Laguna Pool & Spa

At first I really liked this company, despite the high prices… but after they finish installation it gets shaky. They replaced a tree for me (one that died that they put in about 14 months ago), and then that one died 3 weeks later. After multiple calls and emails where I was asked to provide pictures, and internal arguing apparently, they came to replace it. I was thankful until I got home and found my hose busted (no note, text, or call) and trash left on the side of my house.

Top notch company! These people writing the bad reviews have probably never actually held a shovel themselves. When you truly consider what a contractor in Las Vegas or anywhere out here in the southwest has to do to run a successful company (after having worked with several out here in 3 years now), I have a new perspective. Good crews are hard to find and maintain, etc.
So I moved to Vegas from Indiana, and boy did I have a lot to learn regarding the «landscaping» scene out here. In Indiana, the backyards are grass, measured in acres, and boundaries determined by the lines created from mowing the lawn. One day your neighbors lawn is 16″ bigger than yours, the next day that’s your strip of grass… New houses typically come with lawns and a few trees. landscaping involves a a couple trips to Home Depot and some weed killer. Kids run around and play while brush gets hauled to the woods and bonfires, etc. People own equipment because basements and sheds are common, and 2 car garages actually hold 2 cars and a lawnmower. With hiring work done, it’s more of a solid handshake and «trust you until I get burned» kind of environment rather than a «Screw ya first, trust ya later, but only if it’s to my advantage, and If it’s not in writing our conversation yesterday never happened» kind of place– hint hint So anyway, you get what you pay for like everything in life, and Laguna has that midwestern quality that I’ve come to appreciate.
In Vegas, backyards are measured in inches, everybody has a concrete fence, your neighbors have the HOA (Home Owners Association) on speed dial, and there’s no room for things like the landscaping tools one might need to do any project, and even if you did own say a wheelbarrow, you’d have to rent a truck to haul away whatever you shoveled into it (after renting a jackhammer to break up the soil), and then pay somebody to allow you to dump it, etc… Whatever you planned to do better happen fast before the HOA starts hounding you, and eventually you realize it’s a 114 degrees and best to just hire the work done…
My experience in doing that is too much to type, but basically it boils down to «Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore»… Sales person is your best friend, then you never see them again. Crew shows up and has no clue what the plan is… you end up paying somebody to manage the job and then essentially manage it yourself scratching you head the whole time as to why it’s a different crew each day (on the days they show up), and why does the only english speaking person seem to also be missing when decisions need to be discussed. Workmanship suffers etc.
It’s about getting and keeping the right people and running the business well, and Dewey, Damon, Adam have done great work for me.
My only gripe is with myself, as I wish I had finished my backyard sooner. It’s like having an extension to my living space and I love it! If you move west and hire Laguna, be advised you’re gonna get spoiled, because whatever headache you think you might have is small in comparison to some of the literal nightmares I’ve hired. Remember, hiring someone is the easy part, firing them is the hard part.
Not the case here. Organized, good crews, all the above! Thanks guys, nice job!

I interviewed many pool builders and Laguna was among the finalists. We scheduled a meeting at the property and after waiting for about half an hour I called them and they didn’t even know what I was talking about! Then I helped them memorize the appointment, but they didn’t seem to care, asking «how about sometime next week?» Really!?! No, thanks!
Need I say more?

We’re very motivated to put a pool/​spa in our backyard. My hubby contacted Laguna pool & spa. They sent a man named Jim C. to our home to meet with us and get measurements. A week later we met him at his office. He showed up 20 mins late. No apology. He put on a great show with the 3D presentation. The pool was gorgeous onscreen. Jim said he’d call us on Monday to go over the quote and he never called us back. How very unprofessional! They never e-​mailed us back either. I’d be very cautious of this business. If they can’t call back to get business, what are they going to be like if you have a legitimate problem? I read some of the negative reviews and believe them all.

!!!BUYER BEWARE!!! We paid $ 75,000 for our pool and landscaping and were never treated so unprofessionally. The owner (Dewey) was a complete you know what!!! We purchased our second pool from this company, thought we would try someone new, big mistake!
The day we signed the contract we let Laguna know that our second installment payment «only» would be 12 days late. They didn’t act like it was a big deal and we had to wait 10 of the 12 days for our plaster to dry anyways. Well, they decided they would treat us badly from that point forward and purposely delayed our project for over a month. The owner would only send crews out for 1 – 2 hours per week to work and all they did was fiddle around. We got different information from everyone in the office. The dates the owner promised were never upheld. Not until we had a deadline for something else did they rush what they were doing to get done in a day, which resulted in poor workmanship. They forgot to order the accent tile for our pool and then we came home to a wrong color tile installed, very upsetting! They didn’t have the tile # listed on our contract so it was their word against ours. It said brown tile, we got black. The owner told us if we wanted it fixed we would have to pay for it. We were told that our pool would be complete the first to second week of June and it wasn’t done until the 3^rd of July. The ladies at the front desk never returned phone calls or emails. The owner was the rudest and most disrespectful person we have ever dealt with and he doesn’t care how he treats his customers. You can read about the owners unprofessionalism from other customers here on Unilocal as well. When we asked the crew why they were never coming out to do more work they told us another crew quit and they were being asked to work on the owner and sales guys pools instead. We had our backyard landscaped by them as well. They didn’t order enough rock for our yard so one entire side was left with just dirt. They told us if we wanted more rock we would have to pay for it! After we had paid them in full they refused to come out and fix any of the punchlist items after numberous phone calls. There were many spots of cool deck not painted and chips on the side of the coping. They left big piles of debris in our side yard, didn’t provide us with a flapper/​weir for our pool so we had to go out and purchase one ourselves, they put a big hole in our back yard wall with the backhoe, scratched up the pavers on our driveway and the pebble company left big gouges in the street in front of the driveway. I would never recommend this company to anyone, mainly because of the owner Dewey’s attitude and unprofessionalism.

I couldn’t be any happier with my beautiful pool and spa that Laguna Pools built for my family and I. We knew we would be pleased since we had seen and swam in two of our friends pools (that were built by them) last summer. Laguna Pools came highly recommended and they didn’t disappoint! I may add that we had our backyard redone as well. My husband and I had our own ideas of what we wanted (and budget to stay under) and couldn’t be more pleased with the creativity and outcome that we received. Our backyard turned out better than we could have ever envisioned! Our pool was completed in a very timely and professional manner. The best part… it was finished just before the 4^th of July. We know it is the busiest season for pool builders but it didn’t stop Laguna Pools from delivering our dream pool and backyard!
Thank you, Dewey Forte and crew, for making our summer enjoyment complete.

I have just given up trying to get satisfaction out of this company. Their incompetence knows no boundaries. I contracted with them to (among other things) build and outdoor BBQ peninsula and to construct and install what was described as a «Brimming Urn».
First the BBQ. Despite being provided with the specifications of our current stucco, they managed to twice use the wrong color. In the end — and armed with the same information as they were provided — I was forced to obtain the paint myself and will be contracting another company to repaint the stucco. A «close match» seems to be satisfactory in their eyes.
Secondly the brimming urn. Since it was installed, it has never fully ‘brimmed’, leaving the ugly stains of Vegas Valley water on its sides. The pump appears to underpowered and the reason why not enough water is being moved to the brim to allow for complete overflow on all sides. I reported this to their «Customer Service Department» (which happens to be the receptionist and phone answerer) and was told that this was the «standard» pump. Inadequate, yes — but okay in their book.
The owner, Dewey (Duane) Forte does not have a clue when it comes to customer satisfaction, preferring to argue, insult and minimize problems rather than listen and constructively act to remediate them. Here are some examples of his actual email responses — complete with the spelling and grammatical mistakes that permeate his writing.
«I will be there wed morning to go over your minimal concerns»
«I would be happy to find a larger pump if you feel this will satify your need to just stop complaining!»
«absolutely not, no refund will be given for a feature that is adequate! that monstosity was the urn you approved!
«Unfortunately, you won’t seem ever to be satisfied and it sounds like your an expert on everything»
Laguna Pool and Spa is by far the worst example of (a lack of) customer service that I have ever encountered. I imagine that this negative review will be met with another example of the argumentative incompetence — I expect nothing less from Mr. Forte.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!

I loved working with Laguna Pools. Dewey and the crew were extremely helpful and knowledgeable about so many different factors about building swimming pools. They took the time to educate me, and more importantly, stay with me, while I waffled back and forth. I couldn’t have gone through this process with any other pool builder, and I am sure glad I didn’t have too. If I could go through the whole process again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Thanks for everything Dewey and look forward to working with you again down the line.

Wonderful customer service! I purchased a pool and spa from them about 6 months ago and received nothing but the most attentive service. The dedication and passion that Jay had for crafting my pool was impeccable. Jay made himself available to answer my questions. I even had to leave town one week when the pool plaster needed daily watering and Jay personally came over each day I was gone and watered the plaster! If you’re looking for a pool & spa builder, look no further– Laguna pool & spa is as good as it gets!

FYI: go to the bottom of this page and on the left-​hand side click (filter) to see all of the reviews.
Prior to selecting Laguna we had 6 bids. The sales rep in Henderson was willing to work with our budget and give us vendor recommendations to go outside of the contract with cash. This along with two good references (craftsmanship issues with each reference, but both said they were fixed) made us feel Laguna was the right choice. We were very wrong!
We are now on week 14 of what was supposed to be an 8 week project. Our backyard is not very big and we had them do a spa, pool and pavers. A $ 52,000 project with no landscaping or special rock work shouldn’t take more than 10 weeks at the very latest. So much went wrong with the management of our job and the craftsmanship that I will just stick to a few major items you should know about…
Engineered Plans vs. Plans you sign: The sales rep will have you sign a set of top view plans that you turn in to your HOA. He invited you into the office to see a 2-​D image and makes adjustment. We had to ask for a 3-​D image that all the other builders provided on the second meeting. The 3-​D image did not match the engineered plans. So after you sign with them, they then send off the plans to be exact. During this time we asked for our spa seat to be lowered 6 inch. The sales rep noted this on the final plans with just a (6″). So the crew set a wall at 18inch that was supposed to be at 24inch. This through off our whole design as we have a geometric and streamlined design. We had to settle and come up with an alternative. During this time, the owner did not apologize and chalked it up to a mis-​communication. He made us feel like he was doing us a favor for trying to come up with an alternative to our original plan. Bottomline: go over the engineered plans very carefully and if you can, don’t sign on with them until you see those plans.
Customer Service: Be prepared to run your own job site and if they screw up don’t expect an apology. After 3 major screw ups we did not receive one apology. There is one superintended that comes by once a week. Dewy (owner) came by 3 times… twice to pick up a check and once to talk about how they would fix a major issue. We had to make multiple calls in between each step of the project to get the next crew out or to get a problem fixed. On two separate occasion we couldn’t get a hold of anyone, so we had to drive down to the main office instead of using the local office. My guess is that you have to buy customer service from this company. Those with jobs that are 100k plus will get the attention of the owner.
Craftsmanship: We thought the fact that Laguna had several in-​house crews would work to our advantage and it did just the opposite. These aren’t professional craftsman that pay attention to detail as if they were running their own company. We have 5 items that could have been avoided if someone cared about the quality of work they did. As an hourly employee for Laguna, it seemed they just wanted to bang it out and get to the next job. If you are going for a rectangle pool or a streamlined design with right angles… THIS IS NOT THE BUILDER FOR YOU!
On a final note, after the job was completed we still have an issue will a wok pot not releasing gas for the fire. We came home today to find one of the crew sitting in our pool relaxing. When we approached him he seemed intoxicated and didn’t bother to get out of the pool. This person has worked for the owner for 23 yrs, that should tell you something.

I’m giving them two stars only because the things that have been completed look nice and I am happy with.
I recently purchased a new home that when the previous owners moved they left with all the pool equipment and equipement for the built in bbq island.
After some research and different contractors coming out to give us quotes and such we decided to go with Laguna.
The sales rep was at my house on time which was great for me since I am a very punctual person. The prices they quoted were very comparable to the other companies.
The nightmare starts now:
On my contract the approx start date was 9÷22÷11 and the apprx complete date was 9÷25÷11. It is ¹¹⁄₁₅ and I am still waiting to have the work completed. They would tell me someone would be at my house on certain days and they never showed up. They would come on days I was not expecting them, which was bad for me since I have two lil dogs that weren’t locked up.
Today they are to come and finalize the burner on the grill becuase they input the incorrect one. Yes, they input an incorrect burner that used a diff type of gas than what I have. They wanted me to leave the final payment in the current burner but I refused as I would like to make sure that everything is working properly before I give them the final payment. If the work isn’t completed correctly what do you think are my chances of seeing them again if they received that last payment. So now they will come today when I am off work to complete the work and to get their final payment which seems is all they care about.
They are bad are returning phone calls and are very good at making excuses. This company will get the work done but not on time and with a lot of headaches.

WHAT A NIGHTMARE!
After doing my research & getting 8 bids, we hired Laguna for our pool renovation. The salesman told us it would take a week & a half, possibly 2 weeks. They started within a few days of the contract signing. First step was demo. They were supposed to start on a Friday & when I got home from work, nothing had been done. So the salesman said they would come out the next week & get started (some paperwork error, blah blah blah). They did most of the demo one day & then no one showed up for over a week. The tile we chose was no longer available, so I had to take time off work to go all the way down there & choose a different one. They wanted progress payments before the phases were complete. They didn’t have the coping forms set when the concrete truck showed up, so when they finally poured, it looks like it was too thick and already setting up. There are trowel marks where they bumped it all over the place (not smooth). They apparently forgot to put in relief lines, so as an afterthought, they cut every 4 ft with a concrete saw (on stamped & STAINED) concrete. One section was so bad it had to come out & be repoured. The stamp pattern isnt’ the same as the rest. There are cracks, too, which we will most likely have to use the warranty to get fixed. They tried to spot paint where they damaged the existing deck, but the paint isn’t the same color, so i have a 1 ft tan paint line around my pool. They got slurry all over the place, stained my patio furniture, & got concrete stain all over our pool light. On top of all the problems, the office manager and owner continued to give us grief and be rude on the phone when we called COUNTLESS times to TRY to get them to make it right. Our back yard looks terrible now.
Our first reno was an absolute nightmare.