Anthony & Sylvan Pools Reviews

I worked with four people at Anthony & Sylvan. The first guy that I worked with was a sales guy named Tim and at first, things were going well. But I really saw his follow-up. He was a Jersey guy and he had this attitude about him that kind of said, "Do things my way or you don't get it done." And when you have a pool being built, you got the family all excited, and you realize it's a construction project. And the reality is, it's going be a war zone back there, so you're trying to get the family prepared for that.

I lead a $20,000,000,000 organization myself and I have salespeople. So I know salespeople and I know behaviors and good bedside manners. In this particular case, I felt that he was really all about the sale because he would constantly tell me that I was not the only one that he was selling to and they were busy. I understood but I did have questions. And I wanted time with him, which I should have with him to make sure that everything was taken care of.

Then, I come to find out that everything was not always taken care of. He told me that he would have permitting for the house prior to me getting approval from the HOA but it took him three additional weeks to get the permitting. When I called the office, he had not even submitted anything for permitting and it took a lot longer just to get the dang permit on the window. So he wasn't telling the truth along the way and that really bothered me. So, we went at it a little bit and it got down to the point where he said that sometimes, customers should let go and if it was not what I wanted, then maybe Sylvan was not going to be the place for me.

But I knew that the problem was with him and not the organization. He pulled that on me on the day of the construction meeting and I said no because I knew my wife would be totally upset. I told them to go ahead through with the construction meeting because the way I saw the process was I only really had to deal with him through the selling of the process. And we'd already had a lot of pain from him. Our house is like a limewash white and when we were going through the selling process, he never said that it was like buying a home and you got selections of brick and different things like that. So I had to beg him to get us to the showroom and he told us to meet him there on Saturday.

So, we went there and he started talking about the different levels and we got a price that was quite much different than what he quoted because he was quoting the basic level. Then, their basic selection only had two types of stone and they were both brown. So that day, I spent an additional $5,000 to select the right stone for this pool and I was not happy. Tim needs to go back to sales training.

After he moved out of the way, I got the construction guy and his name was Jeremy. Jeremy was much better and I felt that he actually cared. I realized that they were extremely busy and I felt that he was checking in every now and then. If I needed him, I could get him. And he sat down and went over how the whole construction project would go. He was good from beginning to end and that part of the process with him worked really well. Then, I was really excited with the next reps I worked with, Walter and Emma. For me, they saved the day along with Jeremy because they were on point and they would follow up. While it was a little difficult getting ahold of them sometimes, because they were running through the warehouse or they would be wherever, they got back to me and they answered my question. They also let me know when things were due. They really did a good job and they were happy people.

I've also watched Anthony & Sylvan do some other pools and I know that they do third parties. Now, I have stone around my pool and I have not had the final team that was supposed to come by. When the third party company called out of the blue and said that they needed to do the final close of the contract, I asked what was left to do that I should be interacting with them. But if I have to do another walkthrough, I would tell Anthony & Sylvan that I was not 100% comfortable with the third party who did the stone around the pool.

They've already been back once to put back some of the stones that fell down when we had a storm. And when I looked behind there, they didn't come with additional concrete on the outside and laid the stones. So the guy had to come back and put the stone up. Then I told them that they missed some spots and I was afraid that at some other point, they would have to return because the stone might come off because I didn't see them to be extremely detailed with the work. But they said it was good. So, I told them I'd be calling because I was not sure about that.

Other than that, everything else about the pool is okay. Also, while Anthony & Sylvan agreed to come back if I wanted additional schooling on the pool, I'm just paying somebody to come and do the pool because I ain't got time for all that. But I felt their class on it would be where a guy shows up, he runs through all the valves, he tells you about your pool, and after, he gives you a book and he's out of there. And if you've never changed filters on a pool or you've never done any of that stuff, it is overwhelming. It's like a freaking three-day course pumped into 15 minutes. It's a waste of their time actually because the customer is going to call them back again since it's just so much information.

All in all, I'm satisfied with the finished product, as well as I've got some questions. I'm happy I got it and I'm happy the process is over. Anthony & Sylvan's contractors that showed up did an okay job for the most part. The guy that was digging the hole, the excavator, I've never seen anybody move a Bobcat the way this guy could move a Bobcat. So he was awesome. But some of the other ones, not so much.

Anthony & Sylvan could have been honest and said, "Our build crew walked out on us and we don't have anybody to send." That would have been way better than lying and I would have been way more understanding. I found out three months later what really happened. Every step of the way, Anthony & Sylvan missed something. If it wasn't for us catching everything, our pool would not have been what we purchased by any means. It's not even done properly. They would forget to put in a waterfall and the heater. They forgot to put in the bubblers and the deck jets.

The other thing would be if they set an appointment, they should come to it and not tell me, "I'm sorry, you're too far away." They shouldn't have taken the job. The subs were amazing and they did their part. But the project manager only came out here a total of two times during the whole build. He would say that everything was great when it wasn't.

Our pool looks really nice but right now, we haven't been able to use it yet because it was installed and really didn't get in the ground for use until October. And we're in Southern North Carolina so it was cool enough that it really wasn't too pleasant to go into the pool, except for my grandkids who enjoyed it for a week or two before it got too cold. But we're looking forward to using it here in the spring, and using a heater to warm it up a little bit to start with so we a few extra weeks on winter to spring end of it.

We had a really good experience with Anthony & Sylvan's reps. They were helpful, gave us suggestions, and did a good job of keeping the many different contractors working fairly well. We had some delays and it was a very busy time here, with the COVID and a lot of people putting in pools. But they got the pool in the ground and finished correctly. So, we didn't have any major things where things would have been redone. But I wish it was done a little faster. It was finished four weeks later than we expected to have it done and that was a major concern of people in that period. It was because of the demand and they can only do so much for so many people in so many days, so I understand. But the quality of the workmanship is great and I haven't had any problems with anything yet. So, I'm happy with that part.

The only positive thing to say about is Ron, our design consultant. If we need something done, because we can't get through to the scheduler or anyone else, we contact him and he has something done about it almost instantly. Ron has been great. Nobody else has been cooperative. It's been a huge hassle getting anything done about it.

For the pool design, they had something back within four or five days. It was all on a software that we could get a true 3D design on the computer and you can kinda plug and play on the computer to see exactly how the layout would look in our backyard. But we weren't happy with our project manager. He seemed to not keep us in tune with what was going on. There were some other options that we could’ve had as things were occurring but we weren't aware until things were done. He didn't seem to communicate anything. It seemed like whenever we would talk to him, he'd be like, "Remind me what you guys were doing again," or we would be reminding him and saying, "Don't you have a file? What's going on?" I'd have to ask three or four times. He didn't seem very organized.

The crews would show up and start going in your backyard. There was supposed to be a scheduling person, but they might say they were coming tomorrow at noon, and all of a sudden, I got 10 guys on my fence at 6:30 in the morning. So my expectations seemed different. Also, they drove up my driveway and cracked it but they told me that they were not responsible for that. But overall, it was a good job. The pool looks great and the design was great. But the overall project could have been managed better and it could have been smoother.

Anthony & Sylvan should be more proactive with their communication. I understand everybody's working under COVID but they should make sure they are communicating to me instead of me having to reach out to them. It's a big investment that I'm making and they should have some customer service talking to people, especially the VP and Director of Operations. Those two seemed very entitled and they didn't care about our concern. We love the final product but we hated the people we worked with to get there. We would definitely not recommend them to our friends.

When I contracted to get my pool built, Anthony & Sylvan came with a landscaper to do the travertine deck around the pool. I also had him put a deck on the back of my house, and I'm still waiting for that to be completed as well. So while it's not Anthony & Sylvan's work, they introduced me to this particular contractor that I've been terribly unhappy with. This has been a very, very lousy experience and it is not over yet.

We got the pool right when the pandemic hit. So we got to have recreation, peace and fun even in the midst of that. We've shown two people the pool and they've gone with Anthony & Sylvan already because it's so pretty. It is like a luxury backyard. We have fire rocks and fire pits. I love the fire features. We also have a little waterfall that goes into the Jacuzzi. It’s a very nice relaxing atmosphere out there. My dog loves it too.

The design was great. I went with Anthony & Sylvan because they were the premier brand. I believe in paying for quality. What I was told was that the valves were set up originally wrong. They've tried to correct that. It's worked for a couple of months, and then it's out. I'm not there all the time. It’s my vacation home. When I was there over the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to show one of my relatives the sheer descent, and it just dripped down the wall. They are looking at it to see if they can fix it. I'm waiting on them to get back to me.

If someone asks me about Sylvan, I'd tell them that they will get a good quality pool. They will be attentive during the installation. But I'd tell them to make sure to get everything attended to before their final payment, which is hard to do because they request the final payment before they finalize. Anthony & Sylvan, from my perspective, takes care of themself first. Then, you're gonna struggle with anything you need at the end.

I got oil stains in front of my house left by the contractors, and it took about six weeks to get that resolved to where I had to write a letter to the president of Sylvan before anyone responded. My neighbors were upset. None of us are okay with oil stains in a brand-new community. So, it didn't help me and my wife as we were trying to build relationships with neighbors that we don't live with. Anthony & Sylvan definitely hurt themselves in my community there because people saw the trucks, and I was very open with who I was working with.

I'm still kind of not really satisfied overall with them. That was a lot of money that was spent. I spent that extra money for the quality and for the customer service. I work for a premier global brand myself, and I understand our customers pay extra money over our competitors. The reason they do that is because they know the quality and the service that will be provided even when something goes wrong. That’s what I'm disappointed about.

My husband, luckily, is a contractor and was able to be home most of the time. He was overseeing it because our project manager was nowhere to be found. He caught several things that were going to be done wrong had we not noticed, which was pretty disconcerting. Especially knowing that there might be things that we still haven't catch.

We love the way the pool looks now and everything looks great. But we've had continued issues and our pool is drained right now. We have a huge crack that goes down the middle of the entire pool and we've been losing water the entire time and filling it up pretty much weekly. Now, our pool has sunk to the backside by about three-quarters of an inch. We're in the middle of this warranty thing and we haven't even hit a one year mark on our pool. And communication has been pretty horrible. We've been passed on to about 10 different people.

I'm worried about us having to do this again in a year or two, once we're out of warranty and pay for it on our own expenses. Also, we've referred a couple of other people to them and one of our best friends just broke ground last week. I'm very upset about that because had I known these things initially, I would never have sent them Anthony & Sylvan's way. I'm hoping they don't have the same problems as us.

They did a freeform pool with a spa spillover. From beginning to end, it was an outstanding experience. They went above and beyond during the whole building process, from design to building to finalizing. I could be a pain sometimes because I may ask more questions but everybody was attentive and willing to answer questions. We are having one little minor issue with the pool and it's been going on for a couple of months, back and forth, but they've been extremely attentive to the issue. I would tell people to use Anthony and Sylvan. If I had to build another pool, I would use them in a heartbeat. It's definitely worth investing your money with them. We love having the pool. The pool itself is different from what I grew up with which is the regular geometric shape. I like the way it sits in our backyard. Having the pool versus being in a community pool is a big difference.

We had some issues with grading being done wrong and there were some things that took them coming back multiple times. There were people there working on stuff but no one would show up for a while to make sure they did it right. In the end, we didn't pass our first inspection because there were a couple of little things that we didn't know about, until the inspector told us. They had to come out and fix those. They fixed those within a day but then we had to wait for the inspector to come back again. I recommend that Anthony & Sylvan do not use that sub anymore but I still would recommend Anthony & Sylvan. They built a great pool and they did their best to be on time. The decking is really pretty and I really like the tanning shelf. It’s a great spot and I'm looking forward to sitting there a lot this summer.

The one thing that my wife and I were less than happy about was that during the process, the concrete trucks did a relatively significant damage to our irrigation system because of their weight. The landscaper that we hired did some of the contract and also did the rest of our landscaping kind of stuff. They repaired it. The final grading of the construction site should be included in the pool process. If you come in and you significantly put three-foot ruts in somebody's yard, there should be a process. That has been taken care of but it should be done. When you spend $150,000 on a pool, when it's finished, you wanted to be finished. There should be some inclusion of landscaping into the final price. There should be some attempt to mitigate the damage that was done in the area of your lawn that was damaged by the pool process.

Ron, our salesperson, was a tremendous asset in the whole process, having the experience. Having the same person do our landscaping, that was also hired by Anthony & Sylvan to do the travertine around our pool, helped to make the process more congruent and flow better. So, that was good. I would recommend Anthony & Sylvan. Ron told us some people wanna do their own concrete around the pool to cut costs and I would recommend not doing that. We had walls built and got the decking, which was all necessary as part of the pool process but it helped to have that all coordinated so that it was all done in a smooth fashion.

I had to pay out of pocket because Anthony & Sylvan wasn't liable. I had to eat that for my neighbor's pipes and mine. The pool is either 15 or 16 feet wide and 30 or 32 feet long, with the upper spa, which is our favorite because we can use that all-year-round. I would recommend Anthony & Sylvan. It wasn’t a horrible experience but there were some challenges.

We did a free form pool and our rep was Patrick. He was great. He took what we wanted, added to it, and made it really more than what we thought we wanted. It was exactly what we really wanted. There are a couple of cool things that we did that I liked. The project manager was also here all the time. I work from home so I did a lot of stuff with him and walked to the pool weekly with him. I was very on top of scheduling and making sure things were moving along. I was involved in the whole entire thing.

They've got great subcontractors. Everything they do turns out really nice. It seems like they got great relationship with them. The most important things to me are the warranty and the quality. There are a lot of pool people out there so you can always probably find a cheaper pool. But who knows what's going to happen down the road. For me, it's about having a customer have something that they don't have any issues with. You may pay a little more possibly but you got that peace of mind that there's not gonna be any problems with the pool down the road. That makes me look good.

The scheduling team was great. But I had issues with some of the subcontractors. They left a huge mess. Everything from leaving food out to draw raccoons to finding random blocks of dried concrete stuck on fences and on trees. There was also an issue with the grading. I had the soil moved because we had to reuse it to support one side of the pool but they got rid of it. They took it. When I came home, the soil was gone. I called up and it took days and days to get it back. I never got all of it back so I had to pay for extra dirt to come in.

As far as the project manager goes, he was great except that he wasn’t the best on getting back to me at a timely manner. It was lacking a little bit of communication. The scheduling was all over it, and a lot of times, I had to call scheduling to get him on the phone. They were also behind. They have more scheduled for one day and they didn't come out until the next day. Nobody would tell me what was going on.

We had some ideas for the design, so they sort of presented a 3D model based on some things that we had come up with. Then, we took that 3D model and defined it to fit our needs. The overall quality of the construction was really good and once that was finished, there were very little things that needed to be fixed. The construction process was really seamless as well which took seven weeks. We started right around Valentine's Day and we ran by April. But COVID ramped up right at the end of it. It was a large number of people in the same truck, so they reduced the sizes of the crew and that delayed how the crew was doing their transportation. But the general manager of the local facility contacted me and gave us different options. So, they worked around that issue.

Our freeform pool turned out well. Some of the subs weren't all that good, but there were some things that they were supposed to come back and do with my coping and my papers. They came out, marked them and never showed back up. I got some issues with the supervisor on the job as well. He promised things I haven’t seen. I’ve contacted him on a couple occasions and next month would be a year since he said he was gonna get in touch with me again. I tried to contact him a couple of times and I can’t get ahold of him. He lives right down the road from me too. The training aspect of starting the pool sucked and follow up did too.

Anthony & Sylvan do it at a good price and they do good work but they don't make you feel good about the experience at all. I’ve had to change one of the improved pumps and I’ve used another pool servicer that is good with customer service and they've been awesome. Anthony & Sylvan’s model is to make money through volume. In the end, they get it done for you but that was not a fun process at all. They don’t do the easy stuff well because they don’t have the people. They are very lean and you just wait on them. Anthony & Sylvan has a project manager for four states. So, it's hard to get ahold of them. The one guy that came out stopped by and we caught up but otherwise, they’re always working on somebody else’s stuff.

There's too much competition out for people that are spending the kind of money that we would spend on a pool for Anthony & Sylvan not do the customer service that you would need. When I had the other pool company out here, they talked about single pumps and how generic my pool system was. It’s nothing bad but if I move somewhere and did another pool, I would not have Anthony & Sylvan do my pool.

Also, there were several things that we thought were included in the original price. We had to come back and get more money and stuff that could have been taken care of. Since it was our first pool, we had no idea what to expect. I had to have somebody else come out and fix stuff because I couldn't really get the installers out there.

I wasn't happy with the plaster finish that happened because they had some rough edges and stuff. They told me that is what happens when there's acidity levels in the pool. I've owned several homes and several pools, and I've never had that happen. They told me to take a wire brush and brush it down, and I vigorously did. I bought 10 different brushes and nothing worked. They offered one suggestion but nobody came out to try to show me that I'm doing it wrong or this is the technique that you do. So, they left it like that and then, we didn't do anything else afterwards. I was made to come up with a solution.

People need not be fearful of asking questions to these guys because the more information people are told and they ask questions about, the better off and informed in the process they're gonna be, especially with the other subcontractors. The payment mechanism was one of the other issues I had. One of the last payments we had to issue was the plaster guy and he refused to start his work until he had a check in his hand. Meanwhile, I already paid 95% of the fees of the entire pool. I wasn't in the vicinity at the time so, I had to come all the way from a half an hour's drive with a check to give to the guy. Even when I told him I was on my way, he still sat on his truck and didn't start work until I got there and physically handed him the check. So, I don't know whether that was a trigger to the bad end product but one of those things lead towards that. I made it clear to the management of Anthony & Sylvan that this is not the way to do business.

I’m in construction too and nobody remembers how you started the job but they remember how you finish the job. And being that was one of the last elements that they had, it was not a good way to end their project with a guy refusing to work because he didn't have his check in his hand. I had to cut some business meetings off in order to turn around and come here and pay this baby who wasn’t one to work until he’s guaranteed his check.

Original Review: Nov. 8, 2020

I walked into Sylvan and looked around. I went with them because they were a little bit cheaper. They also go nationally and they got this warranty. They have all the stupid stuff that they use to hook people, including lying. I ended going to them because the designer was good. But I wouldn’t have went through all this stuff that I went through after he got out the picture. The manager was sent out to oversee the contractors. But didn't oversee anything because he was never there.

The contractors would tell me they were gonna dig the hole and they came to do that. Then they came to lay the piping and do the electrical. But it took a long time for them to do anything. Then there's the pandemic and the hurricane. All that stuff that I went through for years and years. It was about a year of me arguing with them.

I had a leak in one of the water lines going into it. For the longest time, I thought it was water building up in the corner due to the pool being installed. So I put gutters but not really knowing that it had to do with the pool’s water line that had ruptured. I dealt with that for a very long time. They were supposed to fix it. They came and looked at it. They ran a pod because they said maybe it was the water. But when they ran the pod, it wasn't in the right spot. I told them to send people to come over here to work in my house and call me and let me know and say they're gonna be there. So that way, I know exactly where the water is building up. They said they were gonna make another arrangement to get them back out there. It took another three months for that to happen.

They finally got there and they installed the drain where the water was building up. Then I realized that it was not the issue. Because then, the other side of my house was getting real soggy. They spent a lot of time and it’s still not fixed to this day. They fixed the waterline but they still haven't retouched up the top surface of my decking. They had to cut through the decking before they could go fix that pipe. I ain’t got nothing done on that little area where they opened up to fix the leak. They screwed me over and I spent a lot of money.

My sales guy was Larry and he was great. Dennis was my initial project manager and he was great too. My follow up project manager, Scott, was a great guy as well. Their job was to get other people to do work. But that was not always efficient. It had nothing to do with their service with me. My project managers cared about me and the product. But they couldn't always get the organization to move in a way that was efficient because there was too much work. The company behind them did not give them the level of service and support that they should.

There were a lot of good guys. But I wasn't that keen on the electricians because I had to fight with them to make it look good. I really liked the guys who did the pool cover and the tilework. Everybody who did their jobs when they got there did a good job. But the scheduling was a mess. I don't blame the project manager for that because it's beyond his ability to control what people do or don't do. Before we came to the finish, I wanted the plumbing and the electrical inspectors out there because there were some issues with this pool. I wanted everybody on the same boat and the same game plan. My project manager set it up.

On the day, only one guy showed up, and when we called, the other guy said, "Well, you didn’t remind me. It’s not my problem to be there." Things like that drove me nuts. You set up a meeting and people don't show. My project manager did what I asked. He was as flabbergasted as I when the guy didn't show up. If you set a meeting and everybody accepted the date and the time, they should show up without having to be reminded.

They built the retaining walls and there's light in those walls. But it hasn't been a year and some of the lights aren't working already. We had an issue with the wall that they built that wasn't straight. The subcontractor pretty much told me that it was not their problem anymore. I rather pay more money and go through somebody else in those scenarios. Because I can't get anybody on the phone for service anyway. It's really hard to get someone on the phone to answer. We understand COVID, but it's hard to get somebody on the phone if you have an emergency.

Once the sales guy makes the sale, he's out of the picture and he's gone. So to me, that's not cool. If you sold it, shouldn't you be interested and making sure everything is good and checking in? Maybe I'm a little needy, but I'm spending a lot of money. There has to be a little more attention to the customer when you're making the sale, in the middle of the construction process, and after the construction process. The foreman didn't come out and see everything until they were building retaining walls. I had to call him because they were building it wrong. Once I did that, they came out. But that could be people are busy in management and timing. Everything seemed to be okay.

The overall experience was good. Their opening and close department is really good. But I wish a little more personal attention from the sales department and the after-sales. I would even recommend them doing a site visit and ask how everything was going after three or six months. Their customer service is very weird and there's not a clear path of who you need to talk to and how do you do it. There were no clear things with all the subs that they used. These guys just come in and do what they're told and they say Anthony & Sylvan hired them Also, I had a friend who was looking to build a pool and I gave him the salespeople. But they never even called him back.

Brian led with some stats and information about Anthony & Sylvan as compared to other companies, and that was important information. They're a company that's been around for a long time and should something happen to your pool or you needed work, it's a company that you can reach out to. They'll be able to create a solution. We got a 41 feet by 19 feet pool and 38,000 gallons. So it's a big pool. There's also a waterfall. I love to do projects outside, so the pool is a great reward when you're outside working hard in the yard and doing some different things. I have a place to cool off.

We had a great experience with Brian. The one thing that we had to manage closely was the project manager who I would even consider him a friend now, but he had not yet completed a pool. From that standpoint, it was him not necessarily knowing what to look for or what could be a problem. Anthony & Sylvan uses subcontractors. So a team of people came out to grade the pool and they looked professional. They have nice trucks but they did a terrible job. Our project manager signed off on their grading work and that ended up creating a lot of issues in terms of our filter filling up with mud and them coming out to clean. We ended up with a bunch of mud in our pool. For the most part, Anthony & Sylvan worked to resolve that. We got a little resistance from one person in the office. But again, Brian stepped in and sort of saved the day. So we ended up having Brian buy new filters for us.

They said they came out and cleaned our pump. I wasn't home when they did that. But when I went to clean it a second time months later, I looked at the pictures of when they had come and cleaned the filter and it was a completely different pump. It wasn't even our pool. So our pool was set for months with the filter being completely full of mud.

I have a very, very frugal wife who does not like spending money. But she told me she was open to getting a pool. I got this video and she walked in at 7:30 at night exhausted, and she watched it and she said it was beautiful. She loved it. The video stopped and she looked at me and asked if that was what our pool guy came up with. I told him yes and she said she wanted it. We got the big hot tub size and it waterfalls into the pool. It's lovely.

The construction team was on time and delivered on pretty much everything. They screwed up on a couple of small things, but the general contractor caught most of it. Unfortunately, it was usually that I would tell him that I didn't think certain things were right. But he would tell me that they knew what they were doing. Then he saw it and stopped them.

The GC busted out the workers a few times when they were trying to backfill in where all the pipes were next to the shell of the pool underground. They were back filling in all the debris with rock. I said that they could break with the vibrations. Then the GC got here and he saw it. He told them to stop everything and that they can't put that in there. He told them it could break all the pipes. Then he told them to clean it all out and do it again. But if he wasn't here, they could’ve literally damaged the entire construction of our pool years later. That would’ve destroyed our whole pool deck, all the surface, and cause massive amount.

I've been meaning to call somebody at Anthony & Sylvan to ask them to check out one issue. The circuit breaker for the hot tub keeps triggering for this whole year. There's a short somewhere in the circuit. Then the hot tub is not working. We have to get up and flip the switch and then it starts heating again. But it trips all the time.

Overall, Anthony & Sylvan was fantastic. My family has gotten such great use out of the pool. This hot tub has been the best money we’ve ever spent on this house. All the neighbors looked at it and say our backyard is amazing. Everyone who's surrounding me now has been pouring money into their yards in their houses trying to make their stuff prettier. My friend right now is talking about building one of those swimmable hot tubs where you can swim inside of it. He said he was getting a grotto built in his pool and that they can do this design where it almost looks like you're swimming up to a beach. If I gave known that, I would’ve bought more because interest rates are so low and financing was so easy.

The second issue is I had a liner pool there for 20 years previously, which we decided to replace with a gunite pool. There were a few things outside of their normal process of come in, dig a hole, and put a pool in. Right from the start, they were not able to determine how much of the footing of the old pool had to be removed. My contractors got rid of the old pool. Anthony & Sylvan came in with their contractor to trap the hole and put in the rebar. The guy couldn't do it because it wasn't to his satisfaction, which we could've gotten done right in the first place because they came and looked at it. But they weren't able to tell that. It just went on like that for nine months. Time got lost continuously because they didn't have a really good handle on what needed to be done next or having the contractor available.

Another example, the heater I had for the old pool was still 100% good and it was still there in service. But just the fact that there was an existing heater they had to utilize through them for a complete loop. Someone who's been in this business for how many decades, you would think that wouldn't be such an insurmountable obstacle. Whatever kind of workaround we had to do based on the normal process, my contractors took care of that because theirs were not able to, and it wasn't hard. It was because it was slightly outside the standard procedure. It was like they didn't know what to do. It was incredible.

I got a really nice-looking pool, and I'm thankful for that. But my guys did a lot of it. My guys put in the surround. They worked with the tile guys who put in the mosaics. My guys took care of some of the plumbing and the electrical, just like digging the trenches. Because of the prior existing pool and the layout, their plumber could not get his mini backhoe he was using in where he normally would. Somewhere it had to be dug by hand and my guys got that done within a day. Their contractor appeared 100% unwilling or unable to do the same thing.

Those pools cost a lot of money, and they should be able to figure out a better way to do that. If I didn't have a few guys that I work with all the time on projects, it would've been a real disaster. Anthony & Sylvan's process, especially if there's any deviation from just coming in to dig a hole and put a pool in a wide open field, is a painful one because they really don't have it organized very well. They need to tighten their process up 'cause our pool could've been done months earlier than it was.

Their designer was great. He showed us several different options. He pulled it right up on the computer and showed what it could potentially look like in our backyard. He was very helpful. I had some big issues during the entire build, though. Everything from the moment that the design was approved to the 28 odd weeks to finish the pool, when I was told it would take about 12, it was torture. They still owe me a bunch of things because of how poorly it went.

They screwed up on the permitting. I said that based on Marlboro regulations, I need to have a fence around it. They were like, “No, you’re fine.” I said, “The fences on the sides, they’re not my fences, they’re my neighbor's.” So they put in the permit but they were like, “You don't need it, you've got fences on the sides.” Every time I called to ask, “What's the status of my permit?” Anthony & Sylvan said, “They're just processing it.” I came to find out when I called the town that they just put it in the drawer because it was resubmitted with the wrong paperwork and Anthony & Sylvan never followed up. I had called them multiple times. I was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of communication.

I had issues with delays in the estimation for another week because at that point, they were starting to get busy. They kept on pushing me back. And failed electrical inspection too. With the workmanship, it’s really poor. I had to have them redo the entire tile because when they put it on, they were about to start doing the layer on the inside over the concrete. The tiles were also already falling off. There are 15 tiles now laying on the floor in the pool that has fallen off already. I also already have cracks in my concrete patio that they have to fix. It was terrible. The pool is great because it’s a great recreation thing, but the patio is not gonna last a few more years ‘cause it's already crumbling in some spots and it's a year old.

In general, the main supervisor did a good job but there were a couple of times where we had questions and the communication wasn't great. We had a big problem after our pool was completed. There was a leak in it. They didn't believe us at first and that was a problem. They wanted to charge us an obscene amount of money to come out if we were wrong. We got involved with somebody higher up and said that the pool is two weeks old and there's something wrong with it. The supervisor finally came out and the leak was taken care of. Overall, there will be good things and bad things going through the process of having apool. There are gonna be days that you will be frustrated. But in the end, you'll love the pool and you'll forget all that stuff. It's just like building a house.

The real value in this was that they worked closely with my landscaper. So their capabilities and abilities to work with my guy and give it that look. Most of their contractors do poured concrete but I ended up going with pavers. So it was very important. If they didn't work with my landscaper that did all the hardscape for me, then we wouldn't have done anything because I turned down another two companies that looked at it. They wanted to do it their way and it wasn't quite the way I was looking for.

The pool has about a good 20-foot waterfall from right to left. The way the boulders are sat down is that they're not stopped at the beam. If you look at most aboveground pools, the boulders will sit on top of the coping. So you still have your tile and you'll have your water coming through the tile, then there's a gap and then you'll have your boulders. What we did is we actually notched it out and we sunk the boulders into the pool. We also used a product that Anthony & Sylvan offered, which I liked. It was a pebble finish. So between the dark bottom pool and the pebble finish, those things worked out well. When Anthony & Sylvan came to the house, they only offered a very small selection of tile options for the coping. I ended up bringing in my own tile and they used their contractors to install my tile. So they were very flexible. It was another nice thing that they offered.

Harold was the project manager and he was very good at what he did. But he was spread thin. There were lots of cool projects going on and it was difficult at times to coordinate. But other than that, it was not an Anthony & Sylvan issue. It's an issue in general when it comes to subcontractors. I'm not a big fan of them. There were a few issues that happened that we had to come back and have fixed. If Anthony & Sylvan owned their staff and their could train them and they work solely for them, then they'd have more control over the situation. But given with what they've got to work with, it worked out okay. Overall, anyone that I've talked to that's had a pool ran into the same situation.

I asked for an IceBreaker heat pump, one that would cool down when it got too hot or would heat up when it was too cold. It was something almost like an automatic thermostat and a pump. It can do either thing. So we ended up going that route. When I got the unit, it only heated. It didn't cool. When you have a dark bottom pool and you go through a heat spell, that water could end up creeping up into the 90s. Now it's a bathtub and it's not a pool anymore.

I ended up going out to the unit. I called up the manufacturer and they told me to read off the VIN number. I read off the VIN number to him and he said the reason that didn't do that was that they installed the wrong heat pump. Not only did they install the wrong heat pump, they installed the wrong size heat pump. Even if they would have gave me the original heat pump, it was supposed to be larger. Anthony & Sylvan did stand by their word and they came out and fixed the problem. But at the end of the day, they need to have somebody really checking to see what the contractors are putting in and what they're taking out and what they're installing.

One of the biggest things that I was disappointed with the whole project was the salesperson that came out. He was an order taker. Anybody can be an order taker. We had about 90 grand into just the shell and the pump and a few things. It was definitely double the average of your typical family, backyard pool. I had to constantly pull things out of him. When we decided that we wanted to do the waterfall, he said that we were not gonna be able to run it very often because of evaporation. But that was crazy to me. I told him one of the things I love is hearing water in the background. I asked him if they made something that would be like an autofill. He said, "Yeah, that would be called an autofill system." I told him I'd rather run my waterfall when I wanna run my waterfall and have my pool filled when it automatically fill. So I told him to sign me up for that.

He said that we also have to make sure to keep our pool from becoming overflowed. So we have to drain water out at times. That sounded crazy so I asked him if they do something to make the water drain off the pool when it gets too high. He said, "Yeah." I asked him what would that cost me. He said nothing. He said in the skimmer boxes, there was a punch-out hole and I just have to have a plumber run my punch-out hole to allow the water to drain out to somewhere else. So I told him to do that too. So I felt like at every corner, I had to know what I was talking about. I had to ask for things. Luckily, I did my research. Because if I didn't do my research, I wouldn't know to ask for things and I would have had a waterfall I couldn't use and I would have had a pool that I would have had to empty when it rained too much.

If I were at Anthony & Sylvan's Pool, I would certainly have better trained salespeople. Because at the end of the day, there's nothing worse than spending 100 grand and finding out that you missed things. Then these are things that are too costly to add later on, and they end up not doing it and you have got something. I like to get all the options. I'd rather them come back to me and say it's 150 grand but then I could say we could do things to trim it back. Don't sell me something for 60 grand and I could put $30,000 extras in.

We were going through a expansion of the house at that time and they tried to figure out the elevation of the pool. The sales guy was given our plans and knew what we were gonna do. But when he ended up determining the elevation of the pool, he got it wrong. We have a deck below with tile, and if rain does happen to get in there, instead of it flowing out of our house, it will go towards our house because the elevation of the pool was so high that they couldn't get the slope that they needed when the tile guys and everybody else came out to do their work. That sales guy really needs to know what he's doing inside and out. They need some better training in that department, or at least with the guy I work with. If he doesn't know what he's doing, he needs to talk to some engineers that do know what they're doing. I was able to fix the problem. I had to put drains in and I had to do different things to fix the issue.

Overall, I'm happy with Anthony & Sylvan. It's a solid company. One of the reasons I like them is their longevity. In today's day and age with the economy and all the weird stuff going on out there, you never know how long somebody's gonna be around. But they've been around a while. Also, warranties are important. You want someone to be able to be there. I've got a beautiful pool. Everyone that comes by and sees it say it's probably one of the most beautiful pools they've seen. At the end of the day, they were capable and at least they surrounded themselves with people that were capable to do the things I needed done.

I had an incident one night and I called about something leaking or a crack in one of the baskets in the free-form part. They showed up at 9:00 that night, and it was dark. My daughter lives downstairs, and she has two Boxers and they're not gonna be nice to some stranger in the backyard. So we had a little hiccup with that. They didn't announce it or call or knock on the door. They just came in the backyard and fixed it. It was fortunate that it worked out.

Aside from that, when I called to have a meeting with the engineer who helped me to get the drawing for the pool, he got me into dealing with them because he was very professional and he knew what he was doing. He was awesome. I told him what we liked and what we were looking for. Then, he came back with the drawing and surprisingly, his drawing was already 80% of whatever I liked. So, the 20% was what I wanted in additional to that. I was really impressed. But it was a little hard to call them about the scheduling and they said it was because they were very busy. Despite that, everybody was great and the product manager was also very nice.

All in all, Anthony & Sylvan was amazing. We like the lining of our pool and the inside is a little different with some other pool builder. My friend built a pool too, and it's just a regular one. But Anthony & Sylvan used a different one which was the quartz. And the way they designed the pool is fit for my backyard. It has been two years since they built the pool for us and we still like it. It's worth every penny. Even though we had some other offer from some other pool company and we would have liked 20% about them, we'd still choose Anthony & Sylvan Pools because they did a really great job. Even my parents who are not the type of people who'd spend the money on a pool are really happy when they look at the pool that Anthony & Sylvan built for us.

When you build a pool, it's not something that you can change. So, don't try to save a couple of thousand dollars, then you're gonna get headache. You need someone that’s taking care of everything for you. It's not easy to get the pool and you have to do the permit and everything based on the percentage of your land. My friend who built a pool with some other company had problem a year later. So, I would rather spend a couple more thousand dollars and get what I want which is something that I don't have to worry about later.

Anthony & Sylvan was very nonresponsive, had bad scheduling and a lot of surprise costs. They were not thorough in the very beginning. With the building process, when something goes wrong, it's hard to get them to come out to fix things. They tear out your landscaping and they don't let you know about those things. Our pool was wired wrong. We have two electrical boxes instead of one. There are different multiple things that I would just tell people that I wouldn't recommend them at all. I've had the project manager call me numerous times to rate him a better rate for his commission and I refused. There are multiple contractors but there should be somebody that has a better grip on what's going on.

The pool that we got is about 30 feet long. It’s 12 to 15 feet wide. It's a pool spa in-ground combination. It has a one-pump heater and six jets in the spa. It's got lights and it has a small kid deck area. It has the newer pool cement on the pool deck. The automated system that we can use on the phone is my favorite feature. When you're out and about, you can get on your phone. There's an app and you can start to heat the Jacuzzi. So when you get home, it's already warm. The kids enjoy the pool but my experience with Anthony & Sylvan was very poor. I would never use them again.

When we talked to the project manager about these issues continuously, he told us that we micromanage things. He said he would’ve caught the issues eventually. But that would’ve cost Anthony & Sylvan hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix these issues because that's how much it would've cost to redo an entire rock wall. Fortunately, we caught it at the beginning stages of it. The guy wasn't smart. We asked him if he went through project management training and he said no. He said he was just quality control, which was even more of a joke. The whole thing was bad. When we complained and tried to escalate it and get somebody qualified, it went nowhere. So we sent it to a CEO because we were so desperate for someone to fix things and he never responded or acknowledged the letter. Nothing got resolved through that means.

The only person who helped us was our sales guy but he can't do it all. He did the initial sale but after that, it's not supposed to be him anymore. We had a spa, a fire pit and a waterfall, and our sales guy told us that they general contract everything and we should not worry about anything. Also, we would not have to do anything. But that was not true. We had to schedule everything. We had to say that the fence goes in on this day and ask when the fire pit was gonna be done and when was the plumbing done. They forgot to call the trench people, and they have to be done filling in the dirt before these people can come.

That was our life from January until it was done at the very beginning of May. The scheduling was terrible. If we didn't do it, things got screwed up and weeks and weeks would go by, and we would call and they would say that they thought that this and this happened. Their project manager comes by, takes a picture on his cellphone, emails it and that's all he does. We've had a lot of people ask us for recommendations because we live on a corner lot in a desirable neighborhood and we have not been able to recommend Anthony & Sylvan at all.

Getting in touch with the project manager was bad. It was a disaster with their scheduling department. You have a guy work on your pool one day and then you wouldn’t see anybody else there for three weeks. I’m a construction worker and if I scheduled my jobs like that, I would be thrown off the site. Besides that, they lost two of my cashier's checks, both of them for roughly about $30,000. I got the first one reimbursed within two weeks but I had a hard time with the other one. I had to wait 30 days for that one to get released. The design and sales went very well though and I have recommended Anthony & Sylvan to several of my friends, and they are moving forward with a couple of pools.

Original Review: Oct. 16, 2020

This is the third pool I've had Anthony & Sylvan put in my home. We did one in California and two here in Charlotte. We had an old pool that was having problems and the gentleman came in from Anthony & Sylvan. He did our last pool. We knew what we wanted and he knew what we wanted too. It was all about finagling the price. On Thursday, we got four inches of rain and on Friday, the demolition guide came in from the front yard and he destroyed our lawn. He took the old pool out and destroyed it too. It's an absolute disaster still to this day. You got rock, stone, and old pieces of the pool still in there. They were meant to come back and grating sieve it and make it nice. But they haven't done that.

We had the pool built about a year and a half ago. There has been no communication and no one has ever come by and asked if I was happy with the pool. There was no final inspection. They gave me a price and came on in. They had to put more rock on the backside and they tried to get me for an extra $1,000 or else they weren't gonna put it. I gave them five weeks and got $500 for it. I got that refunded because we complained to Brian. I put a gas line in and we agreed with the foreman where to put it. We came back the next day and they put it across our septic tank, across our lead line and tore up the grass.

I love that the pool is done now but I’m not happy with Anthony & Sylvan. The only good person that I dealt with was the actual designer. He was awesome but everyone else was an absolute nightmare. They made a lot of promises and they didn't keep it. My pool was meant to be 5'11" tall and it's 6' 8". So, that's a huge problem. They don't give a hoot so it's a little frustrating. There are a lot of other issues and lack of communication. So it’s a very disappointing experience.

When the reps tell me they're gonna be here on Tuesday or Wednesday, I expect them to be here on Tuesday or Wednesday. And then when Tuesday and Wednesday comes and they're not there, I have to call them and that bothered me. They could've told me ahead of time that they were not gonna be able to make it tomorrow because they got behind on the last job. But they didn't do that, which was my biggest complaint. Still, I'd recommend Anthony & Sylvan. They use good products and seem to be using good contractors. They do a good job with the layout and they’re easy to negotiate with as far as you want changes. There were no big dollar problems with the couple of changes we made.

They are very detailed in the contract as were all the other companies. They are very specific about any changes the customer makes and how it can affect the pool schedule. However, there are always unforeseen excuses on their end when the schedule is not met due to an issue with their contractor or communication with their contractor. The project manager was also adamant that he only works from Mon-Fri, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Any communication outside of that time frame would be dealt with during the next business day. The issue with that is most of their subs work weekends and early/late hours. I ended up managing their subs more than the project manager. I could not change anything, but I had the power to stop them before they did something incorrect - countless times. I have no idea how clients that are not well versed in construction and local standards deal with them.

The biggest complaint is you have to pay the last installment before they finish powering up your equipment and much less knocking any punch list out. I'm 10 months past the fill date and still have several open items that I can not get anyone to return my call. I've sent several emails and phone calls to the construction manager, Joe **, online warranty claims and emails to the Houston area manager, DeMarus **; no response from either 3.

PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE MASTER PLAN. It is the most important piece of paper in the deal. You can use the contract for toilet paper (during COVID-19, it's more valuable as TP) as it means nothing to them. All of their subs use the Master Plan. The subs come to the job site (your project manager will never be there when they show up) and only do the work according to the master plan. If you can't speak Spanish, find a neighbor that can. If you made a contract change, it's meaningless to them. MAKE SURE YOUR PROJECT MANAGER UPDATES THE MASTER PLAN WITH ANYTHING YOU AGREE TO. Some of the subs are good, some don't belong on your property. I'm having to pay another company to finish the punch list.

We also go into the store weekly during the season and have our water tested. The previous owners of our house had used Anthony & Sylvan and highly recommended them, so we continued. And they had installed it just a few years back, so we liked that they were familiar with the system. It was our first year owning this house and we're new to pool ownership, so they were patient with our three thousand million questions. They were very patient and answered, whether it was via phone, in store, or the text that they sent out for opening and closing. Everybody that we've met has been very patient and willing to educate us.

A girl named Katie came and she got her part of the job done, then she played with our dogs for a few minutes to keep them out of the hair of the other guy and my husband who were talking. So she kinda babysit our dogs for a few minutes because I was out of the house. They were very genuinely kind, caring people, and they made sure we knew what we were doing before they left.

When the guys came out to open the pool, that was such a busy season for them. And since we took later ownership of the house late in spring, they squeezed us in, which was wonderful, because we wanted it open before Memorial Day. So those guys came. They didn't have a whole lot of time, but they recommended to us that we call and they would send somebody else out to spend a little more time with us, which we did. I called someone in the office and she's been the one I've been dealing with, and I said, "You know, these guys suggested that maybe after your busy season was really over, you'd be willing to send somebody out that would spend like an hour with us to go over the system." And she's, "Oh yeah, sure. Not a problem."

She scheduled it right in and they came out. Then we were more prepared. We had a little knowledge under our belts and someone came out and spent like an hour to make sure we were doing things right and we weren't gonna damage our system. They were making sure that as new pool owners that we have the tools and the information resources that we needed. And if they couldn't provide it, they knew who could and got us to the right people.

The salesperson did a fantastic job. He listened to what we wanted and he designed the pool really nice. Our tanning ledge is one of our favorite things, but my husband likes the color choice of the Pebble Tec and how it keeps with the pool. It looks beautiful. Our project manager, Roberto, came out and laid the plan all out on the ground with us. He walked us through every step of the way and he was there all the time checking on it. Our scheduling team was fantastic too. Michelle would always send me an email every week, on Saturdays, to tell me what the next step was. And that communication was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. Our pool is a nice family relaxation activity. And so, the whole family enjoy it.

Anthony & Sylvan reps are very responsive. We send them an email or a phone call if there’s a problem and it gets answered or handled right away. They are very prompt. Some of the times when the technicians came, I watched them and they've done a complete job. They left the sheet with what they did and the process was easy. They took care of the pool, so that I, as the customer could enjoy it.

Our pool cost about $95,000 or so. It’s built on a slope, so a lot of it had to be built above the ground. I knew that was not a very usual design for them. It’s about 37 ft. long, 14 ft. wide and 6 ft. deep at the deepest part. It’s got a sun shelf and a few fountains, and has a spa that’s right next to it. It’s very inviting. When we open the door, it’s right there in our backyard. It also sounds very relaxing because of the waterfall feature. It hasn’t really had any major issues. So it’s been low in maintenance, so far.

It was kind of tough because we had a very, very difficult pool to install. We had a change in project manager partway through the project, because it took about a year to build this thing. But everyone cared. It’s very obvious that they care about the quality. They were all professional. And I don’t think anything occurred that we were unhappy with. We have kids in the house, and it’s nice that they can easily go to the pool. It’s just like having a vacation right at your backyard whenever you want to.

Brian did a good job of where they would help and where we needed to figure things out. They were building the pool, so there was a lot of interaction with us, and they had contractors that we needed. And then the scheduling team did an okay job. They would give me a day or two notice of when contractors would come out. We needed to re-tile. The pool light isn’t working right now in one of the receptacles. But other than that, everything went really well. I'm really happy to use the pool. I would definitely recommend them. We’ve had the new pool all summer, so we’ve really been able to enjoy the summer a little more than normal. If it’s hot out, we’d still be outside with the family. The pool really opened up more opportunities to spend with family and friends.

With Anthony & Sylvan, I like the ease of them always explaining what's going on. And we always know how much it’s gonna cost, and if they weren’t sure, we would get a call, which is very personable service. The project manager and scheduling team always call us the day before a service and tell us what time. If we have any questions, we can call and ask, and it’s been very informative and very enlightening. Anthony & Sylvan is very dependable and very thorough.

We got a free form pool and we pretty much designed it how we wanted it shaped. We also have a 16-person spa, then they put us in contact with the person that built a huge grotto. And at one end, it has the waterfalls. We got the pool mainly for our grandchildren and so far, I like the grotto, the spa, and the shape of our pool. It's very tropical looking.

The project manager was really good to work with and during the construction, they were very prompt. Any time I would have any questions or wanted to know when something was gonna be done, the project manager was always responded. He always stopped by just to make sure everything was going good, too. We had very good communication and he kept us up-to-date with everything. The time schedule was on point as well and there were no delays. We also enjoyed working Ron in designing the pool. Both of them were very helpful throughout the whole process. So far, everything is wonderful and we will recommend Anthony & Sylvan to any family or friends that’s looking to get a pool.

Sylvan Pools built the pool and we took residence in it 28 years ago. We were moving from Northern Delaware to Southern Delaware. We just walked in there one day and happened to get off with a guy, and he came down the house and did some drawings and off we went. As the pool got older, it required more and more work. They renovated the entire pool, the coping and the tiles. They put on the new surface on the pool. The pool is kinda the centerpiece of the backyard and its color jumps out at you. They actually brought the wrong-colored tile or coping, and the next morning, they were back and working, got it all straightened out, as opposed to other people who would just put it in there.

The renovation and design consultant was good. He came down and visited. He had all kinds of examples and colors. They would call up and say some of the guys were gonna be there the following day and would do this. They’ve called and asked how things were going. They’ve done that several times. I had a question about something and they sent a guy down when we opened this spring, and he was nice. The guys who built the pool, every step of the way, were really friendly and good. They did a nice job keeping it simple for us.

The pool was great for 20-something years but it needed some rehab work and some updating. Since Anthony & Sylvan was the one that installed it, why would I go with anyone else other than the people that installed the pool? I stuck with the best. We did a full renovation with new plaster, new tile and new coping in the spring of 2018.

They remodeled the whole surface of the pool, which was plaster or gunite. Along the top of the pool, the top waterline is tile and they redid all the tile work. They also redid the ledge, the coping, and put in a new Deck-O seal, which is the gap in between the concrete patio and the actual ledge of the pool. There is a couple of quarters of an inch gap that you fill in with a material that prevents water from seeping in and then freezing. The surface is white plaster and it's beautiful to the eye. The tiles are a really nice blue with a beige accent and the ledge is Travertine. So it is a brand-new pool with those renovations and it's very aesthetically pleasing. It's also very comfortable when you're in the pool on your feet.

From the sales team on my initial consultation to the renovation experts who came out and to the project manager, everyone was efficient and professional. They went above and beyond to ensure that I was satisfied, comfortable and knowledgeable about how the pool works and how to keep it the way it needs to be. Other than the initial salesman, there was the scheduling team for different aspects of the renovation or coming for measurements and they were all very professional as well. They were very good from the beginning.

Once Anthony & Sylvan started work, they had the different crews show up to do the demolition and to do the work. They were very professional and quick to do what they had to do. On one of the days, I wasn't even there. They just did what they had to do and when I came home, it was done. Joe, the project manager, was also always on the phone with me and always available if I had a question. He demonstrated to me what I needed to do for two weeks straight before the pool was ready to be swam in.

The job routine was smooth and they finished the pool right before Memorial Day. We were basically all set to have the pool swim-ready for Memorial Day. But that weekend, we had an incredible amount of rain, which caused a run-off situation from a neighboring property and flooded out our pool with mud and sediments. It turned my pool into a swamp so I called Joe. He lives not too far and he came over to my house on a Sunday, on Memorial Day weekend, to help me remedy the situation before it got worse. He coached me on what I needed to do, what chemicals I needed to buy and how to use them. He helped me fix the situation by lowering the water level and then he helped me clean it up with a flocking agent. He didn't have to do that on a Sunday. He just went above and beyond. He came over a couple of times to help out and that says a lot of Joe and the company. A week later, we were swimming in the pool.

It happened again towards the end of the summer with another storm. It was ridiculous. But I had that situation remedied with the property line and everything is great. With this type of pool, there's a lot of beginning maintenance that you have to do and you have to do it correctly. Owning a pool is not just turn on the filter and turn it off. You have to know what you're doing. You have to understand the chemicals, what things are doing and why they're doing it. There's definitely a level of customer education that is very important and these guys did that. Having gone through the summer that I did with those two events, I feel a lot more confident now in handling the pool by myself, which is important. And that was due not just to Joe but the guys in the store in Monmouth in New Jersey. They were very helpful as well.

When you have a brand-new 30,000 gallon white plaster pool that is filled with sediment and dirt from a torrential rain event, you would think that would cost thousands of dollars to clean up. But the folks in the store helped me troubleshoot what would be the best way to tackle the problem. With their help, it cost 20 bucks for one bottle of solution and then me just doing what I had to do to clean it up through the filter. So other than a week's worth of paying attention to the pool and $20, a nightmare was averted and that was due to their assistance. So far, the plaster looks good. Everything looks good. We love the pool. It is a great product and Anthony's guys were great. I couldn't be happier. We enjoy the hell out of the pool. We've used it pool pretty much everyday. It's awesome. We have a lot of people over.

However, there's a small indentation in the plaster that is about a quarter of an inch or less with some white spotting around it. I scraped it by my finger and it doesn't seem to be any loose particles in there. Still, if I had some kind of underwater plaster cement or if Sylvan had an underwater tube that I could use, I could fix it myself. I could also do that when I close the pool down for the season. Despite this, everything was fine with our pool reno. I've told Hart that he's welcome to bring people to my place for potential customers to look at my pool.

Our project manager was Ray, and he was wonderful. He was always available. If he couldn't answer when I called, he would call me back within the hour. We didn't know much about pool construction, and he explained the entire process from start to finish. He was always there to give answers. He even came out when something was of concern to us, and he would be here and personally address the issue. As far as the scheduling team goes, Patty was our scheduler and I don't know how she keeps it all straight, but she knows everything about everyone at every time and she was on the ball the entire process. I've never met a woman more organized in my entire life. She was wonderful. If the crew was delayed for whatever reason, she would call me before I even realized they were late when they were supposed to be here.

We have a free form granite pool with Peeble Tec. We are on an incline in our backyard, so they had to do some creative design to stand a significant elevation change from the front end to the back end of the pool. They also ended up doing the pool decking around the deck with retaining wall and all sorts of stuff. I cannot say enough good things about their construction team here in Charlotte. They were the most on-point and organized contractor group of any sort we have ever worked with.

We have three small children and we love the ability to have vacations in our backyard. We don't need to go anywhere, everything is here. We can have fun there, but we can entertain. The pool is also beautiful to look at. It's right off of our master bedroom, so we can see it when we wake up in the morning. It has brought our backyard together. The whole thing is now with purpose, and we spend a lot more time outside than we did before. I feel like we have doubled our living space because we're now using a backyard that previously went mostly unused. And we're in the south, so we have beautiful weather for a long time every year.

Other than that, I wasn’t real pleased with how a couple things turned out. I felt I was fought against doing things I knew I wanted and I should’ve pushed a little harder. I pushed on some of them and I got them, but some other things, I really regret not pushing harder. For instance, the sun shelf should’ve been deeper. We don’t ever use it, so I’ve got a huge area of the the pool that we never even sit on. The guy was telling me that I couldn't have it deeper because of the code and we have to have a certain step. However, we could have added a step around the edge and still have the sun shelf deeper. But he said that we wouldn't wanna be in it, we'd put our chairs in, and we'd stay out of the water. But I don’t wanna be out of the water. If I’m out of the water, I’ll be out of it. So, things like that were a little aggravating, especially now, looking back on it, it would’ve been so easy and it could’ve been so much more useful. But it's our first pool, so live and learn.

The project manager was available at any time. I've texted him a couple of times after we finished the entire project with a couple of questions, and he made himself available. In the scheduling department, there were two people who we worked with there. They were unbelievable. One of the best parts of the experience was just how on top of it they were and they kept the whole process moving and kept us abreast of everything. So between the project management and the schedulers, they were great.

I'm an avid surfer and we live a couple of hours from the beach, so I love being in the water, and I get in the pool on a daily basis. I even do like a polar plunge each day in the dead of winter just because it's a great pool and refreshing. We have a heater in it too. When we're having friends over, we crank the heat up and it’s definitely a great feature too. It also has the feature where you can lower the water and heat the spa by itself. We’re in Charlotte, North Carolina and it gets hot here. You can heat up pretty quickly, so when you get home, you can just hop in the pool. It’s nice to have.

I like the aesthetics of the newly-renovated pool. I love the coping and the tile choices we picked out with the salesman. He was good and he had all the samples. He told us what would work, what wouldn't work with certain colors, and described when picking out the plastering. He went over the differences when the shade is on it and when the sun's on it. He also had photos of what it would look like. It was all positive and we kinda knew what we liked but we went in a little different direction than we originally thought we were going to due his recommendations. I had a little issue because I had to close yesterday but there was a little defect on the plaster. He called me and helped me out with what to do.

Part of the problem was that they had a supply store here and they have so many different branches that I was trying to get a local branch and there weren’t that was close by. But we're happy with the pool. I'm in it every day, enjoying it. We're able to have our private place to swim. We no longer have to go to public pools. The pool has a little waterfall, two jets that we added, and the LED lights that came with the package.

I originally worked with their salesman who came out multiple times to go through options, understanding selection and working through pricing. A recommendation they had done was to split the construction so we did part of it. We did the deconstruct in the fall of year prior to the last. Then we did the finish last year in May. It split the cost. I’ve worked with a number of different people in their construction office once it was turned over from sales to the implementation, and the interactions with the team were very good. They tried to make sure that everything fit. Like anything, there are always gonna be adjustments that have to be made but the rep was very quick to try and work with us to reschedule or do anything, depending upon whether it’ll be weather, or crew, or any issue that came up. It’s never 100% perfect and I wouldn’t expect it to be, only because of the nature of these things.

We had one minor issue with a leak and we worked with the construction manager. He was extremely responsive to getting that taken care of. He sent a diver to go into the pool, do the inspection and correction, and since then, I have not had an issue at all. It was taken care of almost as fast as you can imagine between sending somebody out, identifying it and taking care of it so I’ve been well pleased. It comes down to the same quality of construction and care, and it has kept me to not having to do a lot of work to maintain it. Overall, we’ve had no performance issues and I look forward to not having them again, and that this pool will last us, if not the 20 years, if I can take to another 30.

Our pool is an in-ground, custom pool, like an organic shape. It has natural elements with travertine decking surrounding it. It’s like a gunite surface with the Pebble Tec finish and you get to select the color of the water. You get to select how you want your water to appear, like a lagoon in the middle of the mountains or a tropical oasis, which is cool. And there’s a little spa as well. The salt water pool is my favorite because it's easy to take care of. Their light system is really cool too. It goes on a timer so you can switch the light in the pool and in the hot tub, which is fun. Our kids are only gonna be here for another six or seven years and I'd like to create new memories and swimming and family time, which was the main reason we did the pool.

As far as my 2019 experience, I was very happy. But in the past, it hasn't always been so great. Our pool is over 30 years old. They put it in when they were simply Sylvan, and Anthony was a separate company. In the beginning, we used to close it ourselves. And then, as we got older, my husband and I had them close it. We used to have a guy named Carlos and he was wonderful. Every time, we would always request Carlos, and he'd always come, and he'd always do a great job. But Carlos left Sylvan & Anthony and I had no idea why or where.

After that, the first guy that they sent out was Keith, who I was very happy with. But following that, I had a couple of other guys that I wasn't so happy with it. I didn't like the attitude of this one guy. But he did a fine job closing, so I had no real problem with his work. He came in late, he left, but he did the work. I also had somebody who did a terrible job, and the closing looked terrible. I had a lot of problems and then, Keith came out and did correct them. So I'm satisfied again.

Anthony & Sylvan always show up. My favorite thing is they send the technician that I've requested and that's very important. I scheduled the service for this year and the girl that I spoke with was wonderful. She scheduled it, and she knew that I like Keith to do the openings and closings. She made a note about it. She also gave me the time and date that I wanted. She was very pleasant, and she suggested a correct price for me. Anthony & Sylvan has opening and closing packages. In the past we always got the silver package, which included an open and close. This time, she suggested the gold package because it included the chemicals and it was cheaper to go with the gold package and have them bring the closing kit. So, she was great. I'm very happy with her. I've also talked to the manager and he has also been very accommodating.

The technician they've been sending out, Keith, is as nice as he can be. He's been doing it for a very long time, and he knows exactly what to do. If I had any questions on a part, he lets me know. If I need some parts, he goes and gets them. Before he leaves, he goes over the checklist with me and he lets me walk around with him to make sure that everything is put back where I requested that it be. And if it's not, he just moves it in the right place. So I'm very satisfied. Every time he opened or closed, the work has been done very well. Keith has another guy that comes with him and he is very good too.

Original Review: Oct. 10, 2019

We paid over $23K to have Anthony & Sylvan do the renovation on our pool. We selected Onyx finish for the plaster as we loved the color. On the demolition they missed a spot and a bubble appeared which meant the new plaster didn't adhere to the gunite. When attempting to fix it they created an indentation in the wall which we believe will compromise the plaster. Then for a reason they can't explain the crew added significant amount of acid which changed the color of the Onyx. We paid $4K for the upgraded plaster.

We had 3 different representatives from Anthony Sylvan inspect and agree the color was different due to the acid added to the pool. They also couldn't explain why the crew added it as that is not the normal procedure on new plaster jobs. In addition, they all saw the flaw in the wall which is now an indentation. Originally they said they would re-do the plaster and fix it. However, that changed and after months of a run around they said the color was correct and even though I had pictures of the pool before they added acid and after they added it, they denied there is an issue. I also provided pictures I was given of other pools with Onyx which clearly verified the color changed that didn't matter either. They also claim the indentation was deep enough to fix or compromise the plaster.

During this whole time the follow up was horrible as either they didn't respond to my communication or I had to make multiple attempts. I used Anthony & Sylvan because I felt they were a reputable company and would do quality work and stand behind their product. However, we had a terrible experience and found they don't stand behind their work. I would never recommend them and am completely dis-satisfied. The only representative that was good was the sales person who was very responsive and tried to help. However, they told him not to get involved as it was the renovation's responsibility. We spent a lot of money to be completely disappointed and left with the wrong color we paid for plus a wall with a flaw. I will seek legal action if possible. I would give them a zero if possible. F