It’s not easy to find even one above-ground swimming pool installer in Orlando. Finding two is almost impossible. And during most years, finding a third pool installer has been impossible.
Unless you know of someone from a personal reference, finding an above-ground pool installer in the Orlando area is extremely hard to do. This is mainly because doing a Google search usually only gives results for websites that only claim that they are or can find them, but in reality, cannot.
I HAVE BEEN IN THE POOL BUSINESS BASED OUT OF ORLANDO FOR 37 YEARS
For the past twenty-plus years, there have been only 3-4 pool installers available in Orlando during the summer season. There can be a couple more during the off-season as out-of-town guys are needing work and will travel farther.
There were a few of those years where there were only two installers.
Coming from a guy who knows, don’t let anyone (a pool salesman) tell you there are plenty of installers in Orlando. That is a lie.
MOST POOL INSTALLERS ONLY DO THIS JOB FOR FIVE YEARS OR LESS AND THEN MOVE ON
Installing above-ground pools is a seasonal business. This forces legitimate workers looking for a good career to move on as it’s tough to not have work for half of the year AND the job is a hard one.
In the years that I have installed pools in Orlando, only two beside me did this job for more than twenty years. And they were Kenny(I’m not going to give full names) who did it for 27 years mainly in Lake County and retired about five years ago, and Johnny B who I think is still installing in the Tampa area who started a month after I did in the 1980s.
Everyone else has come and gone. Some have died and two committed suicide.
NEED A SOFT-SIDED (INTEX, COLEMAN, BESTWAY) ABOVE-GROUND POOL INSTALLED IN ORLANDO? YEAH, YOU MOST LIKELY WON’T FIND ANYONE TO DO IT
Soft-sided-type pools are very popular mainly because they are available at Walmart and are not expensive.
They are also very easy to assemble. But installers like me don’t install them. For me, there are two reasons for this. One is that I have to charge usually more than what the pool cost to buy for the installation.
The other is that you can’t get soft-sided pools perfectly level. I mean you can, but it will take either luck or extra time.
I have installed a few of these pools over the years, but it’s always been during the off-season when I needed the work.
I will do ground prep only for soft-sided pools in Orlando though.
DOING A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR “ABOVE GROUND POOL INSTALLERS IN ORLANDO” IS NOT VERY FRUITFUL
This is nothing against Google. They do the best they can with what they have. In truth, there aren’t many pool installers to begin with, and some of those don’t have websites, so that leaves the Google search filled with non-pool installer sites.
While just doing a search for “above-ground pool installers in Orlando”, only one real opportunity to find a real installer came up.
NOTE: As of right now (September 2022), my install site comes up on the second page of this search. But not for long though.
WEBSITES THAT WILL NOT HELP YOU FIND AN ABOVE-GROUND POOL INSTALLER
Any website that claims they have a list of above-ground pool installers will not. This is a deception or a lie. Just sayin’. Here are a few examples:
1 Angie’s List (Nope)
Being a contractor, I’m not a fan of Angie’s List to begin with as people can leave negative comments and the worker cannot rebut them.
Regardless, Angie’s list claims they have some above-ground pool installers in Orlando, but they don’t. Clicking on this site will only give you testimonials of work done for inground pools.
And since inground pool companies don’t work on above grounds in any way, you might as well be looking at testimonials of ice cream shops. FAIL.
2 HomeAdvisor (Another total waste of time)
In the ten-plus years that I have looked, the HomeAdvisor website has NEVER had even one above-ground pool installer to reference in Orlando.
They will have you fill out a form, give all of your information including your email, then they will have nothing for you. SHAME.
3 Porch.com
Although not as bad as the above two, websites like Porch try to get you someone for the work you are asking for. The problem is that they don’t have anyone. So why do they pay to be on this search for “above-ground pool installers”? This is a waste of everyone’s time.
The top three websites for “above-ground pool installation services” on Porch right now are a gas company, a construction group, and a leak detection company. Fail, Fail, FAIL!
4 Above ground pool Retail websites
When Google can’t find good enough websites for pool “installers”, then it positions sites that SELL them instead.
This offers an opportunity for pool sellers to rank high on this important search even though they don’t have anyone to install your pool. They do have a pool to sell you though and maybe even an installer (if you buy their pool).
This is a deceptive practice from pool retail sites. The bottom line here for you is that you’ll be clicking onto sites that say “above-ground pool installer/installation” and there will only be pools to buy instead. Not cool, bro.
In the Orlando search area, there are two retailers that do this. I’m not going to mention any names here, but if you click on a site that says “above ground pool INSTALLATION” and it sends you to a retail pool buying site, then you’ve been duped and there won’t be an installer available for you.
There is also a retailer that has made a couple of websites that look like installation-only sites. One even has a guy’s name as an installer that doesn’t even exist and an installation price sheet even though no one from that site does installs.
About two clicks into these “installation sites” will bring you to the real reason they exist – a page that sells pools and liners.
5 Facebook installers page for Central Florida
Sometimes, Google will place the Central Florida Installers FB page on its first page of searches. This is my FB page, but Facebook is very glitchy and I usually cannot communicate with anyone who tries to contact me that way.
This is a shame as that would be a good resource for those looking for install-info in Orlando. I have tried to get FB to fix these issues, but they are huge and have never gotten back to me.
OTHER WAYS TO FIND AN ABOVE-GROUND POOL INSTALLER IN ORLANDO
After fruitless efforts to find an installer by way of Google, many will call and talk to pool stores. Most pool stores won’t have any names to give out, but a few will.
Pinch A Penny Pool Stores
There are a lot of Pinch-A-Penny stores in Orlando and Central Florida. Most of them won’t deal much with above-ground pools, but a couple will.
The ones that I know of that at least used to deal some with above-ground pools are the Pinch A Penny in west Orlando near Ocoee, a great one in St Cloud, one in Mt Dora, one in Merritt Island, and one in Deland.
I know most of these are out of town, but that’s all I’ve got.
Leslie’s Pool Supply
Unlike PAP above, Leslie’s is all corporate-owned out of the west (California I think). This means that they have corporate policies that prevent employees from giving out the names of installers.
I have had my name given out a few times by Leslie’s over the years, but it’s very rare. You can try a few, but good luck.
Independent pool stores
Orlando has just a couple of independent pool supply stores. If you have one close to you, you may want to ask them. They would be happy to help you especially since you may start going to them for chemicals.
Online classifieds and Craigslist
Craigslist isn’t at all what it used to be, but you may find an installer there. I have occasionally put ads on Craigslist Orlando during the off-season, so it is possible to get a real installer there.
Other smaller online classifieds that are super local to areas of Orlando like Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, Longwood, Kissimmee, etc. are harder bets, but you never know and it’s worth a look.
Above-ground pool retail stores
At of the time I am writing this, I know of only one above-ground pool retailer in Orlando. I used to install for them independently, but they now have an in-house installer and occasionally contact me when they get backed up.
Occasionally, they will give my number out for some used pool repair or a liner replacement, but they won’t give out the number of any installers. This is because they want you to buy their pool instead. I don’t blame them. It’s good business, I guess. (Notice that I didn’t give their name).
Facebook Marketplace
FB marketplace has replaced Craigslist as the free place to find tradesmen and things for sale. In the past couple of years, I’ve looked on FB marketplace for pool installers and didn’t find any for the Orlando area.
This is not to say that there will never be. I tried to advertise on there for my services and didn’t like the process. This could be why no one else who installs pools is on there.
As far as I know, I am the only above-ground pool installer based out of Orlando. What I can tell you is there are a couple of installers in the Tampa area, maybe two in Ocala, one or two in Daytona, one in Wildwood, and one in Palatka. This is it.
At least a couple of these guys have been around for a while, but keep in mind that during the busy season, they most likely won’t come to Orlando. That just leaves me. Here is my price sheet. Contact me with any questions.
By the way, I only install bigger oval-shaped pools during the off-season.