After more than 50 years in business Gold Medal Pools has racked up an impressive list of projects including the Lazy River at Dr Pepper Ballpark (home of the Frisco RoughRiders), the Rooftop Pool at the Omni Frisco Hotel, the pool at Twelve Cowboys Way, and the Crystal Lagoon at Windsong Ranch.
But there’s more to Gold Medal than just pools. They’re still a family run business that cares about the community they serve. They have a proud tradition of giving back, including serving as a drop off location for Toys for Tots this holiday season!
SHOW NOTES:
[00:25] Notable Frisco pool projects[01:31] Why Toys for Tots and where to drop off toys
[02:42] How to donate a toy if you can’t get by the showroom
[03:29] Gold Medal Pools Project Types (they do more than pools)
[05:14] The difference between building a rooftop pool vs a backyard pool
[06:11] The biggest “pool” Gold Medal has built so far
[07:14] The demand for backyard pools
[08:32] The things to think about before you put in a pool
[09:43] 50 years of doing business in North Texas
[10:51] Notable project outside of North Texas
LINKS & RESOURCES:
- Gold Medal Pools Website
- Donate to Toys For Tots (Amazon Wishlist)
- Gold Medal Pools on Lifestyle Frisco
- Gold Medal Pools on Instagram (great inspiration!)
- Gold Medal Pools on Facebook
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco on:
Transcript
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Welcome to the Frisco podcast. I’m your host, Scott Ellis. And this morning we are joined by Josh Sandler, the president and CEO of Gold Medal Pools. Josh, welcome to the show. Thank you. Pleasure to be here, Scott. Yeah, it’s good to have you on. I, I’ve been interested to chat with you for a while because as I understand it, some of the more interesting and fun kind of cool, uh, Frisco pool projects or Gold Medal Pools projects. Can you tell us a little bit about a couple of those love to, um, you know, obviously we’ve built, uh, my family’s built residential swimming pools in this market for over five decades. And, um, you know, over the past several decades, we’ve grown our presence in the commercial space and we’ve been fortunate enough to work with the city and some other great partners on, uh, some pretty unique projects. One of them being the lazy river and the rough riders park.
Uh, we built a pool on the roof of the Omni at the star. We’re building the pool on the roof of 12 Cowboys way. Um, we’re, we’re doing a several large found and hardscape projects at, uh, grand scapes. They’re connected in Nebraska furniture Mart. So, uh, we’ve found a niche for ourselves doing, uh, uh, doing some pretty unique projects and we’re super proud of them. Very cool. I definitely want to dive into a couple of those. Uh, just cause I have some key questions. I’ve been curious about how rooftop pools get built for awhile without, you know, caving in and causing any problems. I’m sure there’s an art to that, but before we dive into all of that, uh, it is the holiday season. It is a time of year forgiving and you guys are big supporters of and a drop off point for the toys for tots and drive that is happening right now.
So first of all, is there any particular background? Is this just something you guys have done for a long time or is it, why is that important to Gold Medal Pools? Our company and family is focused on giving, you know, this cause, uh, really resonates with us, you know, for a number of reasons. One, um, you know, having the Marines and armed forces involved. Um, we’re just so thankful for everything they do for the daily freedoms that we can have. And then being able to help, uh, children that aren’t as fortunate as some of our children here, uh, during, during the holiday times is, is just something that, uh, holds a special place in our heart. So for those that would like to come by the show, is it the showroom where people can drop things off? Yes, sir. Okay. So if people want to come by the showroom, drop off toys, where, where is that located?
We’re at 43, 26 Preston road. Okay. Um, if you know where the new Tinder barbecue is, we’re just up from the Hacienda. You can’t miss us. We’re right on Preston road. We’ve got several show pools and uh, and displays built for our clients to see. In addition to coming by. And we definitely want to get people to come over to the showroom and see all the cool projects. But if they want to donate a toy for the toy drive but don’t have an opportunity to get by for whatever reason. Uh, I understand you guys have another way for people to uh, to contribute to the cause. We do and thank goodness for technology. We actually have an Amazon registry. Uh, you can go to Gold Medal Pools, toys for tots if you’re unable to make it by our location and still donate a toy to the cause.
Okay, very good. Yeah, so you guys will definitely link that up in the show notes. If you want to make a donation a contribute, I strongly recommend go by the show room if you can, especially if you’re in the area. But if for whatever reason you cannot make it by, there is another opportunity there. And again, look at the show notes for the link. Do you guys go beyond just the pools? I assume you do like the whole backyard thing and all that stuff as well or no? We, we do a really how we’ve grown this is by listening to our clients and you know, where it started off many years ago with my dad and building a swimming pool in the backyard. Uh, we’ve grown upon that, you know, our clients have grown as well. So really, uh, what we do is we listen to our clients on the residential side and anything that they would need in the backyard around the home or equipped to build.
And then on the commercial side, um, same thing goes. There’s handfuls of projects that we build that, uh, don’t even have so many pulls on them at this point on our commercial construction side. Okay. So really it’s just a matter of finding a niche and listening to our clients and, and performing for them. What would some of those types of projects be? Uh, for instance, uh, in some neighborhoods we’ll do all the hardscapes entry features, screening walls, sidewalks in addition to the amenity sites. So historically, where 20 years ago we would just build a swimming pool. Now we’ll develop the whole side along with the amenity buildings, the playgrounds, the water features, the parking lots. Really just looking to make it easy for our clients and the residents and providing a turnkey solution for them. Okay. Very interesting. So, uh, I assume if I want the outdoor kitchen and the patio and the pool and all that fun stuff, like you guys are a one stop shop and I can get all of that through Gold Medal.
We are, we like to tell people, uh, we’ll give you one throat to choke. Yeah. And I’m sure you guys probably, uh, you hear from your residents and your, your customers from time to time because they’re anxious to get into their backyards and pools, but looking at some of the work that you have done, I think you guys do a fantastic work, so thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, no problem. Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about the commercial projects as well because those are kind of interesting to me. As I mentioned at the start of the show, I’ve always wondered how different is building a pool, say on the rooftop or near the rooftop of a building as opposed to something that’s in a residential backyard. It seems like that would, uh, require quite a bit of engineering to, you know, it does. And each project has its own, uh, challenges.
Um, obviously building on the roof has significant challenges cause you’re working directly in line with, uh, the structural engineers on the, on the buildings. Essentially when they pour that deck of the building, they actually pour a pool or a tub in the floor and we come within their waterproofing and building another pool inside of that pool to get to the finish pool. So really it’s a, the challenge is just to make sure that all the different parties are talking, coordinating all the engineers, consultants, general contractors, and just making sure that doesn’t leak. Yeah, I can imagine that would be sort of important, especially in these residential minor detail occasions. Yeah. So what’s the, what’s the, uh, like the biggest pool you guys have built? Uh, the biggest one we’ve built by far, and I don’t know if you could call it a pool, but a body of water is the crystal lagoon in Windsong ranch.
Oh wow. Yeah, I’ve heard about that. Talk to us about that a little bit. It’s a pretty neat project, a really unique project. And once again, I’m thankful for the Telus group that had the vision and the foresight to build it and allow us to build it. Um, it’s actually a five acre body of water, if you could imagine that. Um, Sandy beaches, beach volleyball courts, cabanas observation platforms, it’s unbelievable. You can go out into the middle of farmland, what was once farmland and prosper and you feel like you’re in the Caribbean. Wow. Yeah. And then you can say that about, you know, we used to be able to say it about Plano and still a little bit in Frisco and I’m sure it’s bleeding into prosper and Selena now that farmland is a, is a quickly going away and giving weight, all the development, but it’s quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Yeah. Do you guys, is there a lot of demand for backyard pools in the North Texas area? Do a lot of people build them? There really is, uh, in art and our family and our art team is so thankful for that. That’s really what’s gotten us here and allowed us to grow our families and feed her children. Yeah, I just wondered because I know in a lot of the neighborhoods there’s a community pool as well. Um, where we live in Cobb farm there was a community pool, but my wife and I have been discussing very extensively doing our backyard and putting in a pool and all that kind of stuff. So now we know who to call. Well we appreciate that. And the thing for us is, you know, we’re a family based organization, you know, have, um, you know, two brothers that are in ownership in the company as well that are, are, you know, the ground was laid by our father that’s been in the business, uh, for many, many years.
Um, he’s now retired and we’re super thankful for everything he’s taught us. But the thing about us is yes, it’s wonderful and it’s beautiful to add that that piece of art and improvement to your house. But it’s really a gathering place for the family and anything we can do to help facilitate that. That’s how we use it in our family. So any, any small part we can play and families getting together and friends getting together is really what makes it satisfying. Yeah. And that’s a great way to look at it as well. It is a pools do become a gathering place for people to get together and yes they do and have a lot of fun and create memories. What are some of the things that, so for example, again my wife and I are thinking about putting in a pool at some point. What, what are the things that, because we’ve never done this, we just don’t know, but we should be thinking about if we’re wanting to put in a pool.
Well really, you know the style is, is probably secondary. You know, everyone has their own style, whether it’s shape, layout, but really, you know, we can, we can mold the style to any former functions. So really think about how you want to use it, what things are important to you, you know, do you need gathering areas? Do you need space for pets? Do you want a space to have a trampoline? You know, things that that might not be swimming pool. And generally in planning these, we’ll identify all those sections and then the remainder will design the swimming pool. And so at the end of the day, when we do get done with the design, it makes sense and it fits the needs for what your family wants to accomplish. Right? Yeah. I think a lot of people’s minds first goes to the shape of the pool or how deep do they want it and things like that.
Things that are sort of obvious to us that are not in the business. Sure. But I can imagine that it is a better place to start by thinking about what is, what is the lifestyle that we want to create around that and incorporating the pool into that rather than just starting with the pool itself. Yeah, that’s exactly right. It’s actually the opposite of what a lot of people think. Yeah. I can imagine. Talk to us a little bit more about, so you’ve been around for, you said about 50 years. Our family has been in this for 50 years and I personally have been in the business since the very early two thousands full time and always in the North Texas area. Uh, yes sir. Do you guys go, have you branched out into other places as well? Now? We do for more projects specific, uh, for more project specific locations, uh, on our commercial side, you know, for instance, we’re building a project in Clarendon Texas by Amarilla right now if your municipality, um, we’ll look at prod.
We have projects in horseshoe Bay projects in Houston. So really it’s based on the relationships that we have for our clients. Uh, we’re not necessarily seeking tons of work out of town, but one of our great clients in town asked us to travel. We absolutely find a way to accommodate them. Okay. Very good. Um, any notable projects? We talked about the rough riders pool, which is a pretty interesting one. The lazy river, I should say. Um, the Omni, uh, the 12, you said 12 Cowboys, that’s a new condo building that’s actually on the star property that the Jones family is building and partnership. Okay. Other notable projects you’ve mentioned horseshoe Bay, any other things outside of the DFW area that are good dimension? Um, yeah, we’re, we’re looking at a handful of other lagoon projects outside of town. Um, obviously we’re doing a wonderful swim center for the town of Clarendon up there.
Um, we rebuilt the beach club in Houston for a community up there. You know, really the unique thing and what keeps it exciting for us is every project’s different. Anything else that we should know about Gold Medal Pools? We’ve kind of talked about the history and some of the notable projects. You guys do residential, you do commercial, you do lagoons. That’s pretty cool. Is there anything else maybe about the business or about the company that, the questions that we should ask that maybe you don’t get asked often enough? Well, really, um, yes we are assuming pulling a construction company, but like I said before, you know, our, we’re a client focus company, uh, and a family focused company. You know, our, our, not only do we have a number of family members working in the business, but we have many folks who’ve worked with us for many years who we also consider family.
So really the most important thing for us that we want people to know is that we care and we care about you and we will do the right thing by you 100% of the time. So when you think about it, we really focus on our new construction business and we also do renovation or commercial construction, uh, but we also do weekly cleaning, a weekly cleaning or any service or other maintenance you would need on your swimming pool. Uh, really out of necessity for our clients with the tens of thousands of clients we have out there. Over the years, we just, we like to keep them for a lifetime and be their go-to for anything that they need. So really that’s the main message for us is that we care about our clients. We want to help them make memories and do a great job for them. Yeah. And that’s fantastic.
And I think that, I’m glad you brought that up because that feels like the kind of thing that becomes an afterthought as everybody gets excited and we’re going to build out the backyard, we’re going to have this awesome pool, but it does require upkeep and it does require maintenance. And you know, if you’re like me time is it a premium all too often and going out and cleaning the pool is not something I’m going to make a priority. So knowing that the same people that built the pool will come out and help us take care of it is, uh, is wonderful. Yep. We’re proud to be part of it for life. Good deal. It’s a great way to keep your customers close to you as well. You bet. Josh, thank you so much for coming out today. I know we’ve got a lot more to talk about in the future about Gold Medal Pools.
We recently published an article on Gold Medal Pools, so everybody can go out and we’ll again link that up in the show notes. And if people want to find out more on their own about Gold Medal Pools, where should they go? goldmetalpools.com that’s easy enough. And social media. Absolutely. We have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Um, so feel free to give us a follow. We’ve always got exciting content, pictures of beautiful projects, and uh, what’s coming down the pipe. Yeah, go take a look at those pictures, get some ideas for your own project and see some of the amazing things they’ve done. Josh, again, thank you so much for coming out today and thanks to all of you for tuning into the Frisco podcast. We’ll talk to you next time.