Building A Pool During a Pandemic? What You Need to Know.

The entire world has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ve all gone to the store and found products out of stock, back ordered or they may look and be priced a little differently. Similarly, businesses may have limited hours or are by appointment only due to social distancing.

California Pools & Landscape is no exception. We’ve worked through this pandemic for almost a year now and our team has been resilient with over 1,000 projects completed! While we address most of these challenges behind the scenes without our clients being aware, it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge how it affects the delivery of our product.

We recognize that in order to have a successful project and to build a lasting relationship with our clients, we need to have honest conversations. Our President and Owner, Jeremy Smith is here to give you an update on how your project can and will be affected by the pandemic and what we’re doing to mitigate these effects.

How have things changed for pool builders during the pandemic?

We are very proud of the service that we have provided to our clients as we’ve navigated these uncharted waters. We never want to be in a position where we are defending the slow down of the building process. Our goals are aligned with our clients in building a project as quickly and efficiently as possible.

However, our building process is different than it was a year ago. Pool builds take approximately 5 to 8 weeks longer to construct than in pre-pandemic conditions depending on the scope, jurisdiction, and availability of certain materials. With more people improving their homes, there is also an increased demand for pools nationwide. For example, in Arizona, the number of pool permits grew by over 30% from 2019 to 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted three of our primary resources: people, process, and supply chain.

People

The safety and well being of our clients and the CPL team is our highest priority. We have implemented additional safety procedures as a result of the pandemic. This is a constant moving target for us and it receives our highest attention every day. The biggest efforts have been made to ensure social distancing and quarantine measures required to keep a safe working environment.

In order to maintain social distancing guidelines, the majority of our team and trade partner’s internal staff are working from home. Availability for in person meetings may be affected by social distance requirements in our design centers.

We rely on and use technology to aid in the building of projects, like hosting video meetings. Even with technology being as advanced as it is, having in person meetings with clients and teammates is irreplaceable. When we have those face to face interactions we are able to effectively review plans, discuss details, and flush out any upcoming challenges.

Quarantining is a variable of the pandemic that we cannot plan for. The need to quarantine happens suddenly and affects our in office staff, field crews, trades, and suppliers. Contact tracing, adjusting schedules and relocating assets are now a part of our daily schedules.

Unfortunately we have witnessed instances where our manufacturers have had to close temporarily and entire phases of construction have had to shut down due to quarantine safety protocols.

We prioritize working with our customers on a daily basis to communicate the challenges and delays that may occur. We work diligently to get jobs back on schedule as quickly and efficiently as possible. The CPL Customer Portal is the best place to keep up to date on any schedule adjustments.

Supply Chain

Covid-19 has influenced the supply chain across multiple facets, most importantly accessibility and cost. We’ve seen these challenges result in item backorders, shipment delays, and price changes due to limited availability.

Our close relationship with our manufacturers and suppliers along with our purchase volume has allowed us to avoid much of the delays and shortages that have plagued our industry. We have yet to see any changes with our pumps, filters, lights, and cleaning systems.

There are some things that we haven’t been able to avoid. For example, there’s a worldwide aluminum shortage and that’s what we use to build the majority of our shade structures. We have created new processes to continue to complete projects while we wait for the material to finish the aluminum shade roofs.

Process

We have developed processes, procedures, and best practices that we’ve learned through experience to best serve our clients. These processes are to make sure that we can keep each project moving forward in a clean and timely manner.

We’ve had to modify and adapt them as needed during this time period which has had an impact on the fluidity of our construction schedule. We are committed to spending as much energy, time, and resources to make sure that your project goes as smoothly as possible while offering our clients diligent communication and schedule transparency.

Building a pool in a pandemic

We have a saying internally and that is “We don’t defend slow”. What that means to us is: We stand with our clients. We have the same goal in mind. We have the same focus. We are going to work hard to move each project forward as quickly and efficiently as possible.

We have much gratitude to our trade partners and suppliers for working diligently with us through this difficult time. But most of all we are thankful for having the best clients in the world who have given us the opportunity to build their backyard sanctuaries!

We ask that you have patience, flexibility, and generous assumptions with us as we navigate through these unprecedented times. While the world is looking a little different right now, we can promise you that California Pools & Landscape has not changed since our humble beginnings in 1988. Our commitment to our customers has not wavered. We have and always will commit to having our customers happy today, tomorrow, and far into the future with their purchase.