Brian from Guelph

We had an existing pool in our yard that we were planning on renovating. The cost of renovating was comparable to that of a new pool so we decided to get a new pool and have the old one filled in. Terry Howald Pools fit the bill. They offered to fill the old one in a the same time as building the new one. Very friendly, very courteous staff. We had the pool installed in the spring and by mid summer we had wrinkles in our liner. They came out to fix the wrinkles with no issues. Later on that summer I discovered that the deep end walk in steps were not level(which were mentioned to an employee) and had a significant slope which created a water level difference of approximately 1.5' from the shallow end. Come the second summer, the wrinkles reappeared and were starting to travel. Again, they came out to fix them. Last summer the wrinkles wee there again and had spread throughout the shallow end. This time they looked for holes in the liner and found 9 holes, which they said were probably caused my kids toenails....holes were patched but the wrinkles could not be fixed. At no point did the owner offer to look at the issue although sent a quote of 600$ to reset the liner. I was forced to pursue the issue at which point he decided to come to my house to look at the issue. Upon arrival he asked for all pool records for chemical testing as he said it was caused by chemicals. I offered to provided those records and the conversation went in different direction. He offered to get a new liner which was what we wanted. But...what we didn't realize was that the liner that was put in the pool was already in the warehouse before the pool was built. Liners are to be measured and installed post pool construction. Not one measurement was taken for the original liner. 129 measurements were taken for the new liner....our liner was doomed to fail from the beginning as it was not built for the pool. While at our home we addressed the concern about the stairs and were told the the stairs have a natural slope and the ground had settled around the stairs(although that has been no cracking of concrete or separation from the stairs). A deck, a patio, a walkway, is only as good the foundation and base it is laid on. The stairs were not properly levelled and cemented in place correctly and the base for the pool deck was not properly compacted hence the issues. Company has great work ethic, friendly staff but attention to detail and quality of workmanship is questionable. Be mindful and question each step of the process so you can be informed.