BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — With the hot temperatures we’re seeing here in the Brazos Valley, a dip in the pool sounds refreshing, but pool maintenance comes first.
It’s more than just your pool’s appearance, it’s all about water chemistry.
Alex Munse is the owner of element pool repair and said he’s seen an increase in business since COVID.
“Since COVID, the busy season started a little bit early. It starts now usually around spring break and goes for months until the end of summer,” said Munse. “That’s when the peak time is, but it used to just be those couple of weeks, now it’s a couple of months.”
With his peak time lasting throughout the summer, Munse said he’s booked until a year out and encourages pool owners not to wait until a small problem grows into a larger one.
“Any problem at all, even if it seems like it’s something minor, can turn into something major really quick,” said Munse.
“If the equipment is not working right, then your pool turns into a pond fairly quickly. You have maybe a week of no circulation and then algae starts growing and nobody wants to swim in that.”
With higher demand for the pool maintenance, Munse said finding supplies to operate his business has been a struggle.
“With the supply line issues, that’s definitely a hurdle to get over,” said Munse. “Trying to work with different suppliers and find as much stuff as I can but honestly, my biggest help has been other pool companies.”
With some community pools limiting hours because of lifeguard shortages, building pools at home in the Brazos Valley is gaining popularity.
Paradise Oasis Pools in Bryan is seeing an increase in those wanting to build their own pool.
“The last two years have just been a significant increase in our usual pool sales,” said Brooke Carnes, Pool Designer, Paradise Oasis Pools.
Brooke Carnes is the pool designer at Paradise Oasis Pools, and says people are bringing the paradise to their backyard.
“The past two years have kind of been unprecedented times because the world shut down so people had to literally bring their paradise, where people would take vacations to, to their own backyard,” said Carnes.
Munse said with people being home during COVID, they realized the importance of pool maintenance was.
“Especially during the height of the pandemic, everybody was staying home and all the kids were home from school,” said Munse. “Everybody was using their pools, that’s when they realized, when people use it more, then that’s when they notice more problems.”
Having your own pool seems to be the desire of many in the Brazos Valley.
Carnes says each pool is designed through a virtual outline of the client’s backyard.
“We have a pool studio,” said Carnes. “It’s a program I use on my computer where I can put in a model of their house and I model the pool out so they can see exactly what it’s going to look like.”
How quickly it takes to build pools, Carnes says is dependent on weather. With the high demand, they are finishing pools in six to seven weeks.
“Lots of weather that imposes on the different scheduling,” said Carnes. “Everything is outside. The pool is outside so weather affects it dramatically.”
And with the extreme heat temperatures, Carnes says their crews are having to take more breaks.
Munse said with the supply chain shortage, it’s hard for him to find supplies.
“The supply line issues are definitely killing us,” said Munse. “I’ve got a couple parts that have been on the way for like six months. I don’t know when they’re going to get here. Some things the manufacturers are telling me they cannot get at all.”
If you do own a pool, Munse recommends you maintenance your pool every week, especially in the summer months.