Choosing a Pool Service in Florida: Cleaning, Repairs and Who Needs a License

• Testing and balancing the water: chlorine or salt level, pH, alkalinity, and stabilizer.
• Skimming the surface, brushing walls and steps, and vacuuming as needed.
• Emptying the skimmer and pump baskets.
• Checking the filter pressure and cleaning or backwashing the filter on a schedule.
• A quick look at the pump, timer and other equipment, with a note to you if something is failing.

Ask whether chemicals are included in the monthly price, how often the filter is cleaned, and whether you get a record of each visit. After heavy summer rain, expect the water to need extra attention.

Routine cleaning and water treatment is maintenance. Building, resurfacing or structurally altering a pool, and repairing or replacing pool equipment and plumbing, is contracting, and in Florida that work is done by a licensed pool/spa contractor.

• CPC: a state-certified pool/spa contractor, who can work anywhere in Florida.
• RP: a registered pool/spa contractor, who can work only in the counties or cities where registered.

If a company is going to replace your pump or heater, resurface the pool, or fix a leak in the plumbing, ask for its license number and check it. Electrical work on pool equipment, such as a new circuit, is a job for a licensed electrician.

Florida's Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act requires a new residential pool to have at least one approved safety feature before it passes final inspection. The options in the law include a barrier that isolates the pool from the home, an approved safety cover, alarms on the doors and windows that open to the pool, and self-closing, self-latching doors.

If you have an older pool and young children visit, these are still worth adding. A screen enclosure alone is not a child barrier unless its doors self-close and latch.

• Ask for proof of liability insurance.
• For repairs and renovations, verify the contractor's license and ask whether the job needs a permit.
• Get the price, what is included and the visit day in writing.
• Be cautious of a quote far below the others: chemicals and filter cleaning are often what gets skipped.