Award-winning swimming pool builder Lew Akins said 2009 left him cold.

“It was clearly the worst I’ve experienced in 30 years in the business,” said Akins, owner of Ocean Quest Pools by Lew Akins.

Akins has offices in Waco, Killeen and Belton. He builds custom pools with price tags running into six figures.

Slade Hibler of Ocean Quest Pools shows off a pool under construction in the Hidden Valley subdivision off Highway 84. Owner Lew Akins said 2009 was his company’s worst year for building pools.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

The down economy hurt, along with the tightening of credit to finance pools — and almost anything else.

Local pool builders said they have turned to pool repair and maintenance this year to stay busy until demand for new pools returns.

At least one pool builder had to lay off employees. Another said he can’t afford to give raises.

During busier times, Akins was building 75 pools a year. That number plunged to 50 in 2009.

He wants to believe the economy is turning around and that pent-up demand will rescue the pool business.

“But I don’t think we’re at the bottom yet,” he said.

National statistics show Akins has plenty of misery to keep him company.

A total of 54,000 in-ground pools were installed nationwide in 2009, a 58 percent drop from 2008, according to figures from the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals.

Installations in 2008, meanwhile, were 11.8 percent below those of 2007.

The recession also has produced national declines in the sale and installation of above-ground pools and hot tubs, said Kirstin Pires, spokeswoman for the association.

“Certainly the market is down because it so closely follows housing,” she said.

Pires said pool builders nationwide, as with those locally, have turned to remodeling and repairing pools to stay afloat.

“We have had to diversify, to concentrate more on pool service,” said David Duron, who started Cen-Tex Custom Pool & Spa in 2008.

Duron went from building 25 pools a year to about 10.

Paul Kluge at LoneStar Pool Builders said he is doing a lot of pool remodeling.

“In this poor economy, people are not going out of town on vacations; they’re fixing up what they have. I’d say our repairs are up 25 percent from last year,” he said.

Tim McDow, owner of Pool & Spa Services, said the pool business has become unpredictable.

He does not build pools, but he replaces liners, performs weekly cleanings and even replasters or retiles pools.

“It has surprised me how much maintenance work I’ve gotten this year, but I’ve not gotten one replaster or remodel, haven’t even been asked to make an estimate. I had four or five major remodels last year,” McDow said.

In contrast, Steve Sorrells, with the team of Sorrells & Gunn that builds custom homes up to $2 million, said he has seen the “same steady level” of demand for pools during the past five years.

“We’re still in Central Texas and it’s still 100 degrees in the summer. People in Waco like a way to cool off,” Sorrells said. “The only change I’ve seen is maybe more efficient pools and sometimes less spectacular.”

Still, Sorrells said he plans to build a pool for a home in his Riverside subdivision that could only be described as spectacular.

It will have water slides, a grotto, a hot tub and a special diving area.

Sorrell did not want to quote an exact price for that pool, but said similar ones “would cost at or just under $100,000.”

Pool builders say customers can expect to pay $40,000-$45,000 for an in-ground pool in Waco.

The United States is home to 5.1 million in-ground pools, according to the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals.

Texas, with 470,000 in-ground pools and ranks third behind California and Florida.

When it comes to the number of in-ground pools per 100,000 people, Arizona is the leader with 4,860. Texas ranks seventh at 1,893, according to the association.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

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