Kevin Krizizke didn’t exactly dive into his swimming pool repair business. He and his partner, David Emmens, sort of waded into it, working for its previous owner while earning their college degrees, then buying the business from him in 1999.
“We didn’t really aspire to do this,” says Krizizke (pronounced krit-ski). “But we really enjoy it. Neither of us is the type to sit in an office all day.”
Now Krizizke and Emmens run Acadia Pool Service, still named for the street where it originated in Roselle, out of a storefront in Elgin. Cell phones in hand, they oversee three crews of two men each who repair and maintain pools and spas within a 45-minute radius of Elgin. They also install a line of portable spas.
Acadia has contracts with 40 clients who hire the “pool dudes,” as Krizizke says clients call them, to clean and service their pools weekly. Another 150 clients employ Acadia to open and close their pools, then call them as needed.
In the spring, they open their regular clients’ pools from mid-April to the end of June. In addition, says Krizizke, “every Tom, Dick and Harry who doesn’t have a pool contract wants his opened the week before Memorial Day.” In the fall, they close clients’ pools from Labor Day through November. Many of their clients, he says, use heaters to keep their pools open through the fall.
Opening a pool, he says, includes cleaning the water, attaching accessories such as ladders and slides, flushing out the pipes and determining if any repairs should be scheduled. If the pool was covered and cleaned in the fall, the water usually doesn’t need to be removed in the spring, he says. Closing a pool includes clearing underground pipes of water, removing accessories, and cleaning and covering the pool.
During the summer, Krizizke repairs clients’ pools and equipment and restores old pools. The latter ranges from replacing old tiles to completely rebuilding pools. About two-thirds of his clients have pools made of gunite, a concrete-like material. The other third have steel or fiberglass pools with vinyl liners.
His college degree in science helps him understand pool chemistry, says Krizizke. To maintain perfect pool water, he explains, the pool owner should add chlorine to disinfect it, algaecide to prevent or kill algae, clarifier to make microscopic dirt particles cling together and fall to the bottom and pH increasers or decreasers to control the acidity.
He recommends the owner check the pool’s pH level several times a week to determine the acidity of the water. Too acidic or not acidic enough, and the water can irritate the skin and eyes or damage equipment.
What alters the pH level is the amount of use the pool gets, the amount of leaves that fall into it, amount of sunlight it receives, amount of chlorine added and the quality of the water.
Water quality varies from town to town and house to house, says Krizizke. It is easier to maintain pool water quality when the homeowner has city water, he says. “Well water varies from medium to horrible,” he says. “Usually, it is hard and high in minerals so we have to add a binder to reduce the iron. Sometimes the iron is so high, the pool is orange when you fill it.”
Some houses, says Krizizke, have spigots that draw water that’s been through the water softener. “Then, the water doesn’t have enough calcium, so you have to add it,” he says. “Or, better yet, reroute a water pipe around the softener.”
Before Krizizke sends out a repair crew, he diagnoses as much as he can over the phone. “One guy went on about his pool’s chemical imbalances, then admitted he had an inflatable pool. I had to tell him all he could do was empty it out and refill it,” says Krizizke. More often, though, the symptom suggests the problem: a sunken deck can mean an underground leak or a screeching pump can indicate broken motor bearings.
One of Krizizke’s favorite tools is an acoustical listening device that enables him to hear a water leak through concrete or Gunite. It helps him locate the leak within a foot or two.
The most neglected pool Krizizke ever saw was one that hadn’t been opened for seven years. “There were plants growing in there that were taller than I am,” he says. “We had to pump it out, repair the cracks and replace the equipment. Now, it’s fine and they use it frequently.
Krizizke tries to respond to repair calls ASAP, he says, because no one wants to lose their pool time during the summer. Problem is, lousy weather keeps interfering. Heavy rains and thunderstorms set back his schedule, he says. Tornado watches were so frequent this spring, though, Krizizke says it was a matter of crying wolf. “We kept working and never saw a tornado,” he says. To track the weather, Krizizke frequently checks AccuWeather.com on his computer.
Krizizke and Emmens say their partnership works because their skills complement each other’s. Winters, the duo uses many of their pool-repair skills–tiling, cement work, painting–in remodeling houses. They also plow snow.
As they grow their business, vacations are few for Krizizke and Emmens. Krizizke spends his free time with his wife, Cindy, a speech-language pathologist, and their 5-year-old triplets. Life is easier at the Krizizke household now that their sons are past infancy, he says. “We sleep now,” he says.
Ironically, neither Krizizke or his partner has a pool at home–yet. His ideal retirement home, says Krizizke, would have a back-yard pool with all the bells and whistles, including remote-control lighting and temperature controls and chemical feeders. More important, the pool would come with its own pool dude who would clean and repair it.
For more information, contact Kevin Krizizke, 847-289-5604.
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One on one with Krizizke
Q. What stuff have you found in pools?
A. Live fish, salamanders, snakes, dog poop, grocery carts, garbage, knives and lots and lots of frogs. One pool was full of furniture because there had been a house fire and the firefighters threw the furniture in.
Q. Why has Hollywood made the pool guy a comedic figure?
A. It’s an unregulated industry, so there are all kinds out there. That’s why I belong to the NSPI (National Spa & Pool Institute), which works to separate the “have truck, will travel” guys from the professionals. [My partner] and I are both NSPI-certified pool service technicians. And, no, we don’t spend our days surrounded by bikini babes–that’s Hollywood.
Q. Do people ever ask you to fill in their pools?
A. Yes, about once a year, usually because an old pool needs too many repairs and they no longer want to pay for them. But we hear the threat every week: “If you guys can’t come out and fix this soon, I’m going to fill it in and get rid of it.” We fix it and they’re in their pool again.
Q. Do you allow your crew to jump into your clients’ pools on hot days?
A. No, never. Not professional. Tempting, but not professional.
— Leslie Mann
