Hamptons Pool Pros Prepare for Peak Season

It is the season to reopen, repair and renovate pools, as covers are removed, pools are reopened and repaired, and workers detect and deal with leaks and other trouble that could sabotage the swim season. And even if you don’t think of New York as pool central, due to the weather, it is actually one of the top states in terms of the number of pools.

With 503,000 pools, New York State is third after Florida, California and Texas. There’s one for every 38 people in the state, according to poolsresearch.com. With tough weather, and long down periods for outdoor pools, that means a lot of repair and renovation on the East End. While the trade parade goes on much of, or all of, the year, pool maintenance and repair people are in full swing now, working their magic or at least doing what they can to help turn pools into patches of paradise.

John Votta, for instance, arrived at a house in Sound Beach to help, knowing he had a mystery on his hands. There was a leak in a pool, although the owner couldn’t identify where it was.

“All she knew was she put the hose in to fill up the pool every day,” Votta says.

He identified the problem by doing a pressure test on the PVC pipes. Part detective and part craftsman, Votto within an hour and a half figured out and fixed the leak.

“I listened to the sound. I put my ear to the PVC pipe and listened to that moan,” Votta, a Mastic resident, says. “If that moan stays at the same pitch, there’s no hole in the pipe. If that moan dissipates, there’s a crack in that line.”

He heard the sound dissipate, exposed the line, found and fixed the crack, returning this pool to the paradise it was meant to be.

“I cut the PVC pipe, put an extension on it, braced it,” he says. “I put two PVC pipes around each other just in case.”

While summer for many is the season (and the reason) to swim in pools, opening, maintaining and even repairing pools is not just a seasonal business, but an important part of the art and craft of keeping summer humming on the East End.

Saltwater pools, still not the norm, are catching on, rather than traditional chlorine pools. About 10% to 15% of U.S. pools are saltwater.

“This percentage is projected to increase,” according to poolresearch.com.

Fr Votta and DWB (Do Work Better), it’s the season to address a long list of possible problems that can sink the season, typically at traditional pools.

“I’m not trying to toot my horn, but I have seven days’ worth of customers,” he says of demand for people able to do work on pools. “I work six days.”

In addition to identifying and repairing problems, Votta often makes videos to show customers before, after and even the process itself. If they approve, he sometimes posts videos on social media.

“I send videos of myself fixing a return, opening a pool,” he says. “Whatever I have to do, I send videos.”

While pools often may be alike, each problem is a little different, turning pool repair people into pool doctors. Votta has a list of stories of how seasons, and swimming pools, were saved.

There was a pool installed with the wrong sand, leading to a hole in the liner.

“You have all kinds of sand, concrete sand, kids’ play sand, washed sand. Washed sand is OK, but it’s washed with rocks. So in every bag you get two, three, maybe four rocks,” he says. “There aren’t supposed to be rocks.”

Another customer had a crack in their skimmer, the area where water flows into a basket to catch leaves and other debris, before proceeding to the pump and filter. He removed bricks and did the repair.

“It’s easier to show than explain,” he says. “I dug it out, ordered the same part, installed the part and tightened it.”

Votta says he double checked his work, ran water into the skimmer to make sure there were no leaks and filled the pool.

“It was working perfectly fine,” he says.

Votta has repaired pumps, taking them apart and re-assembling them, although detecting and repairing leaks remains a standard part of the trade. And he talked about techniques for catching the culprit.

“I said, ‘Let the water drain, and put a piece of painter’s tape at the water line. If the water goes down, it’s beneath the water line,” he says of advice he sometimes gives. “If the water doesn’t move, the hole is above the line or one of the lines.”

He found a main drain in one pool, even though it had been closed, because it hadn’t been capped.

“I had to drain the pool. I picked up the liner, cut it open to expose the main drain,” he says of a job for which he charged only $150. “I took the main drain out of there, put Epoxy and seal.”

A kind of Sherlock Holmes of the swim scene, Votta talks of other ways to detect leaks in liners.

“I check the walls from top to bottom. If I don’t find any holes, I bring in leak detection liquid,” he says of a purple fluid he puts in a syringe. ”I let the ink cascade. If the ink starts to disappear, I find where ink disappears to.”

He started working for other companies a decade ago and more than seven years ago went out on his own.

“Any questions you ask, I answer,” Votta says. “I like to walk you through everything, so you know what’s going on.”

He says ducks sometimes appear in pools, but special pool alarms can produce sounds that send the ducks scurrying.

Companies should clean most filters (sand filters don’t need to be cleaned) when opening and closing pools, he says. Even though he says he charges good rates, he has done some complimentary work for people in need, including a single mother with three children.

“I did a good thing for the customer,” he says. “The customer’s kids are happy. It makes it a little easier for them.”

In addition to pool work, he does other projects, including building a 12- by 15-foot gazebo in Bay Shore. He makes videos to show his work, documenting rather than describe and, if approved, sometimes posting on social media.

“Not many people take the time to show the effort,” he says. “I know the customer gets to see what’s going on and they have the proof that you did the work.”