‘This pool is just going to drop:' Nassau County woman worries about pool she says contractor didn't install correctly

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — It was during the pandemic in 2020 when Kristine Wortham and her family thought it would be a good time to get a pool installed in their backyard.

“So we’re like, well, if we are going to do it, let's do it now because we didn’t know when we were going to be quarantined again," said Wortham. 

It’s a decision she’s come to regret. 

“We started seeing problems probably the first good rain after it was completely done, I would say not even a month is started cracking," said Wortham. 

The work was done by Art Sanchez, a local contractor named who owns a Nassau County business in that own name. Construction started in January 2021, and finished few months later but Wortham said it quickly became clear the ground beneath the pool wasn’t stable. 

“My biggest worry is that we’re going to have a couple more storms come through, and this pool is just going to drop and it's going to overflow and the retail value of our house is going to go way down," said Wortham. 

Wortham says Sanchez never came back, although he did send two of employees. She said they sealed the cracks but did not address the eroded foundation. 

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“After, I told him it's not fixed and it's getting worse," said Wortham. "He said y’all are crying over nothing, and he said we’ll put you on the schedule. We waited about a good month and month and a half, and we asked again where are we at on the schedule, and he said ya'll are becoming a pain in my rear end."

In a statement, Sanchez called their complaints "beyond belief."

He told First Coast News that he, "always tried to do my best” and was "sorry things have turned out like they have, but my conversation was closed with them after they threatened me with an attorney."

Sanchez cited the labor shortage and his own health issues as reasons for the delay, adding that his one-year installation warranty ended in March.

“We’re at this point now where we are over the way he treated us and I just wanted to warn people on Facebook to stay away from this guy, so they don’t get screwed over like we did," said Wortham.