When we signed our contract with Nationwide, we were painted a lovely picture of how wonderful their company was and how they would do our pool in a timely, professional manner because they are the #1 pool builder. We were told they would clean up after each stage of the construction process, they would secure the area around the pool with mesh fencing, we were told alot of wonderful things. We made sure to ask about all these things because we have 2 small children, 2 dogs (one of whom is blind), and we wanted to know what type of disruptions to expect.
Things started out on a not-so-good foot when they arrived to start the excavation on our pool and told us they needed to "remove part of our back fence to be able to have adequate access to get the job done." We have an alley behind our house and a 12 foot wide gated entry that we were told would be enough access when we signed the contract. Their contract even states that "standard access is defined as 10 feet in width and 12 feet in height"* Well, "part of our fence" turned into them removing 30 feet of wood fencing across the back of our property.in the process, they broke a fence post and pretty much destroyed one of the fence sections. When they left after that first day of excavation, we had a hole in our yard that was 20 feet wide and over 30 feet long and about 7 feet deep in most of it. We also had a fence that was half missing and no mesh fencing at all around the immediate pool area or across the back of our property that would keep anyone walking down the alley from wandering into our yard and possibly getting hurt. We also had a huge pile of fill material that they just left sitting there for weeks. The next day, someone from Nationwide (I guess, not sure since they never made any contact with us) came and left some steel rods, a roll of wire mesh and some boxes with pipe fittings in the back yard.
It took numerous phone calls the next day to get them to send someone over to put up some mesh fencing to protect the yard and dig site. We were told that the fence had to stay down until they shot the concrete in the pool, which we were told would be in "a week or so". Two weeks later, when the concrete was shot in the pool, we asked when the fence would be put back and were told it was our problem, not theirs. After lengthy discussions with the project manager, we finally got the owner of the company, Keith, to agree to send someone out to try to fix the fence. A few days later, a few guys came out and tried to dig where the posts had been with a jackhammer but since the fill pile had sat there for a few weeks and been run over and compacted by the bobcat they used, they didn't get very far and gave up after about 15 minutes. They never did make good on their promise to repair the fence and my husband spent hours rebuilding our fence. I've kept receipts of what it cost in materials and time to fix our fence, and believe me, when this pool is done, I'll be going after them for that.
All the clean up work we were told would be done after each step in the construction was a lie. For example, when they removed the wood framing material to backfill around the pool, they just took the 2 by 4's apart and threw them into the pool. That wood sat in the pool for close to 2 weeks, until one afternoon when a couple of guys from Nationwide came over to get them (I assume they must have needed the wood for another job). One of the guys stood in the shallow end of the pool, pulling the nails out of the 2 by 4's and handing the wood to the other guy. All the nails they took out were just left in our pool to rust. They are STILL there.
When they started the excavation on our pool, were told our pool would be done in "about 8 weeks". We are currently 7 weeks out from that day and we have a very pretty tiled hole in the ground that has over 4 feet of scummy, smelly rain and ground water in it. We've failed numerous inspections due to their stupidity/incompetence. Every time we call to find out when they are going to fix the problems, move to the next step, etc., we get a bunch of "we're going to..." and "tomorrow we will...". It's all lies. They have done almost nothing in 2 weeks since they got our last "big" check. Did I mention their contract requires 95% of the total payment by the time the tile is installed? (30% the day of excavation, 35% the day of gunite, 30% the day of tile and the final 5% prior to interior finish)*. We should have read the fine print better on the contract and not been as trusting. If we had to do over, we would have negotiated the payment plan so they would have no more than 80% of the money until the pool is completed and passes final inspection. Hindsight is always 20/20. As it stands now, we have no deck, no pool equipment, the work and inspection they were supposed to do today never happened and my phone calls haven't been returned either. At every step there has been a problem. If you're looking for a pool builder, do yourself a favor, SKIP NATIONWIDE POOL AND SPA in Pompano. I wish we had!!!
If you want to see pictures of how horrible it is, I'd be more than happy to send them to you. Email me at and I will gladly show you pictures of everything to prove that I'm telling the truth. The only time Nationwide has EVER done exactly what they said they were going to do, when they said they were going to do it, is when they were picking up checks. Now that they have 95% of our money, they could care less about when they finish our pool, if they ever do.
*The parts in italics are word for word from their contract.
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