When I was 21 my parents decided it was time to close the doors on Oley heating and cooling. I started doing a little work for myself till I found a general labor job at Dostals construction where I'd spend the next 15 years of my life building parks and playgrounds.

Ok folk let me start off by saying if you can't afford to do it right the first time you best come up with the money to make it right before it's too late. I was asked to come out and give a bid on flattening an area I want to say needed to be about 20' across for a 16' pool and installation of the pool. I can't remember for sure if they had mentioned the fact that it was on the side of a hill or not but I'm assuming they did but threw in that there was a pool there before to downplay it just a bit. Either way really not a big deal if things are done right. So this first picture is what I see when I arrive. The pictures don't even do it justice. I'm going to say it was pretty close to a 1:1 ratio on the slope from their back patio to where this pool's going to be sitting. For those who don't know that's one foot out and one foot down and my hole is around eight foot out so that eight foot down. So keep that in mind and once again doable with the proper steps taken. They want the pool up by the following weekend for their kid's birthday. They were having a pool party. Still no problem might be cutting it a little close but if we get started right away we'll be good. Bid #1 remove the sod, cut to fill tell we have a large enough area then ease the edges as best I can. Just want to say they wanted a bid to have it done right which included what I just mentioned then retaining wall on the hillside to hold the bank. Wall on the bottom side to hold the pool. Drain tile behind the wall and between the wall and pool going all the way around linking in with the bottom wall drain and exiting downhill. A two foot walking space around the perimeter with 2" river rock with a level sanded area in the center for the pool. Then a small paver pad where the pump and access ladder would be. And finally reseed any of the disturbed area fertilize and lay erosion matting to help hold the hill in place. Tell me if I'm wrong but that is how it should be done. Over the next couple days I was asked to pretty much rearrange the bid multiple different ways mostly removing the key things for success then putting back pieces of it while I voice my concerns as to why that probably is not going to be a good idea. Eventually after days wasted and hours at my computer attempting to find the finish line we must have reached a number that they could afford and an acceptable amount of risk they could live with. I will say this loud and clear so it's understood if I am asked to bid something that has a risk of failure and you're being explained to multiple times why it needs to have what it needs to have or else XYZ will happen at some point then you choose to do it anyway I will not warranty the work and you will sign a liability waiver plain and simple. OK back to my story. Final bid is dig it out flatten it no walls no drains still a 2' rock ring around it still a pad for pump and ladder and what's supposed to hold all of this in place are some decent size boulders that he already has in the yard oh and pavers he already has. I love a boulder wall all day prefer it. First off if I can move the rock on my own then there better be a lot of them there was not. I stuck a drain pipe in anyway just to give myself a small bit of peace of mind. So I get the pool up and filled in time for it to still be freezing for the party luckily it was July. I finish they love it we're talking and for probable the tenth time I say again you better do something about holding that all back and getting the water out before it ends up in the neighbor's yard and again brushed off. Needless to say about a month down the road had some crazy downpours for a couple days straight and sure enough that pool ended up at the neighbors. The End moral of the story folks is that it doesn't pay off to cut corners to get something close to what you want now that might not be there tomorrow.

This is a good customer of mine that after having me build some flower beds in his front yard decided to put a pool in back and so that's what we did. double walls full drainage and restoration. Above is his front project to the left his back project. I'm going to show both at once