Pool & Spa News
By John Miles

The housing market may have lost some steam in the last nine months, but it hasn't stopped Dave Reinert and Shasta Industries from conducting robust business.

"Even if there's a slowdown in new construction, we don't have the same [letup] when it comes to remodeling," Reinert said. "When people stay in their houses, they start to think, 'Maybe I should remodel the kitchen or update the pool.'"

Reinert spent the last 10 years at Sunvek, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based home remodeling firm, serving most recently as its vice president/general manager. Then in February, he saw an opportunity at Shasta, a Pool and Spa News Top Builder in Phoenix, and joined the company as general manager of its Remodeling Division.

Despite the fact that his experience is in overseeing interior construction, Reinert said the transition has been surprisingly easy.

"There's a lot of synergy between [the work at Sunvek] and what I'm doing as the general manager in the pool remodeling business," he explained. "When it comes to the evaluation process, the staging, construction, cleanup and scheduling all the time frames and intervals - the processes are very similar between the pool and home construction [industries]."

Reinert stressed the importance of timely construction and communication. In fact, Shasta uses a team of customer service reps to keep customers informed.

"Shasta does a good job of tracking the phases of construction... even with an alarm code to tell [superintendents] if they've gone past the amount of allocated time," Reinert said.

For most customers, he added, the standard remodeling package includes a new pool finish and tile, recoating of the patio and a pool equipment upgrade. For more upscale and design-intensive projects, the company will add a spa or waterfeature, incorporate new landscaping, and even change the shape and depth of the pool.

Even with a 15.3 percent decrease in Western housing starts over the past year, Shasta has continued to capitalize on existing homes and older pools. Reinert isn't worried. As he noted, "[Homeowners] spend so much time in the backyard because of the beautiful climate here... they still see [the remodeling] as a good investment.

Labels: Pool and Spa News, shasta, shasta-pools