You Saw it, You Own it! Steve Sherwood on Pool Inspections

What starts as a routine pool inspection can turn into a liability nightmare—fast.

In this episode, Steve breaks down a real job where fire-damaged fencing, questionable decking, and one simple question—
 👉 “Will insurance cover this?”
—pushed the inspection way outside its lane.

⚖️ The Core Issue

Where does your responsibility actually end?

•  You’re there to inspect the pool
•  Not the fence 
•  Not the deck 
•  Not the insurance claim 

And that line matters more than most people realize.

🚧 The Rule

👉 Just because you see it… doesn’t mean it’s your responsibility.

Your job:

•  Identify pool-related conditions
•  Flag safety hazards
•  Recommend a licensed professional

And then…

Stop.

⚠️ The Exception

If something creates a direct safety risk to the pool (like a compromised fence):

•  Document it 
•  Recommend repair 
•  Do NOT price it or manage it 

💰 The Trap

Giving quotes for insurance work can:

•  Turn you into the contractor 
•  Invite scrutiny from insurers 
•  Kill your credibility as an independent expert 

🧠 The Takeaway

You don’t need every answer.

You need to know:

•  What’s yours 
•  What’s not 
•  And when to stay in your lane 

Because the moment you step outside your expertise…

👉 You’re not helping anymore.
 👉 You’re exposing yourself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode with your host, Steve Sherwood from Talking Pools on Thursdays, and Pat Grignon, Vice President over at California Pool Association. So, Pat, thanks again so much for coming on. We love having you here. Thanks for having me, Steve. So I want to talk a little bit about something like I do a lot of decent amount of pool inspections. And most of the time, like if something comes up, I know that I can defer and deflect it in a sense that like it's a visual inspection. So it never covers leak detection and it's never gonna care like uh go over structural stuff. And I make I make them sign off on a piece of paper that says, like, we're not gonna really talk about that. And even if I do, I say, like, seems like the pool wasn't or was when I was there. Like, you don't, you know, you're never gonna say, Oh, yeah, that that that had happened, or whatever it was. So I'm writing these insurance reports, and you know, everything that falls into the pool is part of the pool and falls into like secondary structures, which is like ADUs and like garages and and different things like that, right? So I did an inspection last week, and the guy had like an equipment pad, but it almost looked like a commercial equipment pad in a sense that like it had a untreated fence like around it that was like six feet high or like seven feet high. It was pretty, you know, like they had made it and it was the same material as the fence, and the fence went all the way around the property. So I'm talking to the homeowner and like I'm taking my pictures and we're going over stuff, and he's like, What about the the fence here? And there was just silence. And I'm like, What about the fence? You know, and he's like, Would that be covered under insurance? And I was like, I have absolutely no fucking idea. Like, I you know what I mean? Like, that is something like I have no idea if the fence is covered under that. And then I start inspecting the rest of the fence around the property, and Pat, it's black, man. Like it is, it's untreated wood that got heated. Yeah. So like it literally looks like burnt firewood, man. Like, this isn't like uh this may look like this. This is like this shit is charred. Okay, like you could be you could be roasted marshmallows off this stuff. So my question to you, or my question to you, I know the answer now, but obviously we're gonna let the listeners know. Uh my question to you at the time was like, is this even my business? You know what I mean? Like, do I like where does this stop? You know, I speak on the the surface, the tile, the coping, the expansion joint, the decking immediately around the pool. But like further away than that, like we're getting that like that's that's not in that's literally not in my ballpark. So do I have an obligation to write this up? Do I have an obligation to put a price to it? And like, how do I navigate some like as somebody that's been doing inspections for almost 20 years, like how do I navigate a new situation that I've seen for the first time?

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SPEAKER_04 5:46

Well, I'll tell you, um, answering the question of what about the fence, as I don't have a fucking clue if it's covered, is probably the right it's probably the right uh response for you. Just this isn't this isn't something that I would I'd recommend getting into detail, but just so everyone knows. So yes, under a standard homeowner's policy, there's a coverage, there's other stuff, but the main one's coverage A, which covers like the bones, the structure of the home, right? So separate limit for that. You know, there's there's B, which is other structures. So that's going to be anything detached from the main home. So you got sheds, detached garage, pools fall under that, your fences fall under that, and that's normally a smaller limit than the actual rebuild of the home cost. So, yes, a normal homeowner's policy would cover a fence with uh with a fire like you saw out there, but good answer, yeah, because it's you know, I ultimately if you're if if fencing isn't in your business and that's not what you're there to talk about, I would certainly say like, ah, you should, you know, I I don't think that that's good, just you know, between me and you, but I'm not gonna write anything down about you know you needing to fix it.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Right. Okay, so you're saying don't even like just say it's not even any of my business.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

I think in your response, right? Well, how I would address that in the actual report, and I'd say, listen, you know, like that's a potential safety hazard, you know, which is, you know, if something can break through or whatever, right? The fence is weakened and someone something can break through, a dog, a neighbor, a kid, whatever, and end up like falling in the pool and hurting themselves or hurting themselves around the pool, then I think you've got an obligation to at least cite that. But I certainly wouldn't go into, hey, I'll bring out my fence guy or I know a guy and like subcontract the fence work, right? If you wanted to say, I know a guy I can refer you to that actually does fences and can look to replace that, then that's fine. But you wouldn't want to take the opportunity to try and subcontract that work out, you know, under your company name. And you also you wouldn't want to go get an estimate from a fence company and and put that into the report. I think you've got a job on these to identify the hazard. And if it was not nowhere close to a safety hazard to the pool or to anything, then then I would not list it in the report. You know, based on just you know, the the story and kind of the layout, I would say that's a potential safety hazard. Someone might break through there, it's a weakened fence, you should get it replaced, you should get it replaced by you know a licensed fencing contractor. And you know, I believe that and you've met your obligation, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:10

I and what's crazy is like I didn't feel obligated to talk about the fence at all until the fence came off of the equipment pad and surrounded the equipment pad. Yes, and then I was kind of like, whoa, like this this definitely does this is part of the equipment pad. And you know, part of what you do for a pool inspection, and this goes in some states, they like they won't give you the CO unless this is true. And then in other cities, they could give a shit. And it's the gate or the you know, the the self-closing and self-latching fence slash gate, you know, like if you have a if you come around the house and there's like a side gate, that gate needs to be on springs and like it needs to close away from the pool. You know what I mean? Like basically, like, and that's so if somebody you know was trying to get in there, like and they put it was a jar, they pushed it, like it would it would close into the pool, you know what I mean? Like that it wouldn't swing the other way, right? So sometimes they want you to have the gates a certain way, and then like I said, some some some cities don't care. The gate most of the time is connected to the the fence, and it gets a little bit hairier because if you you know, if you're looking at a guy's backyard from his house and the house is at your back, there's three sides there's the front side that ends at some point, and there's the two sides. All three of those have other residents on all sides of the fence. So he was saying, like, because I said to him, I think I had called you like right off the cuff there, and I like excused myself and came back and was like, Hey, I'm not gonna mention this in the report, like, especially not a dollar amount, but I'm gonna say that you should refer because it does look like a safety issue, um, and it's it's really black, that you should refer to a fencing company. And I told him, like, I think it would be best if you got, I don't necessarily think you need another report, but if you got an actual estimate from the fencing company to include that when I send you the report, you send that as a package to the insurance company because that they would like to see, okay, this guy doesn't really know about it, but these guys do, and this is how much it's gonna cost. Yeah. And then leave it up, leave it up to them if they want to have a third party company. And that's why that's why I'm always weird about um when people are like, Can you just send me a quote and I'll just send it to the insurance company? And I'm like, the whole point is that I don't want this work, and that I'm coming in as the expert telling you like this is how much it should cost. Because once the insurance company thinks that Sherwood Pool Consulting Group wants to come on and take this work on and gives you a quote, like nobody can tell me how much to charge. I can charge what for what other people are charging $20,000 for. I can charge $120,000. Like, nobody's gonna say, they might be like, oh my god, your prices are outrageous, but no one's gonna be like, it's illegal to charge that much money. Like, you can charge whatever you want. So that now you guys, as the insurer, are like, who the fuck is Sherwood Pool Consulting Group? Who are these guys? You know what I mean? Like, we want to send out our own guy and find out if it's 80k or if it's 30k. Like, I've gone out for an on behalf of insurance companies before, and they had like a like a check, like a two like a honey to to-do list for me. They're like, check and see like if they have a salt cell, like check and see if the heater doesn't work, like check and see like if this happened, like specific stuff. And I went out and I'm like, there's no salt cell here. And like they're asking to replace the salt, you know, because it was uh a quote from the loke from the from their pool guy, and their pool guy's like, let's see if we can get a salt cell for them, or you know, something like that. Right, right. So this is super awesome information because like again, even for me, like uh I was kind of wowed. I was like, Whoa, like I don't usually walk into situations that like I have no idea, and it was it was refreshing to to learn more about that. It was leaving you with you guys with this. His deck also kind of like went into like a little staircase, and then it opened back up into like a one piece where there was like a basketball court and like five cars could be parked there, and then it went into a driveway, which is also one pour, it's like one old concrete piece, you know, pour and like black from fire debris because there's fire, you know, raining down on it. So I was comfortable, you know, talking about the the deck around the pool because that was also black, but like what is my obligation to go into that, like over there on that side of the house? Like, and and what does that fall under? Yeah, you know, would that fall under the same thing as like a structure structure beat?

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah, yeah. So it would, yes, for sure, under their homeowners. But again, not my b not my if you can't tie it to the I mean, look, if there's even a long shot to tie it to the pool, you know, then then yeah, I think you can make note of I'm not an expert with decking, but you know, this seemed like it could be a potential hazard. I'd recommend, you know, getting a licensed contractor, decking contractor to come give you a bid on replacing that. But no, that's helpful, like in that situation where you know the the salt cell that doesn't exist, go go check this out. You know, I think you know that there's gonna cover their basis. And you know, I think that that's a that's a good example of, yeah. I mean, look, I'm not like Mr. Pro insurance company guy. I mean, you know, I'm an insurance agent, but I see it both ways, right? Where I I get why they're trying to make sure they're not getting scammed because I see them trying to get scammed frequently. So, you know, even even being able to do that and saying, you know, even if you have for this fence, like, hey, go get a go get a quote from that from that company, and then they'll have that. The insurance company might send out their own quote, their own company to quote it as well, but at least you have a frame of reference that you can negotiate from. And so that's all part of it. So I think that's that's definitely a good good advice to give to the client to give to your client. But yeah, yeah, if I wouldn't go and write anything outside of what could be tied, even even from a long shot to the pool somehow, and being a safety hazard or something.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

And that's what I said. I just like uh, you know, he said to me about the fence, and I was like, uh I'm not sure. And then like I said to myself, like, well, what about the deck? And like, yeah, you know, my expertise is with our expertise is with the pool, so like I want to keep that, you know, just contained around the pool. And that's that's what I did. And I, you know, I think that I followed directions diligently with what you told me. But like, you know, at the end of the day, you know, these people they want answers and like I want to do a good job for them, but I just didn't know like really if like again, if that was if that was my business. And it makes it real clear that like it's not. And sometimes you wanna, you know, you want to bend over backwards for these people, and I want to help these people get whatever they deserve to get from the insurance company, but like we're not gonna speak on stuff that that we don't know about either. So I think that's the lesson for today. So, Pat, thanks so much for for coming on every week. Uh, this is a great interlude today. And everybody, if you want to reach out and talk more about some of this stuff and ask us questions, we would love to discuss it on air. Uh and uh, if you guys are looking for insurance, uh reach out to California Pool Association. They will give you a one month free for a general liability, like an annual general liability insurance. So that's a really great deal. So check them out and reach out to us at talkingpools at gmail.com if you need anything. And everybody have a happy, healthy, and profitable week. Pat, thanks so much. We'll see you next week. Thanks, Steve.