Anthony and Sylvan pools poor pool construction problematic contract Annapolis Junction Maryland

 We were buying a house and wanted a pool for the kids. We found a lovely house with a sloping back yard and a wrap-around driveway leading to a garage on the lower level facing the back yard. Because of the slope and the driveway surrounding the back of the house and access to the electricity I wanted to consult a pool construction company to understand any special issues. So we brought in A&S before our contract was even finalized. The A&S rep noted there would be some additional expense because of the access difficulty but assured us there would be no other problem. As others have noted, most everything is done by subs. On the day the hole was dug we were away.

A small sediment fence was installed immediately adjacent to the removed fill, but not all around the dirt pile. Later we discovered they had driven at least 2 feet off the driveway and destroyed one large branch over 3" diameter, a brick retaining wall had 10 bricks ripped out, another section of 4-5 bricks was also destroyed, so their vehicles left driveway at least 3 times. Debris was left scattered throughout the yard. A box with electric timers and manuals was left outside in rain. Neither the subcontractor nor A&S contacted us about the damages.

When final drawings were brought to us the equipment was oriented wrong way and they were initially resistant to do fixing. We were again not home when the plumbers installed piping and equipment platform and it was put in wrong place. At this point we realized we needed to serve as general contractor. Over a week later the foreman noticed the sewer line had been cut. When the A&S manager arrived he proclaimed he did not know sewer lines could run in back yard. A&S claimed they had done their due diligence with Miss Utility but the area they had marked as the project site was smaller than affected area.

Winter set in and A&S failed to maintain the site and dirt eroded off the excavation pile,creating gullies in our yard and the sediment fence was overtopped. Over the winter 3 sections of sewer pipe of over 2 feet each were uncovered. We also learned we had been given wrong information about electric access and the removal of deck pavers had to be more extensive and they were using such a cheap boring machine they couldn't be confident the bit would not come out in the middle of our driveway. A&S also tried to add the cost of this boring onto our contract, despite knowing from the beginning about the electric access.

We decided to remove their electrical subcontractor from the contract and hire our own. We also removed the decking and fencing subcontractors as we had lost confidence in A&S. In the spring, the gunnite crew had a few areas of gunnite slump off the sides. Our manager didn't notice that problem so we had to act as general contractor again and point this out to A&S. The gunnite crew also left piles of gunnite along the perimeter of the pool above final grade level. Tile and coping did a good job. The retaining wall sub told us we didn't need a retaining wall and he could landscape the yard to deal with drainage.

Note our pool is 50 feet down into our yard from the driveway back there and is parallel to the house and drive. The water level of the pool is 6-7 feet below drive grade which is 2 feet below the level of the basement so the slope is moderately steep. And we get runoff from our roof, driveway, 1000 square ft of patio, a portion of the front yard, and a large portion of our neighbors yard. In a decent storm the runoff on the side off the house can be 3 inches deep and 2 feet wide after just a few min. In other words, a LOT of water. So the no retaining wall option seemed dubious at best. In the end I installed over 240 feet of drain pipe. The retaining wall sub missed a couple of dates and we were not notified.

The retaining wall was built too short, fench drain was above grade, and graded too high on wall. The sub then returned and graded more of the yard. After the owner of the company left for the day one of his crew scraped off the topsoil and created a berm in this location that had not been part of the agreed-upon grading. He almost ripped out a sewer cleanout. When the subcontractor returned to repair the issues they forgot about the french drain issue. At the pre-plaster walk-through and final check off the manager came with an incorrect total due. we removed the pool cover sub as we were tired of A&S.

The plaster subcontractor ran off the driveway with their truck. They also plastered a dozen of our cobblestones and 4 different sections of the fence as they dumped plaster laden wastes through the fence. Plaster was left on coping. After being filled for one month we still get shots of a cup of sand from the inflow pipes most every time we touch a valve. I am not clear if this is normal but it seems that they could have properly capped the plumbing so that dirt did not enter them during construction. Update. Turns out the dirt in the pool was from a plumbing line they punctured with temporary fencing during the construction as they kept poor record of where plumbing line was.

They fixed (maybe-we'll see if it works after winter) but have not compensated us for our time. Most significantly it turns out our contract does not have legally required terms in MD for mediation, arbitration, guaranty fund, salesperson info, contractor info see http://www.dllr.state.md…. in shirt the contract appears to be invalid and they have failed to provide evidence newer contracts with other customers have been fixed. They also failed to provide a copy of the contractor's current general liability insurance certificate, a copy of current worker's compensation insurance certificate for Anthony and Sylvan employees, and info and licenses of all subcontractors as required by MD see http://www.dllr.state.md… They also failed to ensure final heater plumbing inspection occurred before startup