Staying afloat by doing your own pool cleaning

Victor Pineda has found a pile of money in a hole in his Whittier backyard.

Pineda fired his pool maintenance serviceman after the price rose to $72 from $65 a month, which didn't include filter cleaning or pump maintenance. That works out to nearly $900 in savings a year. Now he purchases chemicals every nine months to sustain appropriate levels of chlorine and pH.

"It's not very hard to do it yourself," said Pineda, who has owned his pool since 1998. "I think I'm doing a good job. It's probably the only time during the week I can have to myself, but don't tell that to my wife."

It's hard out there for a pool boy.

The glamorous lifestyle of a Southern California pool cleaner has always been more myth than reality, and this summer it's been anything but a lazy backstroke. Rising transportation and raw-material costs have forced the industry, from manufacturer to pool cleaner, to increase prices. At the same time, sales are diving because pool owners are looking to save a few dollars by holding off on repairs or maintaining the pool themselves.

Danny Wurman services 18 pools a day, driving from his home in Sherman Oaks to the multimillion-dollar mansions of the Hollywood Hills and the suburban sprawl of the San Fernando Valley. He easily racks up more than $600 in gasoline costs every month. This summer Wurman has increased prices 8% to pay for higher fuel and material costs.

"I try not to charge too much or else they will not hire me," said Wurman, who is originally from Argentina. "But everything is more expensive, so you need to optimize as much as you can."

The 51-year-old pool serviceman said some customers were purchasing equipment online and installing it themselves. As a result, he's stepped up his game -- being on call at all hours, taking classes to improve his expertise and establishing stronger relationships with his current customers.

Thomas Cox, owner of a pool repair and installation service called TRC Enterprises, said, "Business is definitely not what it used to be. Customers say they've been on tight budgets. A lot of people who were scheduled for new equipment have canceled and decided to just let it sit for a few more months."

In the 38 years Cox has worked as a serviceman, this is the steepest decline in sales he has ever experienced. The entrepreneur, who started TRC Enterprises in 1993, began noticing a slowdown about a year ago but only recently has seen it "getting really serious," with sales dropping 40% to 50% for the Simi Valley company. Pool-supply orders usually kick in around late April, he said, but through June and July, customers were still reluctant to spend on repairs.