Gib San Pool & Hot Tub Centre

While Gib-San delivers a quality product, they are a very difficult company to work with. We embarked on a complete reno of our front and back gardens, which included a cement pool. Our project manager was pleasant and assured us that Gib-San would take care of everything, including permits, based on our architect's drawings which had been approved by the City. What we quickly learned is that the customer is expected to continue making payments without a sufficient amount of work being done. Weeks would go by without any trades at the job site yet we were constantly being asked for more money. (Covid was the favorite excuse and was legitimate at first but a year later, they were still trying to blame the lockdown for their lack of production). Repeated requests for a schedule of work/timeline were ignored. Eventually, we demanded that the project manager be removed and we stopped making payments. It was the only leverage we had. The COO stepped in and apologized profusely for the lack of progress and assured us he would get the job done. The project was completed but failed inspection on 3 points. They eventually passed the pool closure inspection but we still needed a building inspector to close the permit for changes made to our garage, which was part of the pool design. For whatever reason, Peter refused to acknowledge that a bldg inspection was needed but we weren't going to make the final payment until all permits were cleared. So Gib-San had their lawyers start threatening us with a lien. Gib-San unfortunately failed to share key info with their lawyers like the fact that they had failed a previous inspection and that they did, in fact, make changes to our garage. (Note: one of the glowing reviews on Google, which have since disappeared, was written by their lawyer). Still, we made a payment to show that we intended to pay in full as long as Gib-San fulfilled their obligations. They eventually acknowledged that they needed a building inspection but filed a lien anyway. We were present for the inspector's visit, along with Peter, which lasted all of 15 minutes. As Peter was leaving (he hadn't acknowledged our presence even though he was on our property) we said to him, "That's all you had to do." His reply? "We didn't know." How does a so-called master pool builder not know what inspections are required?! We made the final payment but Gib-San, through their lawyers, tried to make releasing the lien contingent upon us agreeing that we would not make any negative comments about them. Of course, that was not enforceable, and the lien was released. Please think twice before hiring Gib-San - the difficulty in dealing with them is not worth it.

We chose Gibsan after reading the stellar client reviews and speaking with people in construction industry. I must say that there is no dispute regarding the quality of work done by Gibsan. Unfortunately we did not receive the client service that other clients have. The project started at the end of Feb and finished mid June, 2021. Our project manager did not communciate with us during this period unless we sent numerous e-mails, texts. Workers arrived unannounced, they would begin the work, half way thru the project manager would send them to another site and a new crew would arrive to complete it. We under stood that the timing varies however a general timeline would have been appreciated. At the time of completion we had concerns that we requested be addressed before the final payment (all installments were paid on time as requested). On July 2 we were assured that someone would come to review our concern on July 5 so we paid. No one came until early September and only after numerous e-mails beginning July 5. We also had them install the anchors for the winter cover at a cost of approximately $1400 (5 hours of labour). We are not experts in this but seems High? The whole project was extremely stressful for us.

Very Overpriced and Extremely Poor Service
I purchased a home which has a Gib-San built pool, cabana and outdoor kitchen in January 2021 and thought it best to have Gib-San continue to maintain the installation given they had been doing so for 7 or 8 years. What a mistake. They are either the highest priced or rank amongst the highest priced services in the GTA so you would expect superior service. The technicians they employ are very good but the staff employed in the service office are terrible. Let me provide some examples.
The service staff book your opening and closing for "the week of" but will not confirm the date until late the day before their actual attendance making it very difficult to be present should you not work from home and want to be at your home when the technicians attend. I was advised by the pool opening technician that I should add 2 bags of salt immediately after the pool opening with a third bag to follow in 2 weeks which I did. The salt cell was not generating chlorine so I arranged for a service and was advised that it was not working because there was too much salt in the water. When I advised that I had done exactly as I was instructed to do by their technician Gib-San still took the position that this was somehow my responsibility and agreed to refund only half of the $220.35 service fee. Gib-San has been closing the pool and winterizing the cabana and outdoor kitchen since they built it 7 or 8 years ago but when their technicians attended to close the pool October 2021 they advised that they no longer offer cabana and outdoor kitchen winterizing services. I contacted Gib-San to find out why they had not informed me they would not be performing the full winterization and was told I should have somehow been aware of this as it was not specified in the contract. Now I am having difficulty locating another pool company that will winterize the cabana and outdoor kitchen because no one seems interested in doing this unless I agree to have them also close the pool which Gib-San has already completed. Had Gib-San informed me that they were no longer offering the full winterization service, I would have made arrangements with another service that would. Again, their failure to properly inform the customer was somehow my fault.
This is not the level of service I would expect from any one in the service industry, particularly a service that charges premium pricing for their services. I will certainly never use their services again and would encourage anyone reading this review to avoid them. You will easily find better service at less cost.

Within four years of installation of my 7 by 15 foot pool, Gib-San has quoted more than $10,000 to replace failed equipment. My registered letter to them (in June) complaining of the circumstances has had no response. I have had to pay my electrician to rectify what their technician did to mess up the programming of the pool heater when I had them open the pool this year. They blame every problem on any the other contractor you may retain, so I felt obliged to have them back this year to open the pool. Also a trip hazard developed in the stone steps within a very short time. My request to have this examined and rectified also fell on deaf ears.
They are incredibly good at selling themselves and very efficient in taking your money but little else, in my opinion. I would not recommend this company.

I called GibSan twice to discuss the concrete cracking around my pool (they installed it years ago). I spoke to the owner of the company (an older gentleman) who was down right rude to me on the phone and wanted to charge me $350.00 to come out and see what the problem is. I hung up wondering how this company is still in business. I had to discuss another issue with them, this is a year later and again, had to do with the concrete, and a different person called me back. He basically told me I should be calling another company. I will NEVER set foot into that place again.

This is a lengthy review but two seasons and $120k isn't like having the windows replaced.

Our pool is circa 1971 measuring 20x40 plus an 11ft circle on the corner and has been the most expensive lesson in why I wouldn't waive inspection in the future, especially if there's a pool involved.

We met John from Gib-San at the Home Show in 2014. He recognized the pool as a Sanelli and was eager to work with us on designs. We didn't make a commitment but after opening the pool and losing an inch of water overnight I knew we had to move up the pool work. We developed a two year plan with John as the work required was extensive and costly.

In year one the plan was to replace the wall tiles, lift the concrete deck and replace it with interloc, remove and clean the coping plus pressure testing of the returns. Of course the pressure test failed so we added replacement of the returns and a new lighting system since the trench would be dug. The original timeframe quoted was 6 weeks, which became a frustrating 3+ months.

The on-site Gib-San crew were efficient at their work except when digging the trench and cutting through the backwash line. This wasn't caught until this phase was done and their only offer was to give me 100 ft of hose that I have to roll out to the street - I grit my teeth at them every time I have to backwash.

QC'ing of material leaving the warehouse indicates that you have to confirm all material before it's installed. I fortunately was the general contractor for this and had I not been on site we would have ended up with two different shades of tile in the pool and two shades of interloc. Both would have been costly or permanent errors.

The real challenge comes from the sub-contractors they bring on site. The tile installer would show up and within a half hour get pulled away from this job by Mario the project manager to work on another job of apparently somebody who was more unhappier than I was. For days he'd say that he'd be done in a week - it took 3.5 weeks. Many times commitments were made by Mario of workers supposedly going to be onsite only to have them no-show. Their interloc sub-contractor didn't wet cut, covering the neighbourhood in dust for days. They did a great job on some of the coping yet poor on a few others. They left us with grey instead of black interloc and their best solution was to blast all the polymer out and walk away.

With their sub-contractors come some pretty hefty mark-ups. Example 1: their electrician/gas vendor quote was over $12k for the required work. Three reputable electrician companies, each with an extensive depth of experience with pools all came in a full 50% below the Gib-San quote. Example 2: they quoted $30k to install 750 sq ft of interloc to extend the pool deck and walkway. Another very reputable company installed the interloc for $10k and did a much better job than Gib-San's sub-contractor and who I'll bring back next year to clean up the Gib-San work.

Note that Gib-San doesn't appreciate it if you don't use their suppliers - Mario did some light smack talking to my electrician while I was away questioning his knowledge. Mario also tried to pressure him to speed up the work to make up for their short fall in managing resources. I actually had to 'fire' Mario as the PM after this incident and the failed commitments.

This year was installing tile on the pool steps and covering the surface with Pebble Tec.

The onsite Gib-San crew were very efficient and left a clean site when they were done. The nightmare came when it was time to install the Pebble-Tec. They didn't begin the work until 4pm and had a truck with a noisy generator running in front of the house until 11pm. I didn't understand why they told me a story about having the police called on them at a past job until it got to be 8pm and they were nowhere near finished. We had to go door-to-door and profusely apologize to each of our neighbours for what they were enduring. The crew didn't finish until 2am!! It was suggested a bottle of wine for each neighbour might be in order to which they agreed but nothing was ever delivered.

The Pebble-Tec looks great once you've put in 30 days of hard work that they don't tell you about until it's being blown in. When the water was being added a chip came off the wall. I've written to John, who has written to Peter at Pebble-Tec over a month ago and am still waiting for a response.

This year's project manager was Mark, who was better but appeared to be a bit more interested in whatever side work he had going on. After last year I was firm when I established a maximum window for the work to be done and it was completed within that timeframe. I discovered that the PM's are commissioned on whatever they can sell you after you've signed the contract, which explained the pressure to replace the skimmer that wasn't part of the deal last year.

Overall we love the final product but my opinion is that Gib-San is good at talking and getting you to spend money. I certainly wouldn't say that we got good value for our money or that they're the most effective at managing resources or problem solving. For Gib-San it seems to be about the money and the awards filling the walls.

I've always found everyone at GibSan very friendly and knowledgeable. I go in regularly for water testing (free) and always get good/prompt service, with all my questions answered. Prices are reasonable for hot tub chemicals.

Gib-san Pools constructed a new pool; front and backyard landscaping ;new driveway. Pool constructed without proper backflow venting. Heater installed without fresh air supply. Water from driveway drains INTO garage. Granite slabs cracked in multiple places after 1 year. We were denied service for heater repair because we switched to another company ( 50% less costly) for yearly maintenance. Told we were not loyal customers. Beware of Gib San. Shameful.

We installed our pool 30+ years ago and this spring contracted with GibSan to give it a major facelift. From the first call I made to GibSan I found them to be responsive, direct, cooperative and appropriately priced. Three other companies, including the one which had installed the pool originally did not follow up at all to my request for an assessment and quotation.to do the work.
The work was started immediately after we signed a contract and was completed on time for the quoted price. Any issues arising, which were few, were immediately dealt with completely to my satisfaction.
Based on my experience, I would unhesitatingly recommend GibSan to others considering a pool installation or upgrading an existing one. Special thanks to Peter who was my principal contact with GibSan. Others on the team were also impressive

Gib San pools requires credit card information before their services. I asked for a Spring Pool Opening at an agreed cost of $379. The service was done poorly and they billed my credit card for over $1000 and are not returning my calls or providing the refund required. I had to use another company to open the pool as their work was so bad. These guys can't be trusted.