When the Sun Returns

For pool service companies working in seasonal markets, spring is the busiest time of year. Long Island’s Julie Kazdin, welcomes the surge in activity after spending the winter planning, regrouping and educating staff. When the sun finally returns, her company springs into action preparing clients’ pools for the warmth and fun that lies just ahead.

By Julie Kazdin

I always know the season has truly begun when the sun comes out and the phones start ringing.

Here on Long Island, it can be 58 degrees and people are walking in wearing flip flops, smiling, thinking about summer. Of course, the next day it drops back into the 40s, clouds roll in, and everything quiets down again. But the shift in mindset is immediate and unmistakable. Sunshine brings people back to life. It triggers something. You can feel it in the way clients start calling, the way traffic picks up, the way everyone begins leaning toward the season ahead.

We are all summer people. The homeowners, the landscapers, the service technicians, all of us. By the time spring arrives, we have been waiting for months.

In the pool business, there is a kind of anticipation that builds after the winter trade shows and training season. By the time we come back from The Pool and Spa Show in Atlantic City, we are energized. We have taken classes, learned new techniques, and seen new products. Then we go home and wait. Six weeks, sometimes eight, depending on the weather. We are ready, but the ground is still cold, the pools are still covered, and the work cannot yet begin.

That waiting creates its own kind of tension. You find yourself asking the same questions every day. When can we start? When can we open the first pool? When it finally begins, it does not ease in. The work fully engages and away we go.

Timing Is Everything

While scheduling is always critical, during opening season, it’s how you survive.

The process starts by asking clients one simple question: When do you want to swim? From that date, we work backward. Two weeks for most pools. Three weeks if we know there are recurring issues, or if a pool historically opens green. Every property has its own personality, and we schedule accordingly.

We also have to be realistic about capacity. There are only so many pools we can open in a given week while maintaining quality. If too many clients want to be ready for the same date, we adjust. Some move earlier, giving us more time to get everything perfectly dialed in.

The goal is very clear. On the day the client is ready to swim, the pool is clear, balanced, and fully operational.

Spring is defined by three scheduling hurdles. Memorial Day is the first. That is when most rental properties need to be ready. Those clients have no flexibility because short-term tenants are showing up with the expectation that a pool and often a hot tub will be available. Father’s Day comes next. That is when many homeowners begin using their pools regularly, gathering with family and friends as the mercury rises. Then comes the 4th of July, which is the true start of summer for families with school-aged children.

Between early April and mid-June, everything we do is aimed at hitting those dates, always aligning with weather, staffing, logistics, and client expectations so that each pool is ready exactly when it needs to be.

There is no margin for guesswork, at the same time, you have to be responsive to changing circumstances. It’s like constantly assembling a massive puzzle with moving pieces.

The Opening Process

Every opening begins the same way, although no two are exactly alike. We remove the cover, clear debris, reinstall all summer equipment. Ladders, handrails, fittings. Every anchor in the patio is secured because anything left exposed becomes a hazard. Details matter at every level.

From there, circulation becomes the priority. You can spend endlessly on chemicals and break your back physical cleaning, but without flow and filtration, you are fighting a losing battle. Every equipment set is repaired and adjusted as needed as a requirement of our service.

We clean out everything winter left behind. Leaves, branches, sediment. In our area, with mesh covers and heavily landscaped properties, we often see tannin staining from decomposing leaves. The water can look like tea. Not necessarily algae, but still something that needs to be corrected.

We test before we treat. If metals are present, that’s addressed first using a sequestering agent. If you shock a pool with metals in the water, you risk staining the surface. That is a mistake you do not want to make. From there, we begin balancing. After winter, water is often on the acidic side due to rainfall. We bring it back to a neutral LSI, step by step.

Then we return. The next day, or the day after. Then again, a few days later. Each visit moves the pool closer to its final state. Opening is not a single event. It is a process.

Setting the Table

One of the biggest determinants of a successful opening actually happens months earlier. Closing a pool properly is what makes spring manageable. Clean filters, balanced water, properly winterized plumbing. These necessary steps are investments in the next season.

I was taught early in my career not to leave work for tomorrow if it can be done today. That principle has stayed with me. If you leave a cartridge filter dirty all winter, you are creating a problem for yourself in the spring. If you clean it at closing, you start the next season at ground zero.

An ounce of preparation really is worth a pound of cure in this business.

The Human Side

For our clients, the opening experience is straightforward. They give us a date, arrive, and the pool is ready. Most of them do not want constant communication. They trust us to handle it. Our job is to be invisible when everything is going right, and responsive when something is not.

At the same time, our relationships are not transactional. We know our clients, especially those who have been with us for years, decades in some cases. We know their schedules, how they use their homes, when they open and close, often before they even send back their contracts. That familiarity allows us to tailor our service so each homeowner feels like they are our only client.

While the client experience is seamless, the work behind it is not. This is an endurance contest. Our technicians start early, often before sunrise, loading trucks and heading out across a wide service area. Travel alone can take hours, and the day stretches into evening. We operate six days a week, for twelve weeks or more. It is physical work that requires constant mental energy and attention. It takes focus, consistency, and resilience.

We put a heavy emphasis on team culture because of that. Our technicians are out in the field, often working independently, but they are never alone. Supervisors check in throughout the day. We stay connected through the miracle of modern communication technology, i.e. smart phones, tracking progress in real time, reviewing photos, monitoring water chemistry, adjusting as needed.

That support matters. It keeps everyone aligned and reinforces that what they are doing is part of something larger.

A Good Start

In the end, spring pool service is about setting the tone for the entire season. If you get the opening right, everything that follows becomes easier. Water stays balanced. Equipment runs properly. Clients are happy. The rhythm of weekly service falls into place. Get it wrong and you spend the rest of the summer catching up.

That is why we approach every opening with the same mindset. Do it thoroughly, carefully and one pool at a time. Because when the sun comes back, people are ready, and so are we.

Julie Kazdin is vice president/partner for Kazdin Pools and Spas, a full service design, construction, retail and service firm based in Southampton, NY. An industry veteran with more than 20  years of experience, she is also vice president of operations for Watershape University, and serves on the board of directors for the Northeast Spa & Pool Association.