Pool Repair & Renovation Reviews in Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix is where Arizona pool history is written, so it's worth telling the whole story.

The modern backyard pool was born in the 1940s, when builders adapted a sprayed-concrete method called gunite — originally developed for mining and tunnel work — to pool construction. For the first time, a pool could be shaped freely rather than poured into rigid forms, and after World War II, returning servicemen, affordable land, and the arrival of home air conditioning turned the desert into the perfect place for a backyard pool. The mid-century boom that followed gave us the kidney shape and made the pool a symbol of the good life. Through the 1950s and '60s, the craft matured quickly: plumbing evolved from galvanized iron and copper to the PVC still used today, and skimmers and main drains became standard equipment.

Two later milestones were, fittingly, Arizona stories. In 1987–88, Scottsdale-based Pebble Technology introduced Pebble Tec, the first exposed-aggregate pool finish in the country — a more durable, better-looking alternative to plaster that changed pools nationwide. Then, in mid-1991, Arizona's pool barrier law (ARS § 36-1681) set the safety-fence standards that shaped every pool built after. Because Phoenix has relatively little truly old housing and grew mostly through the postwar and late-20th-century booms, its pools span all of these eras — from mid-century originals in the historic central neighborhoods to modern builds on the edges of the city. Many of the Valley's suburban pools from the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s are now reaching the age where finishes, equipment, and plumbing all come due together.

Phoenix even gave baseball its most famous pool. When Chase Field (originally Bank One Ballpark) opened downtown in 1998, it became the first Major League ballpark with a swimming pool — an 8,500-gallon pool and spa sitting 415 feet from home plate in right-center field, a fittingly Phoenix touch for America's hottest big-league city.

That pool is close to our heart for a specific reason: we're the team the Diamondbacks called to remodel it. When the ballpark's original pool was ready for a full modernization, We Fix Ugly Pools handled the demolition and rebuild — plans announced by the club in early 2005 and covered at the time by Sports Business Journal — transforming an outdated feature into the modern, television-ready pool fans still line up to rent every summer. You can see the full before-and-after in our gallery at wefixuglypools.com, along with our World Record Pool Build. From a big-league landmark to a backyard classic, it's the same expertise and the same standard.

Phoenix municipal water is hard by any national standard. Published hardness figures for the city generally fall in the 10.9–16.2 grains-per-gallon range, with some sources reporting up to 17. The Water Quality Association classifies anything above 10.5 gpg as "very hard," so Phoenix pools sit well above that line year-round.

Phoenix draws from a blend of Colorado River water via the Central Arizona Project, Salt and Verde River supplies through SRP, and local groundwater — all of which move through mineral-rich desert terrain and carry dissolved calcium and magnesium into the system.

For a pool, that dissolved calcium is what shows up later as scale at the tile line and on plaster surfaces. It is a water chemistry problem before it is a surface problem.

We Fix Ugly Pools® is licensed in Arizona — Residential ROC KA5-275609 and Commercial ROC KB2-304269 — and has served the greater Phoenix area since 2003.