While the pool is already open
Pool Equipment & Plumbing in Southern California
The skimmer, the drains, the returns, the autofill — everything that lives behind your pool’s surface, sorted while the pool is already drained for resurfacing. It is the one window in a pool’s life when all of it is reachable, and doing it now costs a fraction of doing it later.
(951) 419-4206Free estimates. Financing available. Licensed — CSLB #1148412.
Run by Oscar Retana, twenty-one years on Southern California pools, with his sons on the same crew. Fixed price in writing, and nothing gets touched without your say-so.
Where we work most: Riverside, Redlands, Hemet, Murrieta, Corona and Anaheim — and across five counties: Moreno Valley, Temecula, Menifee, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fontana, Chino Hills, Irvine, Orange, Pasadena, Glendora, Whittier, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and everywhere in between.
Oscar Retana and his sons — the crew that will be in your backyard. CA’s Finest & Quality Pool Plastering Inc, Riverside County.
Who will be in your backyard
The people who will see your pool with the surface off
“When the plaster comes out, the pool finally tells you the truth. I would rather you hear it from me, with a photo in my hand.”
Oscar has spent twenty-one years opening up pools in Southern California, and his sons work alongside him. Between them they have had more than a hundred pools stripped back to the shell, which means very little down there surprises them any more.
That experience is worth something on this particular job. The same three or four people are in your backyard the whole time, so the person who sees the skimmer is the person who tells you about it — not a foreman relaying it from a crew that has already moved on.
And our rule never changes: you get a photo of anything we find and a price for it, and nothing happens until you say yes. If it can wait, we say it can wait.
You will have Oscar’s number, in English or Spanish, whichever you prefer.
The reason this page exists
The one window when your pool’s plumbing is reachable
Your equipment pad sits out in the open and can be worked on any day of the year. Everything on the other end of those pipes cannot — which is exactly why this is such a good moment.
Think about where your pool’s plumbing actually lives. The skimmer throat, the main drains, the return fittings, the autofill, the light niche — all of it is set into the shell and finished over with plaster or pebble. From the day your pool was surfaced until the day that surface comes off, those connections are behind a layer of cement.
So while the pool is open, all of it is sitting there in plain view and reaching it costs nothing extra. The drain is already paid for. The demolition is already paid for. The access is free.
That is why the questions that are cheap to answer during a remodel get expensive the week after it. Is that skimmer sound? Is the return fitting still the original from 1987? Is the autofill working, or was it shut off six years ago because it dripped?
Most pools we open up need nothing at all, and that is a good morning for everybody. But when something is worth doing down there, doing it now means a small line item instead of a project you pay for twice.
Either way you close the pool up knowing exactly what is underneath it — and that is worth something for the next twenty years.
Behind your pool’s surface
- Skimmer throat and its connection to the line
- Main drains and their covers
- Return fittings and eyeballs
- The autofill and its valve
- Light niche and conduit
- Any floor cleaning heads
- Spa jets and the spillway plumbing
Every one of these is set in the shell and finished over. Right now they are all within reach. After the new surface goes on, each of them costs a cut and a patch.
What gets sorted
Pool plumbing work we do during a remodel
All of it happens with the pool drained, inside the same project. No second visit, no second drain, and nothing cut into afterwards.
Skimmers and returns
Cracked skimmer throats, failed collars, and return fittings that have gone brittle after thirty years of sun and chemistry. Common on pools from the seventies and eighties, and simple to replace while the surface is off.
A skimmer that is cracked below the waterline leaks quietly and continuously — and it is usually blamed on evaporation for years before anybody finds it.
the most common find
Main drains and covers
Drain covers have come a long way. The current generation is designed so that a single outlet cannot hold a swimmer against it — a real improvement over the flat covers still sitting on plenty of older pools.
If we are changing the floor — raising a deep end, adding a shelf — the drains get re-plumbed anyway. Even when we are not, a drained pool is the cheapest moment to bring the covers up to date.
worth doing for peace of mind
Autofill, light niche and fittings
Autofills that were shut off years ago because they dripped, light niches with corroded conduit, and the odd fitting nobody has been able to reach since the pool was built.
Small items individually. Together they are the difference between a pool that just works and one you are constantly managing around.
the small stuff that adds up
And one straight answer about the equipment pad. Pumps, filters, heaters, salt systems and automation sit out in the open and can be replaced any day of the year — there is no deadline on them and no reason to bundle them into a remodel unless you want to.
If yours is old and you were thinking about it anyway, doing it while the pool is down is simply convenient. We will tell you honestly which of your equipment is worth doing now and which can wait a few more seasons.
Our testimonials
Real experiences. Real results.
Hear it from the people whose backyards we worked in. Then read the reviews straight from our Google profile, below.
A customer on how the job went, start to finish.
Another customer, another backyard in Southern California.
Real reviews from real clients
Every one of them written by somebody whose pool we worked on, in Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles or San Diego county. Several are in Spanish, because a good share of our customers are.
We would rather you read them before you call us than after.
No surprises, by design
What we find when the old surface comes off
Most pools are fine. And when they are not, you find out from a photo in your hand rather than from a bill at the end.
When the plaster comes out, everything that was hidden is in plain view at once: the shell, the plumbing penetrations, old patches, previous repairs. It is the only proper look at your pool anyone gets in a decade or two, and you already paid for it.
The most common find by a wide margin is a cracked skimmer, because it sits at the waterline where the temperature swing and the chemistry are hardest, and because a slow leak there looks exactly like evaporation. People top the pool up for years without suspecting a thing.
After that: return fittings gone brittle, an older-generation drain cover, a previous repair done badly, and occasionally a line that has shifted with ground movement.
Here is our policy, and it is the same one on every page of this site. You get a photo of whatever we find and a price for it, and nothing happens until you say yes. If it can wait, we tell you it can wait — and we say that more often than people expect.
What we will never do is cover something up because raising it would complicate the job. You paid for that drain. You get to see what is under there.
Worth mentioning at the estimate
- The water level drops faster than the neighbours’ pool
- You are adding water more than once a week in cool weather
- A wet or unusually green patch in the yard near the pool
- The autofill runs constantly, or was turned off years ago
- A crack visible in the skimmer throat
- Persistent staining that starts at one fitting
None of these proves anything on its own. They just tell us where to look first once the surface is off, which saves everybody time.
What it costs
How much pool plumbing and equipment work costs
This is the one service we price project by project rather than by the foot, because no two pools have the same list — and plenty have no list at all.
| What you are having done | Approximate |
|---|---|
| Plumbing work during a remodelSkimmers, returns, drain covers, autofill and fittings, with the pool already drained | quotedas a line item |
| Skimmer replacementThe most common single item we find | quotedper unit |
| Main drain workIncluded when the floor geometry changes | quotedper project |
| Equipment pad replacementPump, filter, heater — no deadline, doable any time | quotedper project |
Plumbing work done inside a remodel is a small line item, because the drain and the access are already paid for by the main project. Every item is quoted after we see the pool, with one fixed number in writing — free.
Why this is the cheap moment
The cost of reaching your pool’s buried plumbing is almost entirely the cost of draining the pool and removing the surface. The fitting itself is inexpensive. The labour to install it is modest.
During a remodel, that drain and that demolition are already happening and already paid for. The plumbing work rides along for the cost of the part and the hour.
The week after the new surface goes on, the same job means draining again and cutting into a finish you just bought. The part costs the same. Everything around it does not.
Financing is available on the project as a whole. If you are weighing whether to include the plumbing now, ask about it when you call — it is usually a small share of the total and it is the part you will never get this cheap again.
The estimate is free and the price is fixed in writing. Anything we find once the surface is off comes to you as a photo and a price before we touch it.
How it fits in
How plumbing work fits into the job
It is not a separate project. It happens inside the window between demolition and the new surface.
Step 1
Tell us what the pool does
At the estimate, mention anything odd — water loss, an autofill that was shut off, a wet spot in the yard. It tells us what to look for once the surface is off.
Step 2
Drain and demolition
The old surface comes out and every plumbing penetration in the shell is exposed for the first time since the pool was last surfaced.
Step 3
We show you what is there
Photos of anything we find, with a price and a straight opinion on whether it needs doing now or can genuinely wait. Nothing happens until you say yes.
Step 4
Sort it, then close it up
The plumbing work is done while the shell is open, then the new surface goes on over a pool where everything underneath is sound.
Not sure what your pool actually needs?
There is a table on our services page that matches what you are seeing — water loss, staining, a rough surface — to what it usually turns out to be, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Written guarantee on our workmanship
If something fails because of our workmanship within the first year, we come back and repair it. No cost, no argument — and it is in writing before we ever start, not promised verbally at the door.
Real work, real results
Recent work around the Inland Empire
No stock photography — every project shown here is one of ours, in a real backyard.
off your first remodeling or new construction project
For every new customer, on top of whatever the quote already says — your first pool remodeling or new pool construction project with us. Veterans and active-duty military, always. And ask about financing while you are at it. Just mention it when you call.
So you call the right person
Three jobs, three different people
Pool work gets lumped together under one search. It is actually three trades, and sending you to the right one costs us nothing and saves you a visit.
Buying a part, a pump or chemicals over a counter — that is a supply house or a retail chain. They stock it, they price it well and they can hand it to you today. We do not sell product and we would not be doing you a favour by pretending to.
Equipment that is running and has failed — a heater that stopped heating, a pump making a noise, automation that will not talk to your phone — that is a pool equipment technician. It is their trade, they diagnose it faster than we would and they charge less for it. Call them, not us.
And weekly cleaning and chemistry is a pool service company, a different business again with a different schedule.
Where we are the right call is the moment your pool is empty. The plumbing set into the shell, the fittings, the skimmer, the drains — done while the surface is off, inside the same project, by people who will be there the whole time.
If you already have a weekly service, tell us who they are when we finish. We will call them ourselves about the two-week start-up, because a new surface needs handling differently and that conversation is worth having between the two of us rather than through you.
Where we work
Pool plumbing and equipment work in Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties
We are based in Riverside County. Almost all of this work happens inside a resurfacing or remodeling project — which is both the cheapest way to do it and the only way to reach most of it.
Riverside County
Riverside, Hemet, Murrieta, Corona, Moreno Valley, Temecula, Menifee, Perris, Lake Elsinore, Eastvale
San Bernardino County
Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fontana, Chino Hills, Upland, Rialto, Highland, Yucaipa
Orange County
Anaheim, Irvine, Orange, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Tustin, Brea, Villa Park
Los Angeles County
Pasadena, Glendora, Whittier, Claremont, San Dimas, La Verne, Arcadia, Covina
San Diego County
Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Encinitas, Fallbrook
The practical questions
Pool plumbing questions we get asked
The ones that come up once people understand what this page is actually about.
Why is this the moment to do the plumbing?
Because most of your pool’s plumbing is not on the equipment pad. The skimmer throat, the main drains, the return fittings, the autofill and the light niche are all set into the shell and finished over with plaster or pebble.
From the day your pool was last surfaced until the day that surface comes off, they are behind a layer of cement. Right now, with the pool open, all of it is reachable and the access is already paid for by the main project.
That is why these things are cheap to sort during a remodel and expensive the week after it.
What is the most common thing you find?
A cracked skimmer. It sits right at the waterline where the temperature swing and the chemistry are hardest on it, and a slow leak there looks identical to evaporation from above.
After that: return fittings that have gone brittle after decades of sun, older-generation drain covers, and previous repairs that were done badly and then plastered over.
Most pools we open up need nothing at all, and we will tell you that too.
How do I know if I have a leak?
The honest answer is that you often cannot tell from the top, which is why leaks get blamed on evaporation for years.
Worth paying attention to: water dropping faster than you would expect in cool weather, adding water more than once a week when nobody is swimming, an autofill that runs constantly or was shut off because it dripped, a wet or unusually green patch in the yard near the pool, or a visible crack in the skimmer throat.
None of those proves anything on its own. But mention them at the estimate — it tells us exactly where to look first once the surface is off.
Should I replace the main drain covers?
If yours are from an older generation, it is worth doing — and a drained pool is the moment it costs least.
Modern covers are designed so that a single suction outlet cannot hold a swimmer against it. That is a genuine safety improvement over the flat covers that are still sitting on a lot of pools built in the seventies and eighties, and it is the kind of thing you only think about once.
On jobs where we are changing the floor the drains get re-plumbed anyway, so it comes along with the work.
Do you offer financing?
Yes, on the project as a whole. Ask about it when you call and we will walk you through the options.
If you are weighing whether to include the plumbing work now, it is worth asking early. It is usually a small share of the total, and it is the part you will never get this cheap again.
Do you sell pool equipment?
We are a contractor rather than a supply store. If you want to buy a pump, a filter cartridge, chemicals or a part over a counter, the supply houses and the retail chains do that well and faster than we could.
What we do is install and replace the plumbing and fittings that are built into the pool itself, as part of a resurfacing or remodeling project — when the pool is drained and all of it is actually reachable.
My heater stopped working. Can you fix it?
That one is a pool equipment technician’s trade, and we will say so on the phone rather than charge you for a visit to say it. Heaters, pumps, blowers, salt systems and automation that is running and has failed are what they do all day — they diagnose it faster and charge less for it than we would.
If you are already remodeling and the equipment is old, that is a different conversation and worth having. But equipment on the pad has no deadline. It can be replaced any day of the year.
What company makes the best pool equipment?
The major manufacturers are genuinely comparable, and anyone telling you one brand is decisively better is usually telling you which brand they get the best margin on.
What matters far more than the badge is whether the equipment is sized correctly for your pool and installed properly. An undersized pump on a large pool, or a filter matched to the wrong flow rate, will underperform regardless of who made it — and it will cost you in electricity every month for a decade.
If you are replacing equipment, the useful questions are what size, what flow rate, and whether a variable-speed pump pays for itself in your situation.
Do you do weekly pool service?
No — we resurface, remodel and build pools. Weekly cleaning and chemical balancing is a different business with a different crew and schedule.
If you have a weekly service, tell us who they are when we finish. We will talk to them directly about the two-week start-up, because a brand-new surface needs handling differently and that conversation is better had between the two of us than passed through you.
Is the work guaranteed?
Yes — a written one-year warranty on the work, handed to you with the paperwork rather than promised verbally.
We are a licensed California contractor, CSLB #1148412. Look that number up at cslb.ca.gov and check the status yourself in about thirty seconds. We would encourage you to do that with every contractor who quotes you, including us.
¿Hablan español?
Sí. Oscar y su equipo hablan español. Llame, escriba o mande fotos en el idioma que prefiera y le contestamos en el mismo.
Sort it while the pool is open
If you are resurfacing anyway, tell us what the pool has been doing. This is the moment to deal with anything behind the surface — and it never gets cheaper than now. Free estimate, fixed price in writing, financing available.