Pool Builder
Going Above & Beyond For Pool Customers
Scott Payne knows a few things about making brand ambassadors out of his pool customers. As one of the leading pool builders in Pennsylvania, he says he considers it his personal priority to make sure that his customers are happy with the end product.
His company Scott Payne Custom Pools is a local fixture in Montgomeryville which is located roughly 40 minutes between Allentown and Philadelphia as the crow flies. Word-of-mouth referrals are important to the builder who says that when it comes to the backyard, his clients are looking for a firm that does it all.
Recalibrating For Success
“Over my career, I saw the disconnect with some of the companies I worked for in the industry. We set up the model of Scott Payne Custom Pools to be different. When you’re expecting a client who is spending a lot of money with you to GC their own project, that never ends well. So we vertically aligned with carpenters, landscapers, and hardscapers. We created a very good sub-base,” said Payne, “now most of that work is in-house for us. We employ Scott Payne Outdoors as our sister company and have four full-time carpenters in that company. We have landscape, hardscape and fencing in-house, with a landscape architect on staff. There’s a benefit to it, and the customers appreciate it. They want to write one check to one person,” said Payne.
Being a One-Stop Shop
Being that all-in-one solution for the homeowner means that quite often, Payne is handling every aspect of the backyard renovation. This goes for everything from the swimming pool, to the hardscaping, to the landscaping, to all of the carpentry that goes into building the various outdoor amenities his clients are looking for. “When clients call, they ask, ‘You do everything, right? Yes, ma’am. Good, that’s what we want.’ and it just reinforces the decision for them,” said Payne.
Payne said that being that one-stop shop is what his pool customers are looking for nine times out of ten. “I have a silly rule, and that is if someone asked me more than three times for something, I explore it just to see what it would take to become fluent in it,” said Payne, “for example, we do sports courts. Now we’re one of the top distributors on the East Coast for Versa Court. We do X Grass for putting greens. Now we do Danver outdoor door cabinetry. There’s just such a benefit to being that person and having all that in our back pocket. We’re a Generac dealer and do generators. Why? People ask for them or they had bad experiences with their existing contractor. They complained about it. So we got licensed. We’ll do 50 to 60 generators this year. It makes sense. We’re already there. We have an electrician there, and we have a gas guy there.”
On Educating Himself
For Payne, the path to becoming a top pool builder would mean educating himself on what he’d need to learn to make a difference in his own local market. That meant taking the time to take classes that would make him a better builder. “I made a promise when I started the company to forget everything I thought I knew,” said Payne, “I was taught things when I worked for a national builder who was very high volume. Everybody had the same sentiment and that was how it was always done. Their process never factored in if it was right or wrong or justified.”
“I developed a relationship with Kevin Ruddy from Omega Structures. And at the time he was entrenched in Genesis with Skip Phillips and Brian Van Bower. We had this amazing friendship and he kept telling me to come take a class,” explained Payne.
“I just thought it was such an oxymoron because everything that this company stood for was not what Genesis stood for. There was just no sense in doing it their way because it was going to benefit me, but it was never going to trickle down to my customer. Literally, I think the day that I started my company, I called Kevin Ruddy and I said, hey, I’m ready,” said Payne.
“He connected me with the office at Genesis. The first class I took was in October of 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a pool studio class at a Master Pools Guild event. So it’s a very nice hotel and I didn’t have a laptop. I did my pool studio on a desktop. I literally dragged my CPU down there with my monitor, my keyboard and my mouse. And I walked into class the first day and it just brought looks and laughter, but I set it up on a table where everybody set their laptops up, and that was it. I was hooked. And I’m very proud to say that I completed my SWD. 150 hours of education all over the country inside of two years,” explained Payne.
On Educating Pool Customers
Payne said that getting that education was key for him simply because building pools in Pennsylvania can be difficult at times. That education often comes into play when it comes time to educate the customer about what is involved with building a pool. “I think the consistency of state, county, and township regulations do not exist in Pennsylvania. It’s a state where every township has its own set of rules. We build in probably 40 townships in a 75 miles square area. Each has different rules and regulations. I have a full-time person where all they do is handle permits. They expedite engineering, download and fill forms out. It’s all they do all day.”
Other than the permitting concerns are the restrictions that come with building an inground swimming pool. “Stormwater management has become very prevalent in the past ten years. In almost every township it could cost the customer an additional $5,000 to $15,000, depending on how big the devices are,” said Payne.
While the pandemic spurred a tremendous increase in outdoor living improvements, rising costs are also something Payne said he has to frequently contend with. “When it comes to price increases, there’s a sadness to it. I have to be honest, we had a base price pool that we sold all day, every day. Pre-Covid that base pool was $59,000. The base price of that pool today is $84,000. It’s at the identical margin and we’re not making a penny more on that pool,” said Payne, who said it’s his unfortunate duty to break the news about what pools cost these days.
It’s also incumbent upon him to educate consumers about the pool-building process. “The process is horrible. It’s like a hip replacement,” explained Payne, “the client says, ‘I don’t want to go to PT, I don’t want to be in a hospital, but I want to dance.’ So I’m going to come in, I’m going to tear your yard up for six weeks, six months, hopefully not six years, right? But you’re going to have that first party and you’re going to remember Scott Payne Custom Pools. That’s why I do this,” said Payne.
Making every customer happy is the goal, even when things go awry, said Payne. “I think I was in business about two years and I was called out on a job for a woman named Rachel. She gave me her budget and her wish list. The number she threw out was not going to get this done. I politely start to excuse myself and say, listen, you’re probably more of a vinyl pool client than a gunite pool construction. She gets upset and I listen to her. She says, ‘I went through this hard divorce, and want to build a swimming pool for my kids, you’re going to be the builder.”, said Payne.
“I pictured my mom with my sister and me, struggling. So I said, okay, you know what? That budget, can you stretch it? And she said, ‘Yeah, I can stretch it.’ And I said, okay, ‘I’m going to bend. You stretch, I bend and we’re going to do this together,'” said Payne.
The project, which was one of Payne’s first, had its inevitable hiccups. One Payne counts as a costly lesson in doing the right thing when it counts. A few weeks after starting construction of the pool, Payne would hear back from his customer with an urgent concern. “I think it has something to do with the pool she said,” explained Payne, “the toilets are all backed up and I think you hit the sewer line. I walk through her backyard, and I walk through the neighbor’s yard, and I walk another yard over and guess what I find? A sewer line that goes right through the middle of the pool. The sewer line is leaving the basement at about seven feet deep. It’s under the pool. My excavator more than likely nicked it. Gunite comes in and shoots over it and concrete just seeped into the pipe,” said Payne.
“There’s a Marriott around the corner. I get them a room, and call my excavator,” said Payne, “I said, ‘can you do me a favor and bring the mini X and meet me at that job? He and I, over the next five or six hours dig down the front side of this pool to find the pipe. Sure enough, it’s broke.”
“We find the break. Now I have to make a decision, do I fix it or do I move it?”, said Payne, “The pool is parked on top of this pipe. I do the right thing. We dig all the way around the deep end of the pool and demo the equipment that was already set. We connect it, if you can imagine, like a question mark to the other side to the lateral going three yards down. We dig the hole, plumb it, put in cleanouts and get it inspected and backfilled. We reset the equipment, which is now junk. We redo all the plumbing, paid for that twice. We tiled, coped, and put the deck on the pool while still completing it in 28 days. It cost me $8,500 for that mistake but that story sticks out to me as a win, as setting the expectation at that point that we’re going to do things the right way, because it’s not about money. It’s about integrity.”
Nick Buchholz didn’t come into the pool industry through construction or design school—he came in through the kitchen. His early ambition was to become a world-class chef, and it’s that culinary background that now shapes his approach to custom pool building at Basin Pool Designs. Based in Tennessee, Buchholz doesn’t just build pools—he assembles immersive environments with the same precision, layering, and intention as a Michelin-starred tasting menu. “It’s quite similar,” says Bucholz, “starting with the raw ingredients and trying to turn them into something spectacular.” That mindset—equal parts obsessive and creative—has positioned Basin as one of the most design-forward firms in the country, with pools that feel more like art installations than backyard amenities.
At first glance, Buchholz’s journey from aspiring chef to luxury pool designer may seem unconventional. But look closer, and the connection between haute cuisine and high-end pool building becomes apparent. Much like designing a gourmet menu, every Basin project is layered with thoughtful detail, curated ingredients, and a deeply personal creative process. “The process for me is almost the same,” says Buchholz. “I do think about it like I’m building a menu or creating a new dish.”
From Culinary Arts to Outdoor Artistry
Raised in Tennessee, Buchholz initially pursued a career in fine dining, attending culinary school and working under top chefs. But he soon realized the restaurant life—working nights, weekends, and holidays—clashed with the lifestyle he wanted. A friend introduced him to pool and landscape design, and from there, Buchholz’s trajectory shifted.
“I honestly thought I was going to be a chef,” he says. “But I was fortunate enough to get to talk someone into letting me design some projects, and I taught myself CAD.”
As 3D modeling software became accessible, Buchholz saw an opportunity. Unable to hand-draw, he leaned heavily into the new digital tools, quickly developing a skillset that blended his creative instincts with technical precision. He spent years designing for top-tier firms in Phoenix—including California Pools—before moving back home to Tennessee to start Basin Pool Designs.
Basin Pool Designs: Beyond the Ordinary
While many builders in the region chased production work during the pandemic boom, Buchholz went the opposite direction, focusing on highly custom, boutique projects.
“I’m not interested in volume,” he explains. “I want every project to be unique. It doesn’t excite me to get up and build a 20-by-40 rectangle in every backyard.”
This design-forward approach is evident in every Basin Pool Designs project. Whether it’s a highly technical pool application, a modern accent to the overall outdoor living area, or something completely visually unexpected, each project is deeply considered.
And yet, the firm isn’t about luxury for luxury’s sake. Buchholz is just as proud of using materials smartly and economically—another lesson he carried from the kitchen.
“One of my mottos I picked up from an incredible chef I worked for was ‘peasant food fit for a king,’” he shares. “We don’t have to use $100-a-square-foot tile to make it look excellent.”
Sukabumi stone, for instance, features prominently in several of Basin’s projects. It’s not exorbitantly priced, but when deployed with care and context, it elevates the entire aesthetic. It’s this philosophy—refined design, thoughtful materials, and masterful execution—that’s become Basin’s signature recipe.
The Process: Part Art, Part Engineering
For Buchholz, the design journey begins with immersion: understanding the client, the architecture of the home, the surrounding landscape, and the emotional experience the space should create.
“I sweat the small stuff,” he says. “Every little line matters. I want to bring the outdoor project indoors and vice versa, so it feels like one seamless environment.”
Buchholz’s attention to detail isn’t limited to visuals. Basin projects are engineered to the highest standards, with pressure-tested plumbing, compaction testing, and retaining systems that rival commercial installations. That blend of artistic vision and structural rigor is what earns the trust of architects, engineers, and discerning homeowners alike.
One standout project in Brentwood—a 66-foot Lautner edge pool—was constructed on unstable soil, requiring 80-foot helical piers and significant structural coordination before a single drop of water could be added.
“We had to build it upside down, basically,” Buchholz recalls. “The pool was laid out before the house was even there, and the elevation challenges were serious.”
Yet the result is flawless: an elevated mirror of still water that reflects the sky and surrounding hills. Shot by renowned photographer Jimmy Smith, the image is so iconic it’s featured prominently on PebbleTec’s website.
A Circle of Inspiration
Though Basin Pool Designs calls Tennessee home, the firm’s creative DNA is informed by Buchholz’s time in the Southwest and his participation in organizations like Tributary Revelation and Genesis. Influences like Kirk Bianchi, Randy Angell, and Ben Lasseter have helped shape his approach.
“I’ve been fortunate to be around so many good designers,” he says. “But I’m also inspired by people outside the pool world—architects, landscape designers, even chefs.”
In fact, one of Buchholz’s favorite projects—a striking elliptical pool set on a private runway in Lebanon, TN—was originally inspired by the nose cone of a DC-9 airplane. The design curves harmoniously with the surrounding garden walls and includes a custom wood diving board installed in the center of a Baja shelf.
“It was a risky design,” Buchholz admits. “But the ellipse was so captivating for that space. Even though the home is all straight lines, the pool just opens everything up in a more organic way.”
Intentional Spaces, Calming Energy
For Buchholz, a successful design isn’t just about form—it’s about feeling. One early-career build, nestled at the foot of Camelback Mountain in Arizona, remains a favorite. With its intimate integration into the home, perimeter overflow edges, and quiet minimalism, the pool delivers what he describes as “a sense of calm.”
“I like still water. It calms me,” he says. “I’m an intense person all day, and when I see that clean design and those earth tones reflecting in the water, it just levels me.”
It’s that feeling—restorative, peaceful, refined—that Buchholz wants to deliver for every client.
Selective by Design
The statement “We don’t build for everyone” appears boldly on Basin’s website. It’s not an attitude of elitism—it’s about alignment.
“I’m passionate and opinionated,” Buchholz says. “It’s easy to tell if a client will respond well to that. And if they understand the level of craftsmanship and experience we bring, then they’re probably a Basin Pool Designs client.”
That alignment is key, especially when the firm is asked to push boundaries. From raised spas and fire features to complex geometry and full outdoor living compositions, Buchholz is often asked to deliver the exceptional—and thrives under those expectations.
“Every one of these builds is a different challenge,” he adds. “But that’s what keeps it exciting.”
What’s Next for Basin Pool Designs?
Looking ahead, Buchholz wants to explore designs that blend structure and softness—organic forms with refined precision.
“I’d love to do a full perimeter-overflow circular pool,” he says. “Something modern, but it feels calm. More grasses, more earth tones, less flash.”
Whatever the form, one thing is clear: Buchholz will approach it the same way he approaches every project—with a chef’s discipline, an artist’s eye, and a builder’s commitment to excellence.
Ready to take a deeper dive?
Listen to our entire conversation with Nick Buchholz with Basin Pool Designs on the Pool Magazine podcast.
Photo Credits:
Builder: Basin Pool Designs
Photographer: Jimi Smith Photography
News
United Aqua Group Member Builds Dream Pool for Local Boy Battling Cancer, Inspired by Conference Keynote
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (May 22, 2025)— After hearing a moving keynote address at the 2025 United Aqua Group conference, Luke Unger of Tredway Pools in Fort Wayne, Indiana returned home with a renewed commitment to making a difference. Remarkably, on the same day, he received a message about a local boy battling cancer whose biggest wish was to swim in his own backyard pool.
For Unger, the timing felt like more than a coincidence, it felt like a calling.
“When I heard John [O’Leary] at the UAG conference, it really struck a chord,” said Luke Unger, owner of Tredway Pools and United Aqua Group member. “It reminded me that our work can be more than business, it can be a way to change lives. When I saw that message, it was just a no-brainer. We had to do it.”
The keynote speaker shared his powerful story of surviving burns over 100% of his body as a young boy, inspiring UAG members to turn resilience into action and make a meaningful impact with their lives.
“This is what our group is all about,” said United Aqua Group President Craig Goodson. “We’re not just a buying group; we’re a network of leaders who care deeply about their communities. Luke’s action is a shining example of the character and compassion our members bring to our industry.”
United Aqua Group frequently hosts events that go beyond technical training and purchasing power. Its annual conference aims to build leadership, foster inspiration, and create lasting partnerships across the pool and spa industry.
For more information, please contact [email protected].
About United Aqua Group
UAG is a premier group purchasing organization serving the pool and spa industry. Since 1963, UAG has empowered its members with access to competitive pricing, exclusive vendor programs, and industry-leading resources. With a nationwide network of over 350 independent pool professionals, UAG fosters a culture of collaboration and excellence, supporting businesses of all sizes and experiences levels in both the residential and commercial sectors.
Learn more about United Aqua Group and how to join here.
Contractors and Builders
PHTA and ICC Publish ANSI/PHTA/ICC-4 2025 American National Standard For Aboveground/Onground Residential Pools
(Alexandria, Va.) – The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA) and the International Code Council (ICC) are pleased to announce the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval and publication of ANSI/PHTA/ICC-4 2025 American National Standard for Aboveground/Onground Residential Swimming Pools (PHTA-4).
The newly revised PHTA-4 standard provides recommended minimum guidelines for the design, equipment, operation, and installation of aboveground/onground residential swimming pools. This is an essential document for the pool and hot tub industry, and especially for manufacturers and producers of aboveground/onground residential swimming pools. Consumers who own or are considering installing a pool of this type will find vital safety requirements within.
“PHTA is proud to have spearheaded the revision of this key standard for the pool industry,” says Sabeena Hickman, CAE, President and CEO of PHTA. “We are grateful to have the ICC as a partner as we continue to improve the design, operation, and safety of aboveground and onground residential pools. We could not have accomplished this without the incredible efforts of our volunteers who served on the PHTA-4 Standard Writing Committee and the subject matter experts who provided their insights.”
The changes to the standard include several new requirements which were added with safety features in mind. Pools with a reinforcing strap or belt around the outside must not be designed in a way that it could be used as a foothold for a child to climb into the pool. Detailed content about barriers around the swimming pool was also added to correspond with requirements in the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC). Another new safety-related requirement restricts openings and gaps at a certain level below the water surface to avoid underwater entrapment.
Federal, state, local, and international authorities, as well as industry members and consumers, recognize the need for modern, up-to-date standards governing the design, construction, alteration, repair, and maintenance of swimming pools, spas, hot tubs, aquatic facilities, and other water-containment vessels. Part of the ANSI/PHTA standards development process includes regular review of existing standards to ensure this need is met. The newly revised PHTA-4 standard explains certain criteria for the design, manufacturing, testing, care, and use of aboveground/onground residential (Type O) non-diving swimming pools and their components.
This standard applies to pool builders, manufacturers, producers, pool service companies, certifying bodies, pool designers, public health and building code officials, local municipalities, and pool and spa operators, as well as consumers who wish to enjoy this type of pool.
The new PHTA-4 standard is available to read here or purchase here. For more information, please visit the PHTA-4 webpage, email [email protected], or call (703) 838-0083.
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About the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance
The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA), a non-profit organization with 4,000 members from around the world, was established in 1956 to support, promote, and protect the common interests of the $62B pool, hot tub, and spa industry. PHTA provides education, advocacy, standards development, research, and market growth initiatives to increase our members’ professionalism, knowledge, and profitability. Additionally, PHTA promotes the use of pools by expanding swimming, water safety, and related research and outreach activities aimed at introducing more people to swimming, making swimming environments safer, and keeping pools open to serve communities. For more information, visit www.phta.org.
About the International Code Council
The International Code Council is the leading global source of model codes and standards and building safety solutions. Code Council codes, standards and solutions are used to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable communities and buildings worldwide.
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