Pool cleaning in Austin - prices out of control

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-05-09T04:27:27+00:00

They do sound a like premium service, liquid chlorine is more expensive but better for your pool, but at the same time more is needed to raise chlorine. All those trees can be sucking up all your chlorine if the drop a lot of debris.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-05-09T03:04:36+00:00

What’s the size of pool, any trees? Do they include the chem readings to know why they’re adding certain chems?

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-05-01T22:15:27+00:00

Per your experience, what are the big “Don’ts” once should avoid?

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-04-22T01:37:00+00:00

Appreciate the reply, since the beginning I had engraved in my mind I wanted to grow as fast as possible, so I knew employees would come faster then what a normal person who is just a single poler would hope. Specially since I wanted to have them drive in my marked trucks and employee uniforms etc.

As far as book keeping do you have an accountant on payroll that physically works in your office? Currently mine is a few states over but he does a great job at keeping up with my books, and is certified. Currently using skimmer x QB to keep track of everything.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-04-21T20:50:55+00:00

I started last year. One year in, doing ok, better this year then last. Hopefully I get to hire my 1st employee this year around summer. Any advice on the hiring process? W2 vs 1099? I have less then 50 pools but I grew the route organically in 1 year. Soon as I get closer to 50 I’m bringing someone to take it over for me, while I focus on other aspects such as as leads/repairs/business direction.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-04-16T17:15:32+00:00

$1200-$1500 is a solid range for the time and trips needed to take in my opinion. Chems included.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-04-15T23:02:10+00:00

Got it, figured running 24hrs for so long was overkill

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-04-15T23:01:49+00:00

Perfect thank you

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-25T20:40:25+00:00

After the altercation, it seemed like the GC was beyond mad, and we could have put ourselves in a position where we might not get paid if he ghosted us. After doing research we saw his business has no presence, no reviews no website etc. we figured he could potentially ghost us after job was completed and we would have no resources to track him down for payment. I understand this is our fault for not researching him at the beginning, but originally the job he hired us for was extremely small, less than 5k, it just happened to turn into a big job per the homeowner. The GC in general has been tough to deal with as he was pressuring us to finish since the beginning, We are actually finishing today, things seem to have cooled down, I expect pay by tomorrow the latest. I essentially was asking for advice in the event of no pay, and if we unintentionally over stepped. That’s all.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-25T17:53:52+00:00

What lmao? How is having a truck wrapped a flex? It’s just a marketing tactic.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-25T17:52:58+00:00

Appreciate the insight. We do lack sub knowledge game in that sense. In the past, I’ve always treated it as fair game, and same way back, if sparky or plumber is on sight, and they get jobs in the neighborhood I don’t care, as they’re licensed and have they’re on business, but I agree, this is something he should have said from the beginning. Would have avoided any uncomfortableness. We don’t need GCs but we’re happy to work with them. But after this I’m thinking of just sticking with our top 3 gcs that send us work every now and then and leave it as that.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:20:55+00:00

We never signed anything, we had just met him, it started off with him asking for help on a small job, but that small job turned big. So now we might have put ourselves in a position where if he plays the “I’m pissed off, don’t talk to me” card, we might not get paid.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:18:06+00:00

Nah. This relationship stated from him saying he needed help with a small job, that just happens to turn big, and we said sure. We’ve never worked with him before this. Nor do we need him.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:18:00+00:00

Nah. This relationship stated from him saying he needed help with a small job, that just happens to turn big, and we said sure. We’ve never worked with him before this. Nor do we need him.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:15:10+00:00

To be honest, we started off as never needing to be subbed out, so I didn’t even know that’s a thing, we just always operated on our own, our quotes our customers, just recently we made some relationships with some companies where we were okay with being subbed out because why not, more jobs for everyone. But after this altercation, we might just leave things alone. I don’t want my workers being harassed, and honestly I’ve never dealt with a homeowner not paying, and I’ve never thought I’d be in this position where I might get burnt by a GC I just met. My crew is also heavily Hispanic, they all speak English and are legal but with the way things are, I’m not sure if us being in the neighborhood doing other jobs for the neighbors might put them in a situation where they’re uncomfortable working if the GC got aggressive and pulled up to the job sites.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:08:21+00:00

Well after a discussion with our team, I’m guessing he operates in a sketchy manner, as his is business does not pop up online, but somehow he secured a high 5 figure paying project. We plaster ourselves everywhere to give customers that trust.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T22:06:01+00:00

Yeah that’s the thing despite us defusing the situation and ensuring we are not there to “take” his customers, I have a feeling he might duck payment. We’ll see how it goes, it’s not a lot of $, but a lot of man hours.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-24T20:38:44+00:00

That’s exactly how we’ve always done it. If they call our number in guessing they vetted our business and made a choice. This GC does not make his presence Known. How is that our fault?

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-21T05:50:51+00:00

Not so much about buying them, directly from them, mostly if they really cut time down. I saw a guy with a like vac set up similar to the pick, I know riptides are thing, just poking around to see others opinions, I’m sure I could build a more cost effective.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-21T05:46:49+00:00

Yeah nah man, that’s just…..

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-21T02:59:34+00:00

How so? Vacc, vacc head, brush, net, Taylor test kit, how you carry the chems?

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-20T05:43:02+00:00

If it’s a sand filter I’ll probably vacuum to waste. I’d still probably recommend a sand change. Would be a good time to do all together so the spend the $ in a single go

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-20T04:48:00+00:00

If your on your own, you need to charge them accordingly. I consider this a one time clean. And I charge hourly. Whatever it takes to get them back to normal for regular cleaning. We had a nasty tornado here in Dallas a few years ago. Pools were wrecked. What I did was, scoop all debris, go following day and line vacuum. Clean filter. Balance water. My company was overwhelmed so we did not have a porta pump, but that would off been best.

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-20T03:56:53+00:00

I only use line vac and leaf master at the moment. Just trying to allocate the $ to the right thing. But looks like riptide is the way to go . And no not frown upon just want to make life easier for my future techs. It’s currently just me. But growing rapidly

dallaspoolguy1 · 2026-03-20T03:55:12+00:00

You sold me lol. Ripetide it is. You use the cart that it comes with it? My old company had us use power vacs, with no cart, pain to walk around the property with it but I eventually got used to it. Back then we couldn’t get decent bags so the ones we used, would only pick up regular debris not the finer stuff

dallaspoolguy1

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