2025 — 2026, before & after
Drained in one decade, refilled in the next
Six remodels from last season, each photographed from the corner the "before" picture was taken from — same coping line, same window, new pool. The captions say what each shell was wearing and what it wears now; the addresses are yours to ask for, and most owners like telling the story themselves.
Services
The remodel, in order
01
Refinish: pebble, quartz or plaster
The interior is the remodel. Pebble buys twenty years and shrugs at chemistry that stains plaster; quartz carries most of that durability for two-thirds the price; plaster stays the brightest and the cheapest, and we still place it — with its mottling chapter handed over first. Every option is chosen with samples under a bare foot and named in the contract with its expected life.
02
Re-plumb the hydraulics
Most tired pools are tired plumbing: returns that never swept the floor, a pump sized by catalogue, six-hour turnovers the sanitizer pays for twice over. We re-aim returns by degree, right-size the pump on its curve and print the turnover math before and after — the water clears and the bill drops, often dramatically.
03
Salt & automation, added properly
A generator cell sized to your gallons with unions and a flow switch, and a controller that runs pumps, heat, light and chemistry from an app. Converted during the remodel, while the water is down and the walls are open — half the cost of retrofitting later, and none of the compromise.
04
Coping, waterline & the deck
The remodel is the moment to reset what everyone actually looks at: stone coping re-set level, a glass waterline course set dead true, deck drainage corrected so the fill stops flooding its own channel. Cosmetic after hydraulics, always — but the cosmetics are what the neighbours will notice.
The 1991 pool was chalky, grey around the steps, and costing us eighty a month in chemicals to stay vaguely blue. Second Swim drained it, told us the shell had twenty years left in it, re-plumbed the returns and finished it in french-grey pebble — seventeen days start to finish, and the water has been the colour of a postcard since. Two houses on this street hired them off our before-and-after alone.
Before anyone quotes
The autopsy decides, not the catalogue
A remodel starts with the pool empty and the facts on the table: shell thickness, rebar cover, the plumbing as-built versus as-drawn. Thirty-nine pools in fifteen years got an honest condemnation instead of a quote — a shell past refinishing is a money pit wearing paint — and every one of those autopsies was free, on purpose. The pools that pass get numbers, and the numbers hold.
No paint-over promises
If the shell will not honestly take a refinish, we say so at the autopsy and quote the rebuild instead — and the autopsy costs nothing either way. A finish we would not stand behind is not sold here, whatever the season is doing to the schedule.
Services & rates
Remodel rates, from
Cash prices from last season’s Caldera lakes remodels; the fixed number comes out of the free autopsy, because a shell we have not met cannot be priced honestly. Every refinish carries its expected life in writing, and every re-plumb prints its turnover math before and after — the same sheets the county inspector reads.
Pebble refinishfrom $8,900
Exposed aggregate, twenty-year expectation, acid start-up included
Quartz refinishfrom $6,700
The quiet majority — tougher than plaster, smoother than pebble
Plaster refinishfrom $4,800
Brightest and least expensive; the mottling chapter handed over first
Hydraulic re-plumbfrom $5,200
Returns re-aimed, pump right-sized, before-and-after turnover sheet
Salt & automation package$4,300 installed
Cell sized to gallons, unions and flow switch, app control — remodel pricing
Coping & waterline resetfrom $3,600
Stone re-set level, glass tile course, deck drainage corrected
Before the drain
The remodel questions
The five every lakeside kitchen reaches once the cover comes off for the season. The shop line below answers seven to five, Harlow time.
Resurface or rebuild — how do we actually know?
By the autopsy, not the age. We drain, measure shell thickness and rebar cover, pressure-test the plumbing and read the as-built against what the permits say. A sound 1975 shell takes a refinish happily; a 2005 shell with rebar shadowing through the plaster does not. Thirty-nine honest condemnations in fifteen years, all free, all quoted for the rebuild instead.
Pebble or plaster for a second life?
For a family pool in lakes water: pebble, twenty-year expectation, textured underfoot and indifferent to the chemistry that stains its smoother cousin. Quartz carries most of that toughness at two-thirds the cost and is our quiet majority. Plaster remains the brightest and the cheapest — and still ships with its mottling chapter, because telling you first is the whole point of the register.
Our pool is from 1978. Is it too old to remodel?
Age is a rumour; the shell is the evidence. Gunite from the seventies is frequently over-built by modern standards and takes a refinish beautifully — the autopsy measures it and the contract names its expected life. What genuinely ages out is plumbing and equipment, which is exactly what a remodel replaces while the water is down.
Can salt and automation go into old equipment?
Checked at the autopsy, then yes: the heater’s exchanger and the finish warranty are read first, the cell goes in with unions and a flow switch, and the controller runs pumps, heat, light and chemistry from your phone. Done during the remodel it is half the cost of a retrofit and none of the compromise — the walls are already open.
How long is the yard out of action?
Seventeen days, median, drain to refill on a full remodel; a finish-only job runs about nine. The dated sequence is published at signing, the cure and start-up dates are in it, and the hose goes back on the day the schedule named — or you will hear why from the crew chief before you notice the silence.
Word of mouth
The lakes, after the refill
Every other outfit quoted us a new pool without getting in the yard. Second Swim drained ours, measured the shell, and said the honest job was a refinish and a re-plumb at a third of the price. Seventeen days later the water was bluer than the day we bought the house, and the power bill dropped thirty-one dollars the first full month.
They found the 1994 plumbing undersized by half — the sheet said six-hour turnover, which explained nine years of cloudy Augurts and a chemical bill like a car payment. Re-aimed returns, right-sized pump, salt conversion in the same drain. The water has not needed rescuing since, and neither have we.
The contractor before them wanted to sell us a whole new pool and could not tell us why. Second Swim showed us the shell measurements, the rebar cover readings and the plumbing diagram on the tailgate of their truck. The pebble went in over a shell from 1979 that they said would outlive the mortgage. Six summers on, it is doing exactly that.
Free autopsies across the Caldera lakes, most within the week · (555) 021-4478 · remodel@secondswim.example
Book the pool autopsy
Send the address and the year the pool was built, if you know it. The autopsy is free, the verdict is honest even when it is a rebuild, and the fixed remodel quote follows inside a week. remodel@secondswim.example