MELBOURNE, Fla. – Swimming pool builders are seeing a huge demand for their services due to the pandemic, but supply chain issues and labor shortages continue to cause major delays.
Between Eva Adcock with Best Pools of Brevard, Wendy Hale with Intercoastal Pools, and Lori Levy with Martin Pools, combined they have nearly six decades of experience building pools in Brevard County.
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“It is unbelievable,” said Adcock on how busy her business has been.
Hale said she’s experiencing similar demand.
“It’s a pool pandemic. It really is,” Hale said.
The pool builders said it all started two years ago with the COVID-19 pandemic. Families stayed at home and canceled vacations, so they were looking for ways to stay entertained.
“They’re not going anywhere. They got all of this money. What do we do? We stay home. Let’s build a pool,” Levy said.
As more people moved to Florida, especially the Space Coast with high-paying jobs, Adcock said this created a wave of demand they haven’t seen before.
“People are surprised every day when they call and I can’t see them that day,” Adcock said.
Prepandemic the pool builders said it would only take a few months to go from signing a contract to swimming. But now it could take up to six months just to get a consultation and then another year before work even begins.
“We’re building pools right now that we sold a year ago,” Levy said.
Dallas Thiesen is with the Florida Swimming Pool Association, which represents more than 700 pool and spa industry companies across the state.
“At the beginning that was pure demand,” Thiesen said. “It’s been a wild boom for the pool industry.”
FSPA officials said they’re seeing huge numbers of pool permits being pulled over the last couple of years. From 2019 to 2020, FSPA reported a 26% increase, a 27% increase last year, and so far data shows similar trends for this year.
“Right now, year to date we’re up 3% over the year, so there’s still growth there,” Thiesen said.
Elizabeth McMurray, executive director of FSPA, said it’s not just the demand slowing the industry down.
“I think that demand combined with just a shortage of labor and supply on the materials side of things has kinda created a perfect storm of really kind of pushing out those timelines, especially on residential pool builds,” McMurray said.
Levy said it’s forcing pool builders to navigate through deep waters.
“You want to be able to communicate correctly. You want to be able to supply these homeowners with information as to why things are taking so long,” Levy said.
The pool builders adding there aren’t any signs of the demand slowing down anytime soon.
FSPA provides a free pool builders guide for consumers. You can find contractors online using their website, www.floridapoolpro.com.
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