Water Rock Custom Pools & Outdoor Living

PSA: Do NOT hire Water Rock Custom Pools. I could spend an hour typing out all the reasons we had with this company, but at this point my goal is to spare anyone who comes across this builder from the nightmare that we, and many other people, have dealt with. Broke ground in January 2019. The majority of it was done 18 months later. There were spans of 4-5 months where we didn't see a soul on our property to work, nor heard from the owner. They contract out to whomever will take the lowest bids, and they all do sloppy work and many have criminal histories, which I was told BY THE OWNER as an excuse for why guys would just stop coming. "Oh yeah, so and so got busted again for ... so he's going to be in jail for a few months." Fast forward to today - nearly 3 years after breaking ground - and there are multiple, extremely expensive things which were done so poorly they need to be repaired, replaced, completely redone. My husband has been patient with the owner, and was promised all the things which were done incorrectly and poorly were to be resolved. He hasn't returned texts, calls, etc. We are done trying. Below is a list of just the major issues which we were trying to have done correctly: - Pool coating is already terribly faded and full of large cracks. It's literally flaking off in the spa. - Lights (which cost upwards of $1k each, we have four) are not working properly or at all. - Cracks in foundation poured throughout entire project. - Cement stain has flaked off and continues to peel. - Roof over outdoor living space leaks. - Rocks on grotto and waterfall have broken off and fallen into the pool. I wish our experience was isolated. If you Google the business there are a lot of five star reviews - many of which are fake - and one star reviews, which show the same experience we had. I myself have connected with a few people over the past couple of years who also shared our misery. Do yourself a favor and save your sanity. Don't be fooled by a great design and jovial personality like we were.

I hired Water Rock in March 2022 for a new pool build. The owner Jeff Herman came out to quote us and we were very impressed with his knowledge and demeanor. He was able to answer our questions and provided a wonderful mock up of our future pool. It is now Sep 2022 and our pool construction is unfortunately not near completion. Very quickly after we signed our contract, Jeff became very unresponsive. We would reach out via text, email, or phone to try to determine expected timelines and would not receive direct answers. In addition, there have been multiple times over the past few months that Jeff has ghosted us, not responding to our outreach for days or weeks at a time. When Jeff does contact us, he is polite, however, he still fails to answer direct questions or give any timeline whatsoever. This is an ongoing review, that I hope will end on a better note, when we hopefully have a completed pool, but in the meantime, I would caution others to utilize Water Rock for their new pool build.

Jeff located equipment at low cost in a super timely responsive and professional manner. No other pool supply dealer could locate this pump to replace our failing equipment this fast and at cost.

Jeff was (and continues to be) amazing. He and his crew built the most beautiful custom pool for me that transformed my backyard. I interviewed all the big companies in town and choosing Jeff was the best decision I ever made. Jeff sent me designs and accomplished everything I asked for. He designed a waterfall with beautiful steps up on either side that was also a shelf of sorts for my kids to safely jump off of, it's gorgeous and functional. He listened to my ideas and made it a reality! He poured a huge, beautiful concrete deck which he stained and stamped, and had his people install new sprinklers systems and landscaping so I wasn't left with a dirty mud filled yard. He installed step lights around the pool in the concrete and put accent lights in my trees. Jeff was there every step of the way, personally overseeing each phase of the process. Was the process completely free of frustrations... no. It took time, and there were some snags, but Jeff always did his very best to make it right. I am writing this review today because even now that my pool is done and I get to enjoy it every day, looking back on the experience I would not hesitate to hire Jeff again. He is passionate about what he does and it shows in his work.

Amazing. Responsive. Polite. Fast. Prices fairly and extremely knowledgeable and friendly. What else could you ask for?

Excellent work

The work performed today was prompt, honest. and very well done. I will definitely be hiring Jeff and his team anytime i need service.

Service was great, knowledgeable and efficient. Pool is running great now.

Very excellent ñ

They came out the next day, replaced the pump and even cleaned up the wiring connections for the other equipment. Looking at them to update the decking around the pool now. Very impressed with the company's quality of work,

When the idea of an outdoor living space came to my head I wanted a place to entertain. I wanted a place to enjoy with family and friends. Water Rock Custom Pools & Outdoor Living just felt right from the get-go. After talking with a few others I knew they were the right fit for me and my dream patio. They took my dream and built it better than I ever imagine. Every day they showed up they were ready to work and kept me informed on the whole process. Outstanding job and crew looking forward to another project with them.

Best decision we’ve made for the family . Design was great. Water Rock exceeded our expectations. Very pleased

Unbelievable what Water Rock did for us. We fell in love with them throughout the process. Great company

Exceptionàlly well. The pricing was fair, appointments were kept and it was obvious to me that ,Jeff, the owner was truly interested in a job well done. He went above and beyond what I expected. Hope to have them resurface our pool next.

We were very impressed with the pool design, patio, decking and finished product overall. Also the pool equipment installed was top of the line. I would have given an “A” but project completion was too long. I belief Jeff truly cares about his clients and makes every effort to make his clients happy. Price and value were a plus too. Thanks Jeff!

Our pool is AMAZING!!!! The Company itself was outstanding and did a fabulous job designing and constructing the pool. During the build we had some issues with LOTS of rain but Jeff the owner of the company I believe stayed in good communication and let us know what was going on at all times. We did not get the pool done in the time frame that we liked and we were probably difficult to work for because we wanted our pool done in like 2 days! Lol... I am sure everyone is like that! But all in all We would highly recommend this company to anyone who wants an unbelievable pool without Paying through the nose like the other companies were trying to charge us! Cheers!!

This turned out to be a fiasco for us. During the course of our involvement with Jeff Herman, we came to understand that Herman does not have sufficient resources, credit, or clout to consistently get crews and materials to the site, and he used our drawdown payments to finance projects for other customers rather than completing our project. Also, we learned that Herman provided a false business address and did not provide licensed/certified installers for the Pentair equipment and control panel. Because of Herman’s lack of responsiveness, the considerable expense we will have in remedying these defects, completing the remainder of the work left undone, and his failure to provide the landscaping services, we are forced to pursue this through legal counsel. Details follow. We contracted with Jeff Herman who represents himself as Water Rock Custom Pools in early July 2019 (drawdown checks are made directly to Herman). He represented himself as an award-winning pool builder and that his workman met all standards for pool building. He also represented that he was a licensed landscaper. The cost of the project was approximately $100k for a small pool, water feature, decking, firepit, filtration equipment, pool vac, heater, propane tank, restore and enhance landscaping, and repair sprinkler system with a target completion date of September 2019. At this time the pool is incomplete and inoperative. Herman was attentive to our project until after we made our largest drawdown payment following the gunite pour. After that Herman became difficult to contact. He was unresponsive to phone calls and texts. Upon the rare occasions that he would reply to a text or answer his phone, he moved the goal post on the completion date to October. In the meantime, the job site was idle for long periods and was littered with the debris of crews that showed up erratically, if at all. Work was done piecemeal and on more than one occasion there was insufficient materials to complete the job. On the rare occasions when we could make contact with Herman, we could not get a reliable answer on when the rest of the work would be completed. Instead, he made promises that he did not fulfill, made illogical excuses for the delays and turned the table to blame us for the delays, all of this despite our timely drawdown payments. Yet, Herman persuaded us to make the last drawdown payment in October, telling us we’d be swimming in our new pool in 2-3 weeks. He asked me to meet him at the nursery with the drawdown check and took me on an elaborate charade in which he asked which plants I wanted, promising they would be delivered the following week, and took my check. The plants were never delivered. We are still lacking set up of the pool equipment, landscaping restoration and enhancement, and the pool is otherwise unusable. Aesthetically, the water feature is mediocre, slapped together only after pleading with Herman to proceed with the work. Likewise, a firepit built on the fly with cast off materials is an odd and ugly feature. Additionally, we have not been provided manuals or warranty information on the equipment. Finally, we were forced to contact Pentair Customer Service which indicated that our problems with the pool are not a warranty issue, but an installation issue attributable to the builder. We were hampered by the lack of warranty information (which Herman failed to provide), but the Pentair Customer Service Rep referred us to one of their certified warranty pool techs in New Braunfels to inspect the installation and assist with activating the warranty. The service techs inspected the equipment installation and plumbing. They found multiple issues with the pool plumbing and equipment installation, including the following: • Pool pump is not properly programmed into the control panel • Water feature pump is not interfaced with the control panel at all • Control panel was not programmed to operate lights or other features • Only a portion of the equipment was installed • The concrete pad was too small for the equipment • A piece of critical equipment was not installed but was found sitting loose on top of heater. • Heater is installed backward and panel cannot be reached for service • Sand filter is only partially sitting on concrete pad, extending off the side toward the HVAC. It is 1000 lbs when filled with water and in danger of falling and damaging the HVAC unit • Plumbing is exposed on back of water feature and in case of freeze will be disastrous • Plumbing trench between equipment is too shallow and will be damaged in the event of minor work in the yard and potentially vulnerable to freezing temperatures • No warranty information or operation manuals provided by builder It is now almost Christmas and the project is not only incomplete under the contract, but the plumbing and equipment installation are faulty. The cost to remedy this situation will be an additional $8,000 plus dollars. In addition to these construction defects, a considerable punch list remains on the general pool construction as well as the landscaping and enhancement services which were never performed as Herman promised under the contract for which we already paid Herman as well. This has been a costly and stressful mistake for us.

We hired water rock to redesign and remodel our home which had been turned down by the first 3 builders who looked at it. We felt like it wasn’t going to be possible because of the costs from the other builders until we met with Jeff. Jeff came out and walked us through our options. He then designed our home as a finished product which included all the changes we’d asked for. It was quite impressive. 6 weeks later we were done and couldn’t be happier. Water Rock under promised and over delivered. I’d hire them again in a heartbeat. Thank you Water Rock and crew.

I contracted with Jeff Herman of Water Rock Custom Pools in October 2019. HUGE MISTAKE. Jeff Herman brands himself as an award winning (SA Pool Builder of 2018 - although I couldn’t find evidence of this), high-end, custom pool builder. He failed to deliver on his contractual commitments. My situation is not an isolated case. I’ve also spoken to several other highly dissatisfied customers who had very similar experiences. In addition, his address shown on-line and with the BBB of 2450 Babcock Rd #162, San Antonio, TX 78229 is not a legitimate business address. Jeff Herman is responsible for numerous construction defects, code violations, poor workmanship, improperly working equipment, safety issues, and ridiculous, unreasonable delays. He left our pool drained and empty for 8 months, posing a serious risk. He drained the pool in October 2018 and it was left empty until July 2019 until it was finally plastered. Much more work was yet to be completed, but Jeff Herman continued to SLOW WALK the project and when work was performed it was poor quality and unacceptable workmanship. You might get a few hours of work in a given week with Jeff always providing one excuse after another. In addition, one of the subs came to my door trying to collect $4,000 for the plaster work. The sub told me that Jeff Herman said that I did not pay him (UNTRUE) for the plaster job and they were trying to collect the money. This harassment added insult to injury. I can substantiate everything in this complaint with 100’s of pictures and other evidence. PROVIDED OPPORTUNITY TO RESOLVE I provided Jeff Herman written Notice of Construction Defects governed by the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act (RCLA) and requested a written response in 45 days and he failed to do so despite giving me verbal commitment of his intent to make me whole. He failed to follow through on his commitment he previously made by phone, email, and text. Partial List of Defects and Issues 1. Poor Workmanship, Numerous Construction Defects, non-working equipment (partial list) -Pool Plaster / Concrete – The demolition of the plaster and underlying ‘concrete’ lacked uniformity. Numerous Plaster Defects exist including white-spotting, streaking deterioration, and discolorations. -Deck and Flatwork - Improperly sloped flatwork. Water ponds on the flatwork and water flows into the pool. Steps/flatwork were of poor workmanship -Plumbing lines were positioned above ground (not buried) and in the walkway -Pool equipment, panel, water feature, and automation not working due to improper electrical installation -Improper Pad Set Up, Layout and Design with numerous defects 2. Violations (partial list) -Jeff Herman’s sub who performed electrical and plumbing work was not licensed and was in violation of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) agency requires pool service technicians to carry a Residential Appliance Installers License to perform any electrical work on swimming pool equipment. This includes any wiring for pumps, heaters, chemical feeders, etc. -Violation of Texas pool fence law – His workers repeatedly left the gate unlocked and open posing a serious safety issue and violation of law. As a homeowner, I could not accept the ongoing risk of the gate being left open with children in the neighborhood. 3. Failure to provide proper work direction, oversight of his workers -Subs were not provided proper direction when they showed up. For example, on the day of the concrete pour, Jeff had committed to being present but I had to call him multiple times to come to the job site and oversee the work. He finally showed up, but only after the work began. -Jeff Herman was not on site to oversee the work of the plaster subs as previously committed. Then the plaster subs worked into the evening while it was dark which was a factor to a poorly plastered pool. Also, his subs left the water hose running all day resulting in water overflowing from the pool. Jeff Herman failed to deliver on his contractual commitments.

Communication 5/5 Quality of work 5/5 Budget and pricing 5/5 Ease of project 6/5 On Schedule completion 5/5 TLDR: The most hassle free, prompt, ahead of schedule, high quality, price sensitive project I've ever dealt with. Would whole heatedly and HIGHLY recommend. The long winded: I've owned multiple homes over the years and have had 3 pools constructed on my properties. Whether pools or renovations I've had extensive experience with contractors sub contractors and the like. My latest project was the most ambitious yet. And having dealt with the myriad of pool companies in the past I wasn't too hopeful. Delays, shoddy work, bait n switch etc. I am used to it unfortunately. That is until I met Jeff from Water Rock. There's a distinct difference between a guy who does something for the love of money and someone who does something for the love of doing it. Jeff is definitely the later. I mean dudes an artist. My experience with Jeff n Water Rock has been of nothing but pure joy and pleasure. Being a doctor I don't have the time to deal with contractors or chase em down coz they're behind schedule etc. I was upfront with Jeff that my time is tight n I don't want hassle. He assured me, gave me his word and DELIVERED on his promise. First of all, he spend time listening and understanding what I wanted. Asked questions and made suggestions. He took my vision, and put it infront of my eyes on the computer. I had never seen anything like that. Then the quote was below I expected I mean thousands below. My neighbor paid almost twice as much as me for half the pool and none of the upgrades (don't tell him lol). Jeff scheduled Literally every step of the project to the day. I got constant updates and progress reports. Jeff made himself available anytime I had a question, concern or an idea. Something as simple as me talking to a worker about an idea, prompted Jeff to call and speak to me. AT LENGTH! The pool was finished under budget so I paid less than agreed upon price, and ahead of schedule. We got to play in the pool for a couple of days before the big reveal party. The finished product looked EXACTLY like I saw it in my head. The two changes made with prior approval actually made the pool experience better. We spend way more time at the pool as a family than I had anticipated. It's utterly gorgeous and might I say the best pool on the street. The attached outdoor kitchen gets more use than our regular kitchen and I've rediscovered the grillmaster in me. I absolutely love the stone floor and the waterfall is my wife's favorite. The view out the kitchen window and breakfast nook is nothing short of breathtaking. Most of all I truly appreciated the utterly hassle free experience. And I can't stress that enough. I had been so tired of dealing with people who promise and don't deliver but my time has hanged since Water Rock. I would highly recommend Water Rock for literally any of your pool needs. Up next, a kitchen remodel. :-)

We had Water Rock build our pool and outdoor living area several years ago that included a remodel to enlarge our home, which we get compliments on from everyone who sees it. We wanted to enlarge and add features to the pool/ patio area and had them back out. They were fantastic. They exceeded our expectations again and even covered our pool light upgrade as an in-house warranty. Can’t wait for them to build our cabana next year.

Water Rock Pools built our original pool and outdoor living area which turned out incredible. We recently had them come back out to enlarge our pool and entertaining area. Jeff is a fantastic designer and came up with ideas that transformed it from simple to top notch. Again, they exceeded our expectations and we will continue to use them.

Great!!! Very knowledgable but also do a great job of helping me understand what is happening in a way I can understand. The finished product is AMAZING!!!!

Great did what they said they would do for the right price.

The worst experience ever!! Unprofessional!! $48,000 of our money paid to him long long before June 21 when we ended our business with him!! ...and he has been here personally maybe 3 times since November and it’s June! A project that was promised a 6-8 week of time at most!! We all understand weather! However there were weeks of good weather, they did nothing! We have pictures and video time stamped. We documented everything after he stopped responding for a while and doing nothing. Blaming weather and then when no weather, just not responding. There was never any follow up from the owner and communication with his sub contractors was they had no idea what to do. No direction from him. The gas fire pit is still not complete, not sure it works?! It’s never been turned on! The sealing of the wood posts never happened, the design was not what we envisioned from the original videos. And definitely not like all his fancy computer videos he uses to sell people. NO Customer service all all!! Those videos are just soft ware that makes it look like he knows what he is doing. ! Definitely don’t believe anything he says because he is yet to follow thru on Anything! We hired a new electrician yesterday to put the right Hot tub electrical box in because the one he used would not work. The hot tub company is helping us today with it. We have had to delay our hot tub 4 times! I have had to move events planned in our home! Which cost me lots business!! All of our neighbors want to know who this contractor is so they don’t ever do business with him. Several are ready to do pools and backyard projects, but wouldn’t do business with him if he was the only one in the area!! The copper grounding wire is done completely unprofessional, the electrician we hired said normally you us more and run straight down and then bury in ground up to the stick. Just looks better safer, Jeff is nothing but short cuts!! I found crap buried where they dug gas out to run gas line. I watched his son out my window kick dirt over it. Jeff was there too. I work from home and I saw it all!! It was ...hurry up and finish so I can get money out of them....,He then called and asked us for more money with out even walking thru the finish with us!! He is not a business man! He’s a scam!!