides the botched job on the acid feeing system, the chlorine feeder was incorrectly installed just before the 400,000 btu heater and that water with such high chlorine content in the copper heating pipes would have destroyed the heater in a matter of days had I been running the water through it. Overall, I was deceived by Splash Designs throughout the process, his sub-​contractors whom he calls «rock stars» are actually rock heads, and had I not been watching the process personally through every stage, this would have been a disaster. Luckily I was able to catch things in time, as psychologically draining as it was. Now almost a year later, I am having trouble with the in-​floor system because it was installed incorrectly, and though the fixes are simple, I need the plan (which I paid for on my credit card) to change/​reposition the floor jets and the company, A&A has been dragging their feet on this for months. I am not happy with myself for choosing Splash Designs to save some money when my gut told me to avoid.