Before the dig
Build it once. Enjoy it for twenty years.
Most people build a pool once in their life. I've been around a few thousand of them — so you get to borrow that experience before anything is poured.
Where I stand, up front
You deserve to know what you're signing up for.
I'm not a builder, and I don't sell equipment. What you get here is a straight read on which features families actually use after the first summer, which ones sit untouched, and how the small decisions quietly shape everything — where the skimmers go, which way the wind pushes leaves in Central Texas, whether you can reach the equipment pad with a cart.
I'd love to be your pool guy when it's finished, and I'll say that up front so you know where I stand. No referral fee is ever taken from a builder. Whether you hire me, hire someone else, or take care of the pool yourself, the advice is yours to keep.
Three ways in
Pick the one that matches where you are.
Still collecting bids? Start with the review. Already picked a builder and haven't broken ground? Take the site walk. Under construction? The check-ins are for you.
Plan & Bid Review
$195
Sixty to ninety minutes by video. Send your plans and up to three builder bids ahead of time. You get a line-by-line read: what's oversold, what's missing, what's priced strangely, and what will cost you every month for the next fifteen years.
- —Up to three bids compared side by side
- —Equipment package review — pump, filter, sanitizer, automation
- —Feature-by-feature usage reality check
- —Written follow-up summary you can forward to your builder
Most useful
On-Site Pre-Build Consultation
$450
A site walk before the dig. Sun, prevailing wind, tree line, drainage, and where every leaf in Williamson County is going to end up. Feature triage, equipment recommendations, and a serviceability brief written for your builder.
- —Placement, orientation, sun and wind read
- —Skimmer count and location for your actual tree line
- —Equipment pad access, clearance, and future replacement cost
- —Written serviceability brief plus the 15-year cost-of-ownership projection
Construction Check-Ins
$250
Two visits at the two moments that are impossible to fix later: plumbing rough-in and equipment set. The job is simple — confirm that what you specified is what actually got built, while it's still visible.
- —Visit one at plumbing rough-in, before the shell is shot
- —Visit two at equipment set and startup of the pad
- —Photo record of both visits
- —A short written note of anything that doesn't match the plan
Your consultation fee is credited toward the $795 startup program if you have your new plaster started here. On a $70,000 to $120,000 build, cutting one feature you'd never use pays for the whole consultation ten times over.
The deliverable
The 15-year cost-of-ownership projection.
Everything else is conversation. This is the document you hand your spouse, and nobody else in Central Texas can produce it, because it's built from what these pools actually cost to run.
Energy
Pump type and realistic run hours by season, at current local electric rates. Single-speed versus variable-speed is a four-figure difference over the life of the pool.
Sanitizer
Salt system versus tab chlorine versus liquid — annual cost, cell replacement cycle, and what each one does to your water balance over time.
Filtration
Cartridge versus DE versus sand: cleaning cadence, element replacement, and what your tree line does to all three.
Chemical load
Modeled by gallonage, surface area, sun exposure, and expected bather load — not a national average.
Feature-by-feature
What each water feature, heater, spa spillway, and deck jet adds to the monthly number, and how often owners actually run them after year one.
DIY versus serviced
Both columns, honestly. Some people should maintain their own pool, and this document tells you whether you're one of them.
What this is
Opinions, in writing.
- +Serviceability, placement, and feature usage
- +Equipment selection and long-term ownership cost
- +Reading and flagging builder bids
- +Recommending builders whose work holds up
- +A written summary you hand to your builder
What this isn't
Engineering, or management.
- −No plans, drawings, or specifications produced
- −No hydraulic or structural design — Texas licenses that work
- −No build management or trade coordination
- −No referral fee taken from any builder
- −Not a code compliance review or a permit inspection
Advisory only. Your builder retains full responsibility for design, construction, engineering, and code compliance. Recommendations here are opinions based on maintenance experience, not a licensed inspection or engineering service.
What usually comes out of a site walk
Every yard is different, but these come up over and over in Leander, Liberty Hill, and Georgetown.
- One skimmer on a yard with three live oaks — the single most common miss
- Prevailing wind pushing every leaf to the corner with no skimmer in it
- An equipment pad you can't get a filter cart to without going through the house
- A water feature that gets run six times and then never again
- Tanning ledge sized so it collects debris and never gets brushed
- Deck drainage aimed at the pool, so every rain is a chemistry event
- Heater and pad clearance that makes a future replacement twice as expensive
- Tile and plaster selection versus your actual fill-water hardness
Building in the next twelve months?
Send your plans and bids over. The review starts as a conversation, and it costs less than one change order.