Claffey Pools Helps Residents Recover From Freeze Damage, With Help from Above
L to R: Brian, Shelly & Charlie Claffey
After a freezing winter storm shut down power in Texas in February, many pool owners experienced damage. With plumbing lines and equipment compromised, tens of thousands of pools across Texas were damaged beyond use. The Claffey Pools team of nearly 100 employees continues to work tirelessly to restore nearly 1,000 area pool systems. Serving North Texas for more than 30 years, Claffey Pools specializes in pool construction, service and renovation. Several weeks later, the Claffey Pools team can see the finish line on what has been and will be its most complicated and challenging endeavor. We sat down with Claffey Pools president Charlie Claffey to learn more about how his team weathered the storm.
FOR MORE THAN 34 YEARS... Claffey Pools has built more than 10,000 pools in North Texas. The Claffey Pools team is ranked third in the United States according to the “Pool and Spa News” Top 50 builders. Claffey Pools helps lead the industry by assisting in the adoption of Texas’ first uniform pool building code, serving the Texas Pool and Spa Coali- tion, the International Code Council, the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance and the Master Pools Guild.
WE ARE INDUSTRY LEADERS BECAUSE... of the tireless efforts of our staff, the talents of our trade partners and a culture centered on a passionate commitment for excellence.
TEXAS WAS DEVASTATED... by this winter weather. The never-before-seen cold, combined with power outages that, in some cases, lasted for days, caused immeasurable damage to homes and pools across the state. In what may go down as the single largest weather-related disaster in our nation’s history, swimming pools that rely on electricity to keep water moving were frozen solid.
WE WERE OVERWHELMED... with hundreds of calls, emails and texts in the days of the freeze. Our team assisted hundreds of clients at all hours of the night with calls and field visits. After the first few days, it was apparent that managing the requests without centralized communication and processes was impossible. In less than 24 hours, our team developed a web portal that gathered the data necessary to categorize damages and dispatch field personnel. The portal went live at 5 p.m. on February 18. By February 20, we were faced with the daunting task of performing nearly 900 freeze assessments.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE... in the last month can only be explained as miraculous. With our backs against the wall, the God-inspired ideas, systems, communication and execution is unfounded. The teamwork of employees, trade partners, supply side partners and manufacturing partners will forever change us. Our team, with daily help from above, has performed 900 assessments and estimates and repaired over 700 pools, covering a 120-mile radius, in just seven weeks. From what we are being told, the industry will be lucky to finish the balance of the repairs in seven months.
WE HAVE INCREDIBLE... team members that have worked seven-day weeks since the freeze event started — many working 20 hour days. We have incredible trade partners and manufacturing relationships that have been critical to the process. We have amazing people who have done amazing things.
WE ARE GRATEFUL... to God for the inspiration and guidance. From being inspired to clear the entire supply side chain inventory before anyone else reacted to being guided to design website portals, mechanized assessments and workflow management tools, our team has always been a step ahead.
THANK YOU... to our loyal clients. Throughout the entire process, our amazing clients have allowed us to pilot processes, use their homes as assessment training grounds, helped us feed our employees and even remodeled a 6,000-square-foot warehouse in one week — just to allow us to hold a never-before-seen amount of product. The friendships that are created as a result of working for so many of you is what makes each day special. Thank you.
