LONGVIEW, Texas — If Joel’s forecast has you thinking you need a pool at your house, it may be a good idea, but you are too late.
Pool construction companies are reporting extreme backlogs, spurred in large part by increased demand due to coronavirus. Many families are spending most of their time at home and are looking for ways to safely have fun, and a pool has been at the top of the list.
“Yeah, this year’s been crazy,” Kevin Barnett said.
Barnett, a manager at Berry Family Pools, says the company has 150 jobs written on the board in its back office, twice as many as it would in a typical summer. Barnett says an order placed now will likely be completed in April 2021.
High demand is one factor, but the supply chain is also causing problems. “We have pools that are still, haven’t came in from May 22,” Barnett said.
Berry Family Pools sells Doughboy pools, which are manufactured in Arkansas. Barnett says steel is tough to come by, so the factory is slow to produce parts. He says using American-made materials makes the wait shorter for Berry Family Pools than other companies that source internationally.
“There’s other pool companies that, you know, are made in Canada, and they can’t even get pools," he said.
Barnett says he expects pool prices to increase in August because of the limited supply of materials. He even says some customers have tried to raise the price on their own, offering to pay more to get their pools faster.
“We’ve had people offer that, but we just can’t,” he said. “You know, first come, first served here, so come and get in line!”
Barnett says he only has one piece of advice for someone looking to get a pool at their house as quickly as possible, and that is to dive into the process. “Get in line now,” he said. “They say the demand for his is gonna be like this for the next 2-3 years.”
Berry Family Pools has its installers working six days a week right now to meet the demand, and they can build one pool each day.