A swimming pool in Vermont is a short-season luxury, and the businesses that look after them work to that calendar. There are a few frantic weeks of openings in late spring, a summer of weekly visits for those who want them, and a rush of closings before the first freeze. A pool company in Shelburne, Stowe or Manchester may have a few hundred customers who all want the same weeks. Hiring well here is mostly about timing, scope and knowing which parts of the job are not pool service at all.
No pool license in Vermont, so what do you check?
Vermont does not license pool cleaning or pool service. There is no state lookup to run. The checks are the ones you would apply to any service that comes onto your property unsupervised.
Ask for proof of liability insurance. A pool service works with chemicals, electricity and water near your house, and an accident is a claim. Ask for references, ideally from customers with pools like yours. And get the scope of each visit in writing: skimming and vacuuming, brushing, checking and balancing the water, cleaning the filter, emptying baskets, and what chemicals are included in the price.
Advice the Attorney General's office gives about home improvement jobs carries over to pool service: written terms, proof of insurance, and caution about paying for a whole season up front to a company you have not used before.
Opening and closing around a Vermont frost
The two most important visits of the year are the opening and the closing, because that is when a pool is most likely to be damaged. A closing done badly can leave water in lines that freeze and crack over a long winter. An opening done late can leave a cover full of leaves and a pool turned green.
Ask the company what a closing covers: dropping the water level, clearing the lines with air and capping them, dosing the water for winter, pulling ladders and rails, and fitting the cover. Ask what the opening includes in return, and whether a green pool costs extra to recover. Book both early. In a cold year in Middlebury or Rutland, the window between the last frost and the first warm weekend is short, and the companies fill it fast.
Heaters, pumps and wiring belong to licensed trades
Pool service ends where the regulated trades begin. A pool heater may run on propane, and connecting or repairing a gas appliance is work for someone holding the Division of Fire Safety's gas certification. The Division's licensing page lists that alongside its electrician and plumber licenses.
Wiring a pump, a heater or pool lighting is electrical work. Pools combine water and electricity in a way that leaves no margin for error, and the bonding and ground-fault protection around a pool are specialized. Ask whether the person doing that work holds a Vermont electrician license, and check it on the state's licensed electricians list. A pool service that also "does a little wiring" without a licensed electrician is a risk not worth taking. The same goes for an electric heat pump pool heater, which needs its own circuit and often a larger one than the pump; if you are adding one to an older house in Bennington or Brattleboro, ask the electrician whether the panel has room for it before you buy the heater.
Rebuilding, resurfacing or installing a pool is construction. Ask any contractor quoting that work whether they are registered with the Office of Professional Regulation, and check the OPR lookup; a registered contractor brings the written-contract and insurance rules of 26 V.S.A. chapter 106 with them.
Water from a well, water down the drain
Many pools in Vermont are on properties with private wells and septic systems, and both affect pool care. Filling or topping up a pool draws a lot of water. A well with modest yield can be pumped down, leaving the house without water for hours. Ask the pool company whether they fill from the well or recommend a water delivery, and tell them what you know about your well's yield.
Draining is the other half. Pool water carries chlorine and other chemicals, and a large volume of it should not go into a septic system, where it can overload the tank and disturb the bacteria the system relies on. Ask where the company discharges water when lowering the pool for closing. The Department of Environmental Conservation's wastewater program is the agency behind septic permits if you have questions about your system.
Pools near a lake or stream
Some Vermont pools sit close to lakes or streams, especially in the lake towns of the Champlain Valley and the Kingdom. Water discharged from a pool should not run into surface water. Ask the pool company where it will go. If you are thinking of building a new pool on lakeshore property, remember that new development within 250 feet of a lake larger than 10 acres may need a shoreland permit from DEC; ask before you design the patio around it.
Covers, chemicals and safety on the property
A pool company handles chemicals that are dangerous when stored or mixed badly, and it often leaves some of them at your house. Ask what will be stored on the property, where, and how. Chlorine products and acids should be kept apart, dry, and out of reach of children and pets. If the company stores nothing on site, ask how they handle a mid-week problem.
Covers are a safety question as much as a cleaning one. A winter cover that sags with rainwater and snowmelt can hold enough water to be a drowning hazard for a small child or a pet. Ask the company how they keep water off the cover through the spring, or whether a safety cover that is anchored and drains would suit your pool better. Before the opening in a family house in Essex or Colchester, ask the crew to check the gate, the latch and any alarm, since those are easy to forget after a winter of disuse.
Digging for a new pool or a new line
Installing an in-ground pool or running a new electrical or gas line to an existing one means digging, so someone has to notify 811 before the excavator arrives. 30 V.S.A. § 7006 then gives the utilities 72 hours, with weekends and holidays left out of the count, to mark what they own. Lines you own, such as a buried feed to the pool house, are not marked.
Comparing pool service quotes
The Vermont calculator default for a typical pool service job is about $260 to $520; the Vermont pool service cost page compares openings, closings and weekly care. A seasonal package that bundles the opening, the closing and weekly visits may cost less than buying them separately, but read what it includes. Ask how chemicals are billed, what happens if a visit is missed for rain, and whether the company will check the pool for you if you are away. In Dorset or Woodstock, where a pool may belong to someone who is away for weeks, ask how the company reports after each visit, with photos, readings and any problem it found.
