Small Changes, Big Impact: Improving Plumbing Efficiency for Greater Profit

When you’re standing six feet deep in the back end of a swimming pool build, you get a front-row view of the places where your systems shine and the places where small tweaks can make a big difference. This week, we uncovered one of those opportunities.

As a company, we strive for consistency. We use the same products, the same fittings, the same processes. We coach our team on the why behind what we do, not just the what. And while most of the plumbing on this pool was excellent, there was a smarter way to handle a key section that would have saved time, reduced risk, and protected profit.

What Was Done Well

This pool requires four main drains to handle the volume of water and the number of accessories being installed. Several things were executed perfectly:

• The drains are evenly spaced

• The lines come together correctly

• Water is pulled from the center, exactly as designed

• Silicone work and fittings are clean and consistent

From a quality standpoint, everything here meets our standards.

Where We Found Room for Improvement

The issue wasn’t what was done, but it was how it was done.

Instead of using flex pipe to run from each main drain and flipping those lines over the top of the pool, the team cut and glued multiple pieces of rigid pipe at the bottom. Material costs for elbows and fittings may only be a few dollars each, and a stick of pipe might run $24–$25… but the real cost is time.

Flex pipe would have:

• Eliminated the need for several cuts

• Reduced glue-ups

• Reduced the number of connection points

• Taken one person less than five minutes

  
  

In contrast, the current setup resulted in 16 points of contact at the bottom of the pool. None of this is “wrong,” but every connection is a potential failure point—and every extra minute spent cutting and gluing is labor cost you can’t get back.

By using flex pipe and bringing the T’s up to plumbing level, we could have reduced those 16 connection points to two.

Why This Matters for Profitability

Profit isn’t found only in big decisions—it’s hidden in the small, repetitive choices crews make every single day.

• A few dollars saved on materials.

• A few minutes saved on installation.

• Fewer opportunities for leaks.

• Cleaner, faster, more consistent plumbing.

When you multiply these improvements across dozens of pools a year, the impact adds up quickly.

The Takeaway: Learn, Adjust, Improve

There’s nothing wrong with the way this plumbing was installed. The job will function as intended. But from an efficiency and profitability standpoint, there’s a better way.

We had the conversation with the team, explained the reasoning, and aligned on how we’ll handle this situation moving forward. That’s how companies grow—one improvement at a time.

There’s always more than one way to get a job done. Our goal is to continually identify the best way.