Pool equipment
Who built your Mesa pool? What 12,000 city permits show
The City of Mesa publishes its building permits, and they include about 12,300 new residential pools since mid-2003. We counted them by builder and year. Three builders account for more than a third of Mesa's pools from 2005 to 2021, a third of all the pools in the data were permitted in 2004 to 2007, and most permits say whether a heater and spa were planned. Here's what the numbers show, how to find your own pool's permit, and what it can and can't tell you about the equipment on your pad today.
$120 diagnostic, credited toward your repair · set pricing on many common repairs and installations
Most pool owners in Mesa don't know who built their pool, and when something on the equipment pad fails it's one of the first things people wonder about. The City of Mesa publishes its building permits as open data, including every residential pool permit back to mid-2003, with the contractor's name, the date and a short description of the work. We downloaded them and counted.
This article is about what that public record shows. Mobile Pool Repair isn't a pool builder and isn't affiliated with any builder named here. We repair the equipment, whoever built the pool.
How we counted
The City's permit data lists pool permits under two labels: "Res (MSC) -- Swimming Pool" for permits from July 2003 to October 2017, and "Swimming Pool" from mid-2017 on. Together that's about 14,800 permits. We then:
- Kept new pools only. About 2,300 records weren't a new pool: fence-only permits, code appeals, plan addenda and demolitions.
- Counted each pool once. Where the same parcel had a second pool permit within two years, we treated it as a re-permit of the same pool. That removed 212.
- Kept builder names as permitted, merging only obvious spellings of the same company (for example "Presidential Pools", "Presidential Pools & Spas" and "Presidential Pools & Spas, LLC").
That leaves 12,291 new pools permitted in Mesa from July 2003 to October 2026. A permit is a plan, not a finished pool. Most of them were finaled or given a certificate of completion, and the tables show both numbers.
Who built Mesa's pools, 2005 to 2021
Of 8,958 pools permitted in Mesa from 2005 through 2021, 1,668 (19%) have no contractor recorded. Of the rest, these builders pulled the most permits:
| Rank | Builder (as named on the permit) | Pool permits issued | Completed | Share of all Mesa pool permits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Presidential Pools & Spas | 1,297 | 1,178 | 14.5% |
| 2 | California Pools | 1,112 | 1,022 | 12.4% |
| 3 | Shasta Pools (Shasta Industries) | 847 | 698 | 9.5% |
| 4 | Paddock Pools | 369 | 310 | 4.1% |
| 5 | Bluewave Pools | 331 | 313 | 3.7% |
| 6 | Caribbean Pools | 303 | 277 | 3.4% |
| 7 | Cameo Pools | 216 | 203 | 2.4% |
| 8 | No Limit Pools & Spas | 133 | 124 | 1.5% |
| 9 | Dolphin Pools | 112 | 98 | 1.3% |
| 10 | Riviera Pools | 93 | 68 | 1.0% |
The top three alone account for 3,256 pools, more than a third of everything permitted in Mesa in those years. After them the market is spread thin: hundreds of other names appear, most with only a handful of pools.
Since 2022 the picture is harder to read. Of 1,635 pools permitted from 2022 to October 2026, 688 (42%) have no contractor recorded, so we wouldn't rank anyone below first place. Presidential is still first, with 159 permits.
These are Mesa numbers only. They don't tell you who built the most pools in Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek or anywhere else.
When Mesa's pools were built
| Years | New pools permitted |
|---|---|
| 2003 (from July) | 463 |
| 2004 | 1,235 |
| 2005 | 1,264 |
| 2006 | 1,025 |
| 2007 | 643 |
| 2008 | 375 |
| 2009 | 209 |
| 2010 to 2015 | 2,053 |
| 2016 to 2021 | 3,389 |
| 2022 to October 2026 | 1,635 |
About a third of all the pools in the data, 4,167, were permitted in 2004 to 2007. Then the numbers fell to 209 in 2009, and they haven't come close to the mid-2000s since.
That matters for equipment. A pool permitted in 2005 has had about twenty Arizona summers on its pad. Some of those pads still have original parts and many have had pumps, filters or heaters replaced, often more than once. The permit year tells you how old the pool is. It doesn't tell you how old the equipment is.
How many Mesa pools were planned with a heater
Most permit descriptions say whether the pool includes a spa and how it will be heated, often with the heater's size ("400K BTU pool heater") and the gas line run to it. They almost never name a brand. Here's how the descriptions break down:
| What the permit describes | 2005 to 2021 | 2022 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| No heat | 5,382 (60%) | 720 (44%) |
| A gas line to a pool heater, or gas heat | 1,786 (20%) | 550 (34%) |
| A heat pump or electric heat | 268 (3%) | 45 (3%) |
| Not stated | 1,522 (17%) | 320 (20%) |
So in the 2005 to 2021 permits, most Mesa pools were described as unheated, and about one in five planned a gas heater. Since 2022 the share describing gas heat has gone up to about a third. Heat pumps barely appear in either period. Remember these describe what was planned when the pool was permitted, not what is on the pad now: plenty of heaters have been added, removed or replaced since.
If you ever smell gas near a pool heater, leave the area and call your gas utility from a safe place before anything else. If your pool does have a gas heater and it's acting up, see why your pool heater isn't heating and why a pool heater keeps turning on and off.
How to look up your own pool's permit
You can check your own address in the same data the City publishes.
- Open the City's building permits dataset and choose to view the data.
- Filter Property Address for your street number and street name.
- Look for a Type of Work of "Swimming Pool" or "Res (MSC) -- Swimming Pool".
- Read the Contractor Name, Issued Date and Description of work. The description usually says the pool and spa sizes and whether a heater and gas line were included.
Two limits: the data starts in mid-2003, so an older pool won't be there, and a permit pulled by a homeowner or a permit service may not name the builder at all.
What the builder can and can't tell you about your equipment
Knowing who built your pool is a useful starting point, but it doesn't identify the equipment. Builders change suppliers and packages over the years, homeowners choose upgrades, and equipment gets replaced. On a pool that's ten or twenty years old, what's on the pad today is often not what the builder put there.
The reliable answer is on the equipment itself. Each pump, filter, heater, salt system and automation panel carries the manufacturer's label with its model. A clear photo of each label, and one of the whole pad, tells us more than the name of the builder, which is why we ask for a photo rather than a model number. If you'd like to look up parts yourself, the Parts Finder covers common pumps, filters and salt systems.
When the equipment is the problem
Whoever built your pool, if the pump, filter, heater, salt system or automation isn't doing what it should, we come to the pad, find out which part has actually failed, and tell you before anything is replaced. If you don't know what's wrong, a diagnostic is $120, and it's credited toward your repair if you go ahead. Start from pool equipment repair in Mesa or answer a few questions in the Pool Problem Finder.
Sources and method
- City of Mesa, Building Permits (Commercial, Residential and Signs), open data, downloaded October 27, 2026. Permits with a Type of Work of "Res (MSC) -- Swimming Pool" or "Swimming Pool", issued July 2003 to October 2026.
- Counting rules as described above. Heat categories come from the wording of each permit description: "no heat"; a gas line to a pool heater or gas heat; a heat pump or electric heat; or none of these stated.
Builder names are given as they appear in the City's permit records, only to describe that public data. Mobile Pool Repair is not affiliated with or endorsed by any pool builder named here.
Sources
- Building Permits (Commercial, Residential and Signs), City of Mesa (open data) (accessed 2026-10-27 (dataset m2kk-w2hz; counting method and results in seo/builder-equipment/))