Dreamland Custom Pools

Ken Malarik

3 months ago

Dreamland Custom Pools did an awesome job on our custom in-ground pool. Brian stayed within our budget but still delivered a great design with impressive attention to detail—more than other companies we considered. The crew was careful, respectful of our property, and clearly took pride in their work. There were a couple small delays due to weather, but communication was always clear and professional. Everything was finished in a timely manner, and we got to enjoy our pool all summer. Highly recommend! I’ll try to remember to come back and post some photos in the Spring once everything blooms!

daniel Scott

5 months ago

Excellent service and beautiful results! I couldn’t be happier with my experience. The team was professional, friendly, and incredibly detail-oriented from day one. They walked me through the entire process, helped me choose the right design and materials, and delivered exactly what they promised, on time and within budget. My new pool looks amazing, the water system runs perfectly, and the backyard feels like a resort now! If you’re looking for a company that truly takes pride in their work and treats your project like their own, this is the one to call. Highly recommend!

Shani Amram

5 months ago

Dreamland Custom Pools were amazing from start to finish! The team was professional, responsive, and truly cared about every detail. Our pool turned out absolutely beautiful — exactly what we dreamed of. Highly recommend them to anyone looking for top-quality work and great service!

Matthew Hagen

a year ago

Brian and his team designed a well thought through plan for our backyard. With the limited space in our yard, they tastefully installed a 10x20 pergola, hot tub, bar, TV, and other landscaping needs. Punctual, communicative, and honest are the three adjectives I would use for Brian and the team at Dreamland.

DANA NAE GARCIA

6 months ago

We are *almost* at the end of our process here! I'll be back to update the review once we're fully complete, but I want to share my learnings as they are currently fresh in my mind, and as I'm sure people are starting to plan their 2026 projects. I'm hoping once everything is fully done, it will feel like a 4 or 5 star review, and if that's the case, I'll edit this accordingly. We hired Dreamland after two prior contractors fell through (both for different reasons; one is actually a great contractor, he was just in over his head on the pool project; the other was a terrible company.) Pros: - Willingness: First and foremost, Dreamland was willing to take the job even though the prior contractor had dug the hole and installed the rebar. I am super appreciative that Brian came out, gave us a fair price to finish the work and got going. Both Brian, and our Project Manager are good humans, kind and patient with my many questions. - Expertise: It takes a lot of expertise to do a pool in Lower Merion. There are lots of extra hoops to jump through, you have to be a good partner to the township, the inspectors, everyone. Brian and his team did a good job navigating the complexities of our design and township. Still TBD on whether we pass the final inspection, will update accordingly. - Quality work, Fair Price: So far, the work looks really nice and professional. They hire good sub contractors who do a thorough job. From the experience with the 3 companies, Dreamland falls in the same price range as the others, but quality is excellent. Cons: - Timelines: Timelines mean absolutely nothing to pool companies. From what I can tell, this isn't specific to Dreamland, but it is beyond frustrating. We built a very specific timeline into our contract, and they've missed pretty much every deadline. And frankly, there's not a lot you can do about it because of all the inspection complexities - you can't just finish the work yourself if you're frustrated. We are now 14 weeks into what was scoped as a 6-8 week project, and there's really no clear end in sight. (I mean, there MIGHT be an end in sight, but it's hard to actually know what that end is because there are about 5-6 process steps still needed in order to get this thing over the line (and some of the steps are really big, like running the gas line!), and you can't get a straight answer on timelines becuase of the number of sub - contractors in the process). - Payment terms: the way the current contracts are set up (at least for Dreamland), is that you pay big chunks of money WAY ahead of the appropriate milestone timelines. You've basically paid 95% of the whole project before it's 60% done. They tell you that this is so that they can pre-pay their sub contractors to get good service from them. I don't know the complexities of this industry well enough to know if that's true or not, and who knows what would happen if they didn't prepay their subs, but as I said, we are 14 weeks into a 6-8 week project, sooooo.....From what I've heard, my friends who are lawyers or have lawyers, negotiate the contract more judiciously than I did and put real teeth in there to manage things differently. - Communication - too many times to count, a team member (or sub contractor) was supposed to show up and didn't...or was supposed to let us know they were coming and didn't. This has left us having to chase Brian for every update. You'll talk to Brian Monday, he'll have a plan for Wednesday. Wednesday will slip to Friday, Friday will slip to Saturday, you'll reach out Sunday because the thing still hasn't happened, and by Monday evening you're STILL chasing the answer. Honestly, in the 14 weeks so far, this has probably happened 4 -5 of the weeks, maybe more. This process is not for the faint of heart, and if I could do it over again, I'd do a lot of things differently. I'll be back with another update once it's finished, but I wish someone had given me this kind of insight as I was embarking on this project. Would I do it over again? Who knows, too soon to tell. I'll let you know.