Rising Sun Pools Review

Rising Sun Pools Review – August 8, 2010
I’m currently in the process of installing my in ground pool & I selected Rising Sun Pools in Raleigh, NC to do the install. I’m not paid by this business and I was not asked to write this review…….. I’m simply documenting the entire process to help other families in Raleigh and the Triangle who are thinking of installing a new pool. I’ll take you through the entire process and tell you everything I experienced with the company and their workers. So take some time and start reading and enjoy the images and information.

Please keep in mind that I always contact 6 – 12 companies before I do any type of work. I get estimates, read online reviews, check the BBB for complaints and then compare all the information before I sign anything. I hope my months of research will do you some good.

Now let’s get started with my Rising Sun Pools Review.  =)

Rising Sun Pools Review – Tree Removal

My Rising Sun Pools Review starts off with me removing trees from my yard. I had about 8 different estimates for this project and Leaf & Limb Tree Service had the best estimate and customer reviews. It took them a day to remove the trees and they mulched them back on the yard instead of hauling anything off. I hired a few guys off CraigsList to rake up the ground cover and move it deep into the woods the following week. Click Here for my full Rising Sun Pools Review.

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Rising Sun Pools – Electricity Installation

Rising Sun Pools Review
Now that your pool has to sit for 3 or 4 weeks you can get the electricity installed. I highly suggest you use the recommended contractor Rising Sun suggest – Harte Electric -Click Here.

Rising Suns installer will give you a general estimate for this at around $1500 – $1800 I believe. Remember, that this is an EXTRA cost outside your pool installation cost. Also because your acting as your own contractor you can hire any electrician you want, but they need to know what they are doing as this has to be inspected by the city.

Mr Harte came out and talked to me about my pool install. I let him know of my future plans for a pool house, slide & waterfall. I also told him about some issues I had with my home electricity so he could fix those as well. I’m a nut during Christmas and my power always goes out due to my Christmas decorations so I had him install some new circuits and plugs in the front of our home. I also had him change the location of a reset switch from under the home to the outside wall. We also spoke about doing patio lights, tree lights, landscape lights and more. They can do it all and their workers are VERY polite and do a great job.

Once your happy with the price and what you need done the electricians will come out to your home. They start by digging a huge trench from your current electrical box on the side of your home to your pool. They then run the electrical wiring and pipes in the ground. Then they run a copper ground wire around the pool and attach it to the pool in 4 places. They also ground your diving board stand and pool rails, this keeps you from getting shocked.  =) Once that’s complete they leave everything as is and leave for the day because the city inspector has to come out and pass the install.

If the install passes (mine did) they will come back out a few days later and back fill the holes. They also connect your pool command model (the brain), your pumps, filter, plugs, etc. After that is complete you get to sit and wait again for the patio deck guys.

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Rising Sun Pools Review – Storm!

Last night around 3am a huge thunderstorm rolled through and dumped about 4 inches of water on us. You can see from the pictures the dirt sure did settle more or maybe wash away, lol. The actual pipes that come up out of the ground to my pumps are twisted a bit, they don’t line up anymore. The inside of the pool floor also looks a little rough. I also have a good 4 feet of water in the deep end. I’m going to Email Jon from Rising Sun Pools right now and see what he says about what needs to be fixed, etc.

So the bottom of the pool being a little messed up from the rain and the other issues I had are no problem from what they tell me. Here is the response I got back from Rising Sun Pools.

“The bottom is formed out of vermiculite. It is a pliable material that hardens over time and is very easily re-troweled and smoothed out before the liner goes in. The day of the liner install they will complete any bottom repairs that are needed. No worries we deal with it all the time.”  They also told me all the other issues are normal and will be fixed by final installation.

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Should Rising Sun Pools Build Your Swimming Pool?

My final opinion on Rising Sun Pools and my review update. Today is June 11, 2014 and our pool, yard, landscaping, fence, etc is 100% finished! We actually have a huge group coming over this afternoon to swim and cook out. This blog is still in the works, if you notice at the very bottom I quit updating it a few months ago. I plan to finish putting up all my pictures and information ASAP for all of you wanting a pool in your backyard. I’ve spent over two years researching pool builders in Raleigh, I’ve interviewed 10 or more pool builders, called their office with annoying questions to see how they react, etc. I even called up every swimming pool builder in Raleigh acting like I had no idea about swimming pools to see if they would try and take advantage of me. Rising Sun Pools did a great job on my pool, worked with me on payments, fixed problems I had and helped me out with every aspect of my pool build. I did use all the contractors on their hand out sheet and I only ran into some problems I wanted to mention. If your really interested in a quality swimming pool I would suggest you contact Backyard Oasis Pools Raleigh and talk to them first.

Say Something Bad and Your on the Naughty List

I usually only have good things to say about Rising Sun Pools, but it seems to me when you say something negative or give your opinion your placed on the Naughty list. What does that mean? Well, after my wife and I both waited over an hour and 30 minutes total just to get some salt I wrote about it and the problem at the Garner location. 5 minutes after my review went up I was contacted to say my business was no longer welcomed at Rising Sun. Is that the type of people you want to work with when you build a pool or do anything else?

Watch Your Money & Total Cost
– Always make sure your aware of the EXACT cost of the swimming pool install at all times. I went way over budget and most of the final bill comes AFTER the pool is complete. Get a fully itemized copy of everything before you even start work. Remember that your patio, electric work and everything else is an EXTRA cost when installing the pool so make sure to price all that out before the work begins.

Warning: Problems with Contractors Recommended by Rising Sun Pools
– Capital City Curb and Gutter do good work and have a great staff, but I do have a list of serious problems with them and I wanted to let everyone know below. As I said I want to be as fair and honest as I can so everyone can decide who to use when building their pool. Rising Sun will hand you a list of contractors they suggest you use when they build your pool. One of the highest costs outside of the pool itself will be your concrete patio. Be prepared to spend $4.00+ per square foot of concrete. Rising Sun suggested we use Capital City Curb & Gutter for our concrete patio and we did after speaking with them and a number of other contractors. I have some serious complaints I wanted to address here that you should really think about when using this company.

Complaint #1: Communication (well the lack of) – Capital City Curb and Gutter has missed over 20 (yes 20) appointments with me. They will call or Email, tell me they are coming and then simply don’t show up, never call to let me know and leave me hanging. When your as busy as I am and your waiting for your appointment it’s really upsetting to have this issue, but 20 missed appointments is just ridiculous.

Complaint #2: Won’t fix problems – Capital City was informed of problems with my pool and it was never fixed. Even tho it’s been almost 3 years and I have told them again and again of various issues they simply don’t get taken care of and I have to keep hunting them down and calling. Check out the images below to see exactly what I’m talking about.

WALL PROBLEM: As you can see from the image below the concrete top caps all match except for one. I told them about the problem and they even brought out the new top cap, but it’s sat in the same exact place now for over 2 years. Even when the guys were out here and I told them about it again and again it was never fixed and as of today 6/28/13 it still is not fixed.

CONCRETE ISSUE: If you look at the images below you’ll notice a white type of look to our concrete, like the sun changed the color or it got bleached out. This is actually a sealer they put down to make it where it wouldn’t be slippery. The problem is their workers put on to much and the build up gave it this look. They were coming to fix it 3 weeks ago and they worked for about 30 minutes and said they would come back later that day or tomorrow. Well guess what? They never came back and they never fixed it, no calls, no emails.

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You can also see from the images below that we have several areas that need to be fixed but they haven’t been taken care of either. These are various cracks in the concrete that shouldn’t be in these locations.

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So now you have to decide who to use for your concrete patio. I really hope my comments and suggestions help you decide what to do. Keep in mind I gave this company 3 years and over 20 missed appointments to try and get my concrete patio fixed. Now I’m so upset I’ll actually call another company and get someone else to come fix the work I already paid for as I simply don’t want to deal with Capital City Curb and Gutter any longer. I would suggest you look at Angie’s List for your pool concrete installer as all the reviews on this site are monitored and not faked reviews.

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