A Fruitful Collaboration

Teamwork is as important to delivering a great hot tub installation as the materials or even the spa itself. But smooth teamwork between companies in the chain doesn't just happen; it often takes a little work, says Larry Berczyk, president and co-owner of Valley Pools & Spas (Burnsville, Minn.).

"It can be a challenging experience trying to coordinate with a builder," he says. "A lot of it has to do with trust."

But if you stay flexible and organized, relationships with outside companies can bear fruit in the form of future contracts. Better still, there's always the chance these connections can result in truly beautiful work, like the project seen here, which won Valley Pools & Spas a gold award in this year's Awards of Excellence.

Here, Berczyk explains how he got involved in this project and offers advice on working with outside contractors.

A Blank Slate

The owners of this home were in the middle of an extensive remodel, gutting everything from the top down and starting fresh. The basement previously held a swim spa with an automatic cover, which the homeowners removed to make way for something bigger: a comprehensive relaxation destination.

The end result features stacked stone and reclaimed wood on the ceiling, as well as a shower, sauna and the anchor of the entire space, a portable spa. With such a sweeping plan in mind, the homeowners hired Baratto Brothers Construction (Crosslake, Minn.) to make that vision a reality.

While owner Jim Baratto could tackle just about everything on the client's wish list, he did have to outsource a key detail: the portable spa. So he called Berczyk, with whom he has collaborated on past projects. In turn, Berczyk worked with the homeowners to help them select exactly what they were looking for.

"[The clients] needed something of high quality that they could rely on because of how they were going to build it in," he says. Also important were the color, which had to blend with the wood and stone, a lounge seat and ease of maintenance.

Berczyk sold them on a Marquis Spas 545 E-Series in Tuscan Sun, a marbleized caramel blend that complements the coloring of the rest of the space. The unit has a lounge, an in-line sanitation system from King Technology and an ozonator.

The tricky part was creating the look of a built-in spa without completely blocking the equipment bay. To resolve that issue, the team created a custom set of stairs with marble inlays, which are attached to wood paneling.

"That whole piece, step and all, slides away from the hot tub," Berczyk says. (Though not necessarily easily; those marble inlays add some weight to the stairs, making it a two-person job to safely move.)

Give and Take

Most dealers are accustomed to quick turnaround. When someone buys a tub, it's delivered from the warehouse or ordered in, installed shortly thereafter and that's it — onto the next one. Working with an outside contractor, however, can present lengthier waiting periods between order and install since the installation window is reliant on everything else the builder is working on for the space.

This project, for example, took a year to create; Berczyk was contacted at the very start.

"The whole thing had to be gutted and then started over," Berczyk says. "Then they got started on part of it, and we had to get in there and get the hot tub in so they could finish around it."

Given the fickle nature of construction — weather, permits, delayed orders, etc., can push back the completion date — Berczyk says it's imperative dealers remain flexible throughout the process.

"When a builder presents a project to you and tells you what they need or want, you have to be as responsive as you can, answer the questions as quickly as you can and just be available when they need you to be available to get the project started.

"It's important you find out what the timeline of the project is. When are they going to need you in there? What are they going to need you to do? When you get in there, sometimes they want you to do part of what you're supposed to do and then they want you to wait — you have to be prepared to do all of that. So when you bid the project, you have to think about how many trips you're going to make and what kind of delays there are going to be."

With lag times and the ever-present possibility of change, staying organized is essential for success. At Valley Pools & Spas, Berczyk assigns each project to a staff member who keeps track of the project timeline and serves as the point of contact.

"There's always somebody put in charge of the project that will be in charge of communicating with the builder or the homeowner or both," he says.

Finally, there's another sticking point dealers need to consider when working with outside firms: payment isn't likely to be prompt.

"A lot of times, you have to wait until a project is done because it's part of a mortgage or that type of thing, and the homeowner has to close on the property before you get paid, so you have to be patient," Berczyk says.

Warning Signs

Berczyk had no reservations working with Baratto because they've worked together before, but every relationship starts with a first impression. When you get a call from someone you've never collaborated with before, how do you know when to jump in or when to run?

"If they come without the client, if they start making remarks about the client that the client wouldn't like if they were sitting there, then I start getting a little cautious as to what I'm dealing with," Berczyk says. "Aside from that, I try not to pre-judge. Then I'll just wait and get into the project a little ways and start the pricing process. If they start coming back at me and want me to do this and cut my price there and do this and do that, then red flags start popping up. I may back out of a project if I get too much of that.

"There's nothing wrong with a builder asking to see if we can't sharpen our pencil a little, but it just depends on how they approach it and what they expect. Some of them expect the world for very little money, and that can be a challenge."

For that reason and countless others, it's normal to wade into a new venture and decide it's not a good match.

"With some builders, you just don't mesh," Berczyk says. "Things just don't go the way you want them to go."

While some dealers may avoid working with outside companies unless absolutely necessary, doing so can pay off in more ways than one.

"If you can show you can work with each other and you respect each other's performance," Berczyk says, "then in the future, the builder will remember that and come to us when they have a project and need a hot tub or swimming pool."

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