Jeff is an exceptional pool builder. He spent serveral weeks with us going back and forth to achieve the optimal design for our desires. He managed to maximize our space (odd shaped back yard) giving us what we wanted: A large pool with a substantial play area and a long lap lane for exercise purposes.

Most importantly, he made sure that we had solid engineering construction for our pool size (about 33K gallons, ~170 linear feet), strongly recommending a double mat rebar construction with 12 inch walls. Nobody else even mentioned that. When I asked other pool builders, I was told “not to worry about it”. Well, I’d rather spend the extra money up front than dealing with a cracked pool shell later. He even commissioned an engineering survey to confirm before breaking ground.

The equipment is top notch. Pool pump and heater are working beautifully giving us the clearest water we’ve ever seen in a pool while maintaining the temp at 80 degrees when needed. We were guided expertly through the materials process and features (plastering, tile, travertine, water features, autofill) to achieve the end result we wanted.

He also recommended a great pool maintenance company that takes care of all our ongoing needs. He was responsive throughout and supervised the pool building from start to finish. He made sure everything was done to our satisfaction down to the smallest detail.

We’ve been extremely happy with Jeff & Ruben at Athena. We first approached Jeff in the Summer of 2020 while the pool business was already extremely busy due to COVID increasing the demand, and Jeff was very forthcoming of the overall industry situation while properly setting expectations. As someone who also works in the global supply chain industry, I appreciated Jeff’s straightforward manner of communicating those challenges. It showed me he really was an expert in the industry. He also clearly articulated the various construction phases we’d have & city of Austin code compliance needs we would have to meet. I told him we’d also be putting in a new deck as well, and he recommend a great company we ended up using and also loved. They worked together to ensure the decking met the pool correctly and coordinated schedules so the work would happen in the appropriate order. We did our design in the fall and broke ground in January, and were swimming in late June, which I personally feel was a great accomplishment due to not only the pre-existing COVID demand surge but also with the Winter freezes Austin saw which further exacerbated the equipment supply issues. During the construction Ruben was great, and would come by regularly explaining what was happening next & answering my questions.

Overall I feel Jeff & Ruben care a lot about building quality pools and also don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. In this time of high demand there’s a lot of builders who will happily take your money & push your project further & further out while also bringing in any warm body subcontractor to take on the additional load. I never got that impression with Athena, and I’d say they do quite the opposite. They’d rather take on less pools and do them correctly than try to scale super big & sacrifice the quality of their pools.

Album of Before/After Backyard
imgur.com/a/AcyKuK8

Jeff lives and breathes pool design and construction. He carefully considered all of my objectives and delivered on them. I have had pools built over the years in other parts of the U.S. and have been happy with all of the contractors and finished products; however, Athena Pools is without a doubt at the top of the list. Jeff provided the just the right amount of communication throughout the process, which also turned out to be a lot of fun. I am very happy with the finished product and would not consider any other pool builder in the Austin area.

I can not say enough good things about Jeff & Athena Pools. First of all, the turn around time for the design was incredibly fast. Of course I wanted to change some things & he was able to get the revisions back to me usually within the same day. I never had to wait for him to get back to me with questions I had as well (& I had a lot) Second, his attention to detail is incredible. I am very picky & he exceeded my expectations! We decided on a travertine deck & I wanted a difficult pattern. His guys laid out the pattern several times until it was perfect. That is how he does everything. He does not cut corners. We LOVE everything about our pool. I have heard so many horror stories from people about their pool builders. This was our first pool & we had no idea how lucky we were to have Jeff. I HIGHLY recommend going with Athena if you decide to build a pool. I promise, you will not be disappointed!!

I contacted Athena Pools as one of three bidders for a pool renovation and reworking of the surrounding hardscape. Jeff came up with a plan that fixed the serious runoff issues, improved the pool’s functioning (there had been ongoing problems due to mistakes in the original construction) and looks fabulous. He had a number of suggestions that really made the whole space work better, and was completely honest about what could and couldn’t be accomplished within the scope of my budget.

I’m very happy with the results. If I ever have an opportunity to have a new pool built in the Austin area, I would definitely contact Jeff.

Jeff from Athena Pools is extremely meticulous and pays a lot of attention to detail. Before the actual construction even started he would make many visits to our house in order to be sure that the things we wanted would work and when we had ideas about features, he would come over to be sure that there weren’t any issues with the design. Once construction started, he was at the job site everyday and in constant communication with us. Extremely efficient, great quality, and attention to detail. Just the other day, I had a question about the equipment and he showed up in the evening to answer all of my questions. Great experience overall….if you are interested in building a pool and want someone reputable….contact Athena Pools.

We highly recommend Athena Pools. We had 5 companies provide a big and Jeff was not only the most creative with the design of the pool and backyard space, but also the only person who pointed out the protected tree (big oak) that the city would have identified as a problem if we didn’t design the pool appropriately. He’s always available to talk with questions before/during/after the pool build.

We highly recommend Jeff R. from Athena Pools. When the time came to design and build a new pool at our recently purchased Austin home, we heard so many horror stories that we were hesitant to even start such a project.

We have interviewed several local pool builders, but Jeff immediately stood out as the one with the least amount of BS and the most direct and honest approach. He even offered us ways to save on budget.

Jeff is very knowledgeable and the crews he brings in are very professional and are closely supervised by him. Throughout the entire project we were continuously impressed by Jeff’s professionalism, attention to detail, use of quality materials, and exceptional customer service. He came out almost daily to inspect the work that had been done. He usually caught mishaps and fixed them before I even had a chance to call, and I’m quite the perfectionist.

Jeff kept our pool, SPA, and deck project within budget and within the very tight schedule he was given, finishing a couple of days before his original deadline even with this year’s crazy spring weather.

He did all that and always with a smile and positive attitude.
Thank you Jeff.

Highly recommend Jeff R. of Athena Pools. After a bad experience with the builder of our prior pool, we were hesitant to build a pool at our new home. Jeff was 100% professional, knowledgable, on-time, budget, and a real pleasure to work with. Most of all, he was patient with us–listened to what we wanted, worked with us until we had a design that fit our budget, terrain and style, and finished the job on schedule. Athena is the only pool builder we recommend to our close friends and family.

This is a very talented and professional company. We have a large and challenging back yard and wanted our pool and outdoor living space to integrate as if it belonged. Jeff managed to capture our vision almost instantly . He listened and pulled off an amazing design. Since Athena Pools is a design and build firm it made the transition from design to construction easy. No information was lost in this transition since Jeff also supervised all aspects of construction and continued to tweak our work of art as things came together. Everyone who worked on the project was a pleasure to work with. Athena Pools is efficient and effective . The company get a A+