Gibraltar Pools Corporation.

Gibraltar Pools has sold the same idea from the same Route 1 showroom in Topsfield for four decades: a rectangular on-ground pool, assembled by a crew that expects to be finished the day it arrives. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, number 129931, is active and held under Gibraltar Pools Corp, and its Better Business Bureau file — opened in 1986 — carries an A+. Then the ratings pull apart, and that split is the most useful thing to know before calling. Google has them at 3.7 across 145 ratings. Angi and HomeAdvisor each show 5.0, but from the same eight reviews on two copies of one page. BuildZoom shows 1.0 from seven. The praise is specific and it repeats, and much of it is about the store rather than the build. Customers name the counter staff — Kenny walking someone through setting valves for the summer, Jonah suggesting a Gizzmo for winterizing, Keith and Noah declining to upsell — and a July 2026 caller describes Marcelo getting a broken pool running again in a day. One recent buyer arrived at the showroom having "heard and read many negative comments" and left calling it a surprisingly good experience. Owners come back a long way out: one had their pool installed 16 years ago and just replaced the liner, another 18 years ago and had stairs added for grandchildren. The complaints cluster tightly, and they are about liners. Three customers writing in the last few months describe the same arc — a liner that failed, then a fight over whether it was covered. One says a lifetime-warranty promise turned into a roughly $2,600 bill eight years on; another says the vinyl manufacturer itself agreed the liner was faulty and shipped a replacement, while the company still wanted paying to install it; a third says four other pool companies identified a seam separation that Gibraltar declined to call one. Separate threads run alongside: disputed service-call charges, a 2025 buyer who found the building permit filed in his own name with no mention of the electrical permit, and buyers in 2021 and 2026 who say the finished water was well short of the four feet they were told to expect. A woman writing in May 2026 says she was refused a quote visit unless her husband was there. Five of the last fourteen reviews are negative, so this is a live pattern, not old history. Worth it if you want their specific patented pool and value a showroom you can walk into for parts and water testing — but get the liner warranty in writing, confirm exactly what an opening or service call includes, and ask in advance who is pulling which permits.