Many custom-built concrete pools in the Austin area installed since 2017 are suffering from "Concrete Cancer"

[Your Mom 4956]

Why is it so expensive to check for this with core samples?
And at what point after a build would you consider yourself safe from it if no cracks have developed? Seems like most of the problems have been seen in the first few years.  

[AUS-97HORN 11990]

Gotta hand it to the Austin Board of Realtors, they are like Fuck It, this isnt something our members need to worry about or talk about.....

Kvue kept following up with them since the original April report.  asking have they presented guidance to their local Realtors about what to say, or handle or review with customers about the concrete cancer?

and after 5 months they replied with: "none of our realtors have brought up this concern" and that its not their job to "educate members"    SUUURE.... yeah, i mean its only been on TV for 5 months, and been talked about quietly amongst pool people for 3 ish years.   I am positive you fucks never had a Realtor mention whats the policy around this.

also, the guy in the story is a real shame, bought the house partially because of the pool, it was only 6 months old when they bought the house, and totally unusable about 6 months later.   and gotta love that Cody Pools is like "we dont allow a warranty transfer of ownership".  I mean I get it, thats in your contracts. But I have a serious problem with a pool company who says that even though they build the pool less than 2 years before the issue was brought to their attention, that their warranty is void because the home was sold.....   buyer beware and all... but telling someone the have an 'X" year warranty that is only good for as long as the buyer lives in the home is shady as fuck.

in short Fuck Cody Pools.

 

[Dbeasy 15526]

This entire issue is a massive tragedy and I’m sure people are getting the hell out of their houses and trying to dump the problem on the next guy. Buyer beware. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10761]

Wouldn't an inspector point that out?

[Bevo 13817]

43 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

This entire issue is a massive tragedy and I’m sure people are getting the hell out of their houses and trying to dump the problem on the next guy. Buyer beware. 

 

One thing to note is that a pool doesn't add value to a home. I probably have a $150K pool and my home will sell for the same as if no pool existed. So yeah buyer beware - and seller needs to disclose all or risk a lawsuit - but it is hard to have much sympathy for the buyer if the buyer really wanted a pool. They just have to pay for a pool like the original owner did.

[utee94 16064]

1 hour ago, Bevo said:

... They just have to pay for a pool like the original owner did.

Well, they might also have to pay for the demolition of the existing non-usable giant piece of shit that currently sits in their yard.

Luckily for my friend who has a giant piece of shit in his backyard that he signed the papers for during the 2020 pandemic, broke ground on in early 2021, and had never been able to use it because it started falling apart before final inspection-- the builder (who is Cody Pools) is finally though with all of their attempts at bullshit half-measure fixes, is through with their lawyers, is through with the insurance, and is finally going to start tearing it down to rebuild it from scratch, before the end of the year.  He's one of the lucky ones, tons of people are being turned away, given the runaround, or the smaller pool companies they used, have gone bankrupt and vanished into the winds.

 

 

[Dbeasy 15526]

1 hour ago, Bevo said:

 

One thing to note is that a pool doesn't add value to a home. 

Uh ya that’s not correct at all. A homeowner won’t get back all of what they spent on the pool, but yes without question the pool increases the value of a home. Just not to the full price paid. Some pools don’t add a lot of value. Some pools do. It’s a specific item on an appraiser’s list, for example. 

[Brisketexan 106607]

11 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Well, they might also have to pay for the demolition of the existing non-usable giant piece of shit that currently sits in their yard.

Luckily for my friend who has a giant piece of shit in his backyard that he signed the papers for during the 2020 pandemic, broke ground on in early 2021, and had never been able to use it because it started falling apart before final inspection-- the builder (who is Cody Pools) is finally though with all of their attempts at bullshit half-measure fixes, is through with their lawyers, is through with the insurance, and is finally going to start tearing it down to rebuild it from scratch, before the end of the year.  He's one of the lucky ones, tons of people are being turned away, given the runaround, or the smaller pool companies they used, have gone bankrupt and vanished into the winds.

Yep.  This scenario is just a nightmare scenario for all involved (interestingly, we were just talking about this down at the courthouse, where all of the lawsuits filed (90+ so far) are being consolidated into one "multi district litigation" case before one judge).

Can't get relief against the party that was the actual cause: a lack of fly ash in a key component.  The materials supplier (who supplied material to most pool companies) fucked up.  BUT...that supplier is relatively small-time, and has understandably declared bankruptcy.  So....no real relief there.

Can't get relief against many of the installers/manufacturers of pools: their insurance and warranty approach was built to handle a pool here and there that have problems, NOT "every pool I installed is fucked and has to be torn out and replaced."  They, understandably, didn't build a parachute to handle this level of total failure.  So....as to smaller and mid-sized installers...they have limited insurance/money, and/or they're declaring bankruptcy too.  So...no real relief there.

MAYBE relief against larger installer/manufacturers: a big enough outfit like Cody Pools MAY have enough insurance and resources to cover all of the claims against it (we'll see).  Even then, its insurance policies have policy limits.  

Bottom line, the value of what is available to provide relief to people who got bad pools is likely much lower than the cost/value of the damages they incurred.  Even a well-insured and well-backed industry isn't going to be set up to handle a complete failure of all of its products.  Just like State Farm or any other insurer simply couldn't pay all the claims if every house it insures burned down on the same day.  It's just not a statistical event that they're designed for.

For people on the short end of this, it has to suck.

 

[Bevo 13817]

13 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Uh ya that’s not correct at all. A homeowner won’t get back all of what they spent on the pool, but yes without question the pool increases the value of a home. Just not to the full price paid. Some pools don’t add a lot of value. Some pools do. It’s a specific item on an appraiser’s list, for example. 

 

That's good to know. I'm not sure I believe it but it would definitely help me when it is time to sell.

[4th and 5 4995]

you could have Carl Sagan (RIP) explain all this shit to my wife (a realtor) and then point her to the crystal clear river a half mile away, and she'd just want a pool even more

[Brisketexan 106607]

2 minutes ago, 4th and 5 said:

you could have Carl Sagan (RIP) explain all this shit to my wife (a realtor) and then point her to the crystal clear river a half mile away, and she'd just want a pool even more

If you're gonna do it....this is all you need:

[Dbeasy 15526]

9 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

That's good to know. I'm not sure I believe it but it would definitely help me when it is time to sell.

I run comps all the time as part of my realtor work. The trick is figuring out how much value it adds, and bad agents will undervalue or overvalue it all the time. It requires a lot more work to do good comps than 90% of realtors spend on them. 

[Your Mom 4956]

They were pointing fingers at the home inspector in that article several times. The home inspectors I have used were both very clear that they don’t inspect pools. You need a pool company to come do that. The inspection they gave to the house did not include anything about the pool. It’s simply not their area of expertise.  
I’d be surprised if those buyers in the article weren’t told the same thing. 

[Brisketexan 106607]

1 minute ago, Your Mom said:

They were pointing fingers at the home inspector in that article several times. The home inspectors I have used were both very clear that they don’t inspect pools. You need a pool company to come do that. The inspection they gave to the house did not include anything about the pool. It’s simply not their area of expertise.  
I’d be surprised if those buyers in the article weren’t told the same thing. 

They were.  They just blew right past it.

Just like people who live in areas that have some risk say "I was told I didn't need flood insurance!" after their house floods and they're on the hook for it.  No, that's NOT what you were told.  You were told that because you are outside the 100 yr floodplain, you don't need flood insurance . . . as a condition of your mortgage.  However, you can buy it yourself, for a cost of a few hundred dollars a year."  They just don't hear any of the bolded part.  Which I actually kind of understand -- you are triaging choices quickly, based on limited info and experience.  It would be better if it was made plain (like the bold text) to all home buyers that there IS a risk of going bare on flood insurance.

Same thing on pools -- would be good if their realtor reminded them that there's nothing about the pool on the home inspection.  But I doubt many realtors do that.

[Bevo 13817]

2 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I run comps all the time as part of my realtor work. The trick is figuring out how much value it adds, and bad agents will undervalue or overvalue it all the time. It requires a lot more work to do good comps than 90% of realtors spend on them. 

We went from a hill to 4 limestone block terraces with a length of the house pool at house level with hot tub, grotto, and waterfall, a narrow bougainvillea filled terrace, a large level yard with yard robot, and then an upper 2 terraces with fruit trees. I had fun designing and building it but if Cody would have done it, I guarantee the cost would have been substantial. So, if you are correct - sweet.

 

[utee94 16064]

We went with an inspector who had an added specialty in pools when we bought our current house 12 years ago.  Luckily the pool was built well before all of this crap began.  But right now, I wouldn't be surprised if even the inspectors that previously held a specific specialty in pool inspections, are refusing to do so, for fear of being held liable in situations like this.

 

18 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

If you're gonna do it....this is all you need:

That's one way to go, or then there's these shipping container pools that are gaining in popularity right now:

 

 

Edited September 17 by utee94

[Deej 77661]

People should have gone with the pond. 

 

[Evil Bill Obrien 3493]

18 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

If you're gonna do it....this is all you need:

Do they come with the cowboy pool or does that cost extra?

Regardless, think I’d rather have one of those than take the chance that my pool catches the cancer.

[landman 564]

On 9/17/2024 at 1:14 PM, Bevo said:

 

One thing to note is that a pool doesn't add value to a home. I probably have a $150K pool and my home will sell for the same as if no pool existed. So yeah buyer beware - and seller needs to disclose all or risk a lawsuit - but it is hard to have much sympathy for the buyer if the buyer really wanted a pool. They just have to pay for a pool like the original owner did.

This is not in any way accurate.  

[Deej 77661]

Much smarter to buy land in the Hill Country and dam up the Llano River to create a pool.

Edited September 18 by Deej

[Bevo 13817]

1 hour ago, landman said:

This is not in any way accurate.  

Google says 5-7% or $45K on a $750,000 home and $24K on a $400,000 home. So, considering the cost to install a pool and deck and patio, you are getting about 20% of the cost of the pool back at the time of sale.

[Dbeasy 15526]

24 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Google says 5-7% or $45K on a $750,000 home and $24K on a $400,000 home. So, considering the cost to install a pool and deck and patio, you are getting about 20% of the cost of the pool back at the time of sale.

Maybe a little better than that in many cases. 

[Wiler77 1619]

Can't you also add the construction cost of the pool to your cost basis when you sell? So if you're on the hook for capital gains, the cost of the pool helps offset that. Obviously YMMV depending on what sort of gains you have, but anyone in the austin area in the same house for 5-6 years likely stands to make a tidy profit when they sell

[Updawg 2378]

One big issue is you are immediately losing the customers who refuse to have a pool. But at the same time you are gaining the ones who really want one