John Corella
Why did you want a swimming pool?
Well, that question is easy. It was my wife. She always wanted a swimming pool, and we had no concept of where to start so we started everywhere. And after the whole pool process and everything was done, I find my-self using the pool more than she ever did. So it became my swimming pool after while. I float in it every weekend or on hot weekends or hot days after work. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful thing to have, especially in this heat sometimes, with the low country.
The Swimming Pool Design Process
It was when we finally decided on a couple people to bid the project, Mike Futeral came out to introduce himself, get things, look at the property right away. And within probably less than a week, he came out with a swimming pool plan that was on a computer, an actual mockup of what it would look like, with the fence, with the deck, with what we had existing in the back yard. Everything was done probably less than a week overall. Just a fantastic job and a quick job so our decision could be made quicker
The Construction Process
Well, the construction process was a construction process. If you buy a swimming pool, I think you have to be ready for the construction process. But again, Aqua Blue Pools came in, with their foreman first, with Mike, to talk about every step and phase of the construction–what to expect, what not to expect. If it wasn’t for that I think the details were perfect, exactly to the plan and to the T so that all the expectations were met and probably beyond. I didn’t expect this to be an easy thing. They didn’t picture it or paint it to be the most perfect thing in the world. They told me exactly what I was going to see and what was going to happen, but assured me what was going to be at the end was going to be beautiful. And that’s what happened.
Service After Swimming Pool Construction?
Service after the swimming pool was built is really being taken care of right now by Aqua Blue Pools, but the one thing that I wanted the most is a maintenance free pool. So all the options were out on the board, and Mike went over every option that was available and satisfied me tremendously. Maintenance free. I do have Aqua Blue Pools taking care of the chemicals to balance it out, but it would be something that, if there is anything that goes on, I have pine needles in the back, and all I have to do in the mornings, if I am going to go out there and we had a windy night or a rainy night, is just skim that quickly just to take off any-thing that I want to take off. But everything is taken care of. It’s really a maintenance free pool, which I would have never expected, but, to this day, I always tell my wife that was a good call on all of the aspects of maintenance free pools. Salt-water’s a convenience that, if you’re going to do it, you should do it with the saltwater. Never look back at that. I mean it’s just a great option.
How Do You Enjoy The Swimming Pool?
The way we enjoy the swimming pool is most every weekend, if it’s not raining–this year it’s raining a little bit–we’ll have weekend parties where my daughter invites her friends, we invite their parents and just have a great time. I have an outdoor kitchen along with the pool so we’ll grill. The girls will be out there. My total relaxation is floating.
Helen Elliott
Why Aqua Blue Pools?
We chose Aqua Blue Pools for their reputation in the Charleston area. We met with other pool builders and really were impressed by Aqua Blue Pools and the people that work for them. We know several other people, in Charleston, who have pools built by Aqua Blue Pools.
The Swimming Pool Design Process
Well, we wanted something that fit with the exterior of the house and the size of the yard, and that was really fun to set up with Clint. We marked the yard, and decided on the style that was traditional with the house. We loved the people we dealt with in the design and choosing of the whole process, designing the pool, and the quality of workmanship.
The Swimming Pool Construction Process
Everyone it was different shifts of people at different stages of building the swimming pool, and they were all delightful and courteous, and we just had a great time dealing with them. We made several changes during the building of the swimming pool, including the depth of the pool and the size of the swimming pool deck, and Aqua Blue Pools was very accommodating with us making those big changes.
How Do You Enjoy Your Swimming Pool?
Swimming Pool Service After Construction
Richard Slack
Integrating the Swimming Pool
To integrate the swimming pool to the back deck and the back deck to the house itself, which happened to be all concrete also, was a real challenge, and we had to work very closely with the concrete contractor, who was very skilled and was quite open to working with the pool people when they came out, with Aqua Blue Pools’ people when they came out, to lay the block layouts and things of this nature. We had a lot of double walls we had to put in by nature of the design, and so that took a critical understanding of all the trades. Then we had a limited space to put all the swimming pool equipment. And one thing I’m especially proud of is the whole mechanical layout. It was very thoughtfully done so it minimizes the space take up down there and actually looks like a little bit of a factory, which is kind of my background anyway. I like factories, and my basement looks like a factory. And that was just good design, patient design of laying that out. So that was a very rewarding process, quite frankly.
Material Selections
Then I kind of remember the final step of the process was actually We were struggling with what sort of swimming pool interior finish to put on the pool, what sort of tile selection, and the people at Aqua Blue Pools said, “There’ll be a time when we can really address that, and you don’t have to make that decision early. You want to make it at the right time.” And so we got the house pretty much laid out and done. The swimming pools deck is done. And then we came out, put a few chairs out in front of the deck and next to the swimming pool, broke out a bottle of wine if I recall, and looked at the scenery of the Wando River and the skyline and the infinity edge of the swimming pool, and that’s where we made the decision to go with the French silver interior pool finish rather than the Pebble Tec, which would have been a more expensive choice, but, in this case, Aqua Blue Pools promoted that simple was bet-ter, which I think is a testimony to itself.
Swimming Pool Cleaning and Service
I’ve done it myself, but I couldn’t really have done it without continual education from Jesse and people like that who willingly come out. We’ve had a few–well, that’s the thing, I can talk about it–we’ve had some after market warranty issues with swimming pool pumps and the salt chlorinator and even the motherboard on the controller, which Aqua Blue Pools took one look, knew that it was a warranty problem, replaced it, and it went forward. No real argument, no argument at all, just verifying that it was a problem. And so through that contact with Aqua Blue Pools, I’ve been able to learn probably 20 percent of what there is to know about cleaning a pool, but it looks pretty good, I think, overall, and so we’re doing it that way. But I appreciate the ongoing support, to the extent that I ask for it. So thank you.
Final Thoughts
There’s many different swimming pool designs. There’s elevated swimming pools. There’s in ground swimming pools. And obviously different engineering challenges, hydraulic challenges. My experience with Aqua Blue Pools was on what I would call a more complicated design swimming pool, and Aqua Blue Pools certainly can fill that niche of complicated pool designs.
Emily Thomas in Charleston, SC
Enjoying Your Pool
One of the great things for me about having a pool down here in South Carolina and having this pool by Aqua Blue, is you have a very limited time that you’re able to enjoy a pool when you move up north. And one of the things I like about this the most is being able to come out here and start the morning by just sit-ting around the pool and having a cup of coffee. And that doesn’t take into account the enjoyment that we get from it on a daily basis, most especially when the water’s warmer I’m sorry, when the weather’s warmer. And everybody who, every family member who’s come down here we both have fairly large families just enjoys the heck out of this pool. You know they’re in it just about every minute that they’re here and it just thrills us to death that they do things like that.
I absolutely love to float, float in the pool, and look at the beautiful pool and just relax.
While You’re Away?
One of the things that I’m particularly grateful in dealing with Aqua Blue is that they offer the ability to maintain and manage the pool for us. My wife and I do an enormous amount of travel for business, and we’re not home as often as we’d like, and we depend on Aqua Blue to actually maintain the pool to the crystal clarity you can see right behind us. Every service person that we’ve ever had is polite, professional, and they do one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen any pool organization do. And I’m very happy that I can depend on them for that. They’re very communicative, and they always leave a note as to what they’ve done. Or, if there are any open issues, they follow that up with a phone call. And anything that’s open is usually remedied within a day or so. Not to mention that I myself have had a couple of issues with the pool not operating correctly, and Aqua Blue has been unbelievably responsive. They’re sending somebody over usually within four hours of my making a phone call. Just all the way around, they’re one superlative company.
The Big Picture
Just in summary, the part that we did not address is that Aqua Blue, during this whole process from our initial interest to the end, Aqua Blue helped gather a team of what I would call the best professionals in the Charleston area, in terms of them-selves as pool construction, landscape architecture, and con-tractors to help us bring this entire thing to fruition. Throughout that process, I would have to say, without reservation, that Aqua Blue was the crown jewel in that entire process. And, more than any one organization, this is because of them, and we’re just thrilled.
The Licata Family in Mt. Pleasant, SC
LICATA – MT. PLEASANT, SC – WHY THEY CHOSE AQUA BLUE POOLS
We chose Aqua Blue as part of the entire team of construction professionals who put together our entire backyard. They came very, very highly recommended, and after our own research, it was abundantly clear that Aqua Blue was the way to go. I was particularly taken with the breadth of experience that they’ve had in both what I would call corporate settings, as well as some of the finer homes that we can see in downtown Charleston. And we just wanted to take advantage of whatever expertise they could offer in helping us bring some of that into our own lives and our own home–very, very pleased with the result. Aqua Blue was professional through the entire process, from planning to I could say it no other way from planning to the end of execution. Always very willing to offer suggestions and always kept our needs very much in the forefront of what it is they wanted to do or what they were doing for us.
How was construction?
And during the process, the pool had been scoped out at a certain elevation throughout the backyard. And during the construction process, we all found out that that elevation wasn’t going to be appropriate for the kind of pool and the kind of pool deck area that we had envisioned. And, in the middle of the construction process, Aqua Blue was able to take not only our needs, but the new circumstance that had presented itself while the pool was being constructed, and now we have basically a two step view of a pool area down to another structure which we’re also going to use for entertaining, instead of having it on one single homogenous level. I was very, very impressed with their creativity, and I was very, very impressed with their ability to think on their feet and how to put all these elements together, to come to a project that met everybody’s needs: mine and my wife’s, the needs of the designer and also the needs of the or the particular needs that the landscape provided as we were going through the construction process–very, very impressive.
And they did all this while we were out of town, which I think is a major part; [it can’t be missed?]. We were trying to do this and kept getting far away. And the patience and flexibility was particularly fine.
Enjoying Your Pool
One of the great things for me about having a pool down here in South Carolina and having this pool by Aqua Blue, is you have.