Absolutely a horrible experience, was provided a quote and seemed professional up front and was told 3 months to complete there pool. Paid roughly 10% deposit to get on the schedule, work started a couple weeks later and seemed off to a productive start. After 2 weeks of excavating, and another 2 weeks of forms, rebar, and plumbing the shotcrete was done and this is where the problems started. Richard, or as I knew him Anthony (that way I couldn’t find info on his real past business dealings) showed up at the beginning of the day and left it for the concrete company to work with no oversight. Richard’s crew used the wrong boards to form with, mdf, and most all the forms bowed and not much was level causing future work to require more labor. The concrete contractor left a mound of left over concrete about 18” thick in the driveway that Richard claimed he would clean up but after not seeing him for another 2 weeks I had to remove it so my wife could get her car around the driveway. 2 weeks and he had not even checked on his sub contractors work, but as it went with what work Richard did do, as long as he got paid upfront, he was in no rush. The pool sat in this state for 2 more months (now at the 3 month completion mark) Richard had a tile sub come out and do about 90% of the tile but did not supply enough to complete and I was told he would finish the tile when he came back for the coping (even though Richard never got it to the point of coping but was paid in full for it in the shotcrete payment). After another 2 months Richards couple guys guys came out and installed the track system for the pool cover that he was paid half for 4 months prior, then wanted paid the remaining 50% of the cover plus an additional $3500, to order “pool equipment” I assumed this was for the pump equipment since he repeated often that the cover would be done last and after another 3-4 months of little to no work I questioned why couldn’t we get the pump and atleast get something completed and he requested another $10,000 of the remaining balance to do so and that the $10,000 I paid 4 months prior was for the cover. At this point I fired Richard and requested the amount for the cover and coping to be given back since none of it was ever ordered or installed, roughly $20,000, at this point he claimed to have put more into the pool dealing with an underground water issue that we found in excavation, his solution was to fill the area with gravel in a posed to installing a pressure relief valve the would have cost around $100. It ended up costing me $3500 to have a 2nd pool builder come in and jack hammer a section of the deep end and install the valve along with digging down beside the pool to develop a holding area to relieve water during consistent rainy weather. I had to purchase the coping again and more tile to finish, all of the correct pump equipment was considerably more than what Richard had quoted that wouldn’t be sufficient for our size pool, the pebble plaster was more, so not only was the completed pool nearly $50k more than budgeted based off of Richards quote, I basically burned $40k between what Richard took and didn’t finish or even start of what he was paid for and what I had to pay others to correct his mistakes. I gave him 10 months to finish his 3 month build, didn’t get half of what I paid for and he continued to tell me my cover would be coming any day now even though I have checked with his supplier multiple times and it has never been ordered. I am not the only one by far, 2 others here in Blairsville Ga with the same issues, another fired him right before me and I don’t if he ever finished the 3rd. Google Richard Anthony Tracey and look for the Channel 2 News story on him, 12 home owners he screwed over on that alone. It’s been a year and a half since you’ve been telling me my cover is on the way Richard…. Let me guess, any day now?

I'm an engineer with a PhD from Caltech, and I was a Civil Engineering professor, so I pay attention to construction details. Richard Tracy is an outstanding pool builder, and my backyard is very small. He helped me design the pool for my limited area, and the pool turned out beautiful with a pebble tec finish and lots of decorative porcelain tiles. He made the plumbing sub use all 45-degree angles which required more work, but makes the water flow better. He also used one of the oldest and most reputable gunite subs in Atlanta, which I didn't expect for such a small pool. He also did something else other pool builders do not do-- he buried the return pipes deep under the pool where they cannot freeze. Other pool builders I have used buried the return pipes next to the pool, less than 12" under the surface of the pool deck. It was also important to me that Richard's bottom-line price was the lowest bid I received. I was very happy with his work!