Catalina Pool Builders

Poor communication with customer and between internal departments; delays. Unsatisfactory oversight of subcontractors. Salesman assured 1/2” rebar throughout skeleton but 1/2” was used only in bottom, nowhere else. After sale, salesman NEVER followed up in process or at end to gauge customer satisfaction. No, I would not recommend Catalina.

They are extremely unprofessional. They do lousy work and refuse to make good on their commitments. Their customer service is ridiculous, the salesman thought I was a different customer for over a month and completely screwed up my permits. They built my pool too close to my septic tank, ruined our drain field, ruined my driveway asphalt, their concrete people hit my vehicle causing extensive body damage, they concreted over our jets (upon short repair) their person destroyed our $1500 pump due to negligence, they provided little to no support in rectifying issues. They told me to not pay the last start up fee as part of compensation for their major screw ups and then turned me into collections! That’s just a few reasons why I would NEVER recommend them. There are more.

The actual pool construction was very good. I thought the subcontractors did a good job. The reason for 4 vs. 5 stars is the "pool area" is more than just the pool. I built a retaining wall, sitting area, landscape etc. Catalina didn't really seem to embrace the totality of the entire project.

I think the quality of the pool is good, but communication and responses from the company was not consistent and I felt like I had to be the general contractor to keep the building process going.

Follow up has been a problem. I made contact about issues with uneven concrete in the pool that looks like stains and got no follow up other than “we will get back with you”. That was in July. Very disappointed.

I would recommend working with Stacey.

Areas Of Satisfaction

The pool looks beautiful and I think it was done right.

We are very happy with our pool that Catalina Pool Builders did for us. We can't wait for the summertime to begin. The crew at Catalina: Stacey, Kip, Brooke and Josh really worked with us thru the entire project. If we had a problem with something they made sure to correct it and get back on track. They are very professional and a pleasure to talk to on the phone. I would highly recommend them to others!!!!!

Great people to work with.

Areas Of Satisfaction

I was most satisfied with the design of the pool.

Very happy overall with the design, execution and quality.

I went with Catalina due to them being cheaper than the competition. About 15%. That 15% was quickly eaten up by “change orders” to be more than the competition ($61k ended up at $85k). The initial sales call was great. My salesman was very straight forward and professional. Once the deal was inked however, I did not realize how much the power would shift into their court. The payment schedule of course is top-loaded in their favor. Once they get the final payment, you will have a very hard time getting anyone to talk to you again. My build was 4 weeks over the initial estimate and 6 weeks more than they said. I can swim now but it still is not done. Catalina has no project managers or at least none that you ever see. They stopped by for the initial dig and then they totally disappeared. They don’t do any quality control at all. I had minor issues along the way and I had to be my own advocate since they don’t have any onsite people. No calls to see how it went, no visits, nothing. They didn’t even show up at the end for a final build inspection. It is really sad at this apparent lack of care about their own product.Catalina also does not put any model numbers or anything specific at all into the contract for equipment. When it comes to pool equipment, the sky is the limit. But in my case, Catalina gave me the lowest model of just about everything that the pool brand sells (they standardize on Jandy). I got the lowest filter, even though my pool should have taken a larger filter being a 28k gallon pool. They also spec’d out a single speed pump even though every other builder told me in this day and age no one should be using single speed pumps. We also never talked about automation, which we ended up adding at significant additional costs. I am still waiting for promised equipment that has not been installed. They also still have not programmed my system and instead the company that does their startup told me to just run my pump on high all the time.Catalina contracts out all of the individual jobs. Once a contractor does their thing, you will never see them again. No real problem there. Most of the contractors that were on my build were very professional and the quality of what they did was top notch. Unfortunately, without exception, every single contractor had something bad to say about Catalina. They also gave me a price for additional decking that never made it into the contract and I ended up paying a much higher amount. We are still trying to settle this. I can tell that they simply want me to go away since they have gotten paid.The biggest issue is initially not knowing anything about pools. I should have done my own research before signing the contract. What I have learned since has been invaluable. I cannot say I would recommend going with Catalina nor would I use them again. I will also say that had I done better research, I would have paid significantly less for the same product.

Catalina Pool Builders did a good job.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Catalina Pool Builders did a super job on scheduling and keeping us updated on progress.

Recognized Excellence

Everyone at Catalina Pool Builders provided us with exceptional service.

Areas Of Satisfaction

I was most satisfied that the crews were efficient and knowledgeable.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Our pool is GORGEOUS!

We love our pool and look forward to enjoyment for our family for many years to come. Thank you Catalina for responding to our many questions and concerns from Sales through production!

Everything went pretty well. The biggest issue I had with Catalina Pools is the miscommunication, lack or communication and no communication.

My project is still incomplete as the installers put in my filter incorrectly which required my filters to be replaced. That has yet to happen and the communication is awful so I'm doubtful I'll ever hear anything back from them. That means I have to put the time in to call and then communicate with the right people.

While the pool is beautiful, the process was not easy or seamless. There was a huge rift between us and Catalina when it came to communication. Communication was nonexistent. Emails and phone calls sent were left unreturned. Sometimes if questions were asked, they were answered weeks later or not at all. Josh was our point of contact and he was by far the worst. For this reason, I would pay a little more to go with another company.

I just feel like they don't return phone calls. They avoid your phone call.

Catalina has terrible communication. We have had several problems that have still not been corrected. Our estimated date of completion was the end of June 2017, and our pool was done finished until after July 4th. It is now the end of August and they have still not fixed mistakes that were made on their end.

I have to many outstanding issues with Catalina Pool Builders.

I would use Catalina Pool Builders again.

Worst experience ever. STAY FAR AWAY from this company. I should have checked their ratings.......live and learn (the hard way!!!)

Our experience with Catalina pools was terrible. First, we were pressured to start digging for our project during the winter, with the promise that this would make it easier to accomplish everything and our pool would be finished by May 1. The digging, and installation of the concrete shell went well, but then we sat for 6 weeks, with a muddy, dangerous hole in our yard. when we asked why we weren't moving forward, we were told the plumbers and electricians (who would complete the next steps) weren't working on outdoor projects at this time of year. When they finally did come, the actual tradesmen said they had been working on outdoor projects all winter, as it had been so mild. We sent numerous emails to push the company to continue to move things forward, but our date of May 1 came and went. Finally, a month late, on Memorial weekend, the plasterers came (completing their work in less than a day) and the water trucks came. The company was way off when it came to their estimate of how much water we would need, even though there is a simple formula to calculate volume based on pool dimensions. We had budgeted based on Catalina's estimate, and ended up having to pay over a thousand dollars more to fill the pool! During our initial discussions with our salesman, Dale, we were promised that the yard would NOT look like a construction site, once the project was complete. To us, this meant that, at a minimum, seed and straw would be put down to keep the ground from washing away. We're still arguing about that with Catalina. We still do not have the diving board that we specifically discussed (to be "the board with the most spring to it, that is possible for a residential pool"), and they are threatening not to provide the hard cover which is in our contract, until the final payment (less than5% of the total project cost) is in their hands. We have repeatedly had phone calls ignored. We have had a project manager at our site twice, in the beginning, in spite of numerous requests to have him come over to show him the issues we have had regarding broken tiles, stains on the coping, a hole in the side of the pool, etc. Overall, while the pool is providing lots of enjoyment for our family, I would never recommend Catalina, and will be contacting the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint.

We are well pleased with our New Pool! Catalina did a very nice job! Just in time for this very very HOT Summer!