No two days are alike in the pool and spa industry. In the Day in the Life series, we dive headfirst into the workdays of the people who keep the pools running smoothly.

For Chris Cote of Taylor’d Shores, every day starts with a plan—but traffic, construction schedules, and last-minute requests often have other ideas.

Taylor’d Shores works with more than 100 pool professionals across Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, providing precise pool measurements and drawings for vinyl liners and safety covers. From Toronto to Niagara and everywhere in between, Chris spends his days balancing logistics, technology, and customer service to keep projects on track.

Most mornings begin at his desk, fielding calls from pool builders, service contractors, and retailers. Dealer inquiries can take up about an hour before he heads out around 9 a.m. for a day on the road. He often spends another hour or more returning calls between appointments. The biggest challenge? Traffic, Chris says without hesitation.

One of the most common issues he addresses is making sure pool owners actually have their pools ready for measurement on schedule. This depends largely on information received from dealers and can sometimes lead to unexpected challenges.

Schedule changes

A difficult daily task is building a travel schedule that makes logistical sense and maximizes time in the field. Sometimes, all the planning goes in vain. Chris recalls countless days when the schedule was finalized, printed, and teams were prepared to dispatch, only to learn that the first stop was suddenly inaccessible due to a concrete delivery or another construction activity.

“We have to flip the day upside down,” he says. “We start at what was supposed to be our last measure and work backward.”

Not every surprise is logistical. Some requests leave him shaking his head. The most memorable? Many homeowners ask if they should remove the winter cover before scheduling a pool measurement for a new vinyl liner. “Well, it is the most important part,” he jokes.

Chris says one of his favourite moments is when a dealer urgently needs a pool measured, and his team happens to be working nearby. “When we can add [the job] to that day’s schedule, that’s satisfying.”

Never again

Looking back at what has changed in the past five years, he notes that the pool industry has changed significantly since the unprecedented demand of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, pool professionals faced a combination of product shortages and record demand, creating challenges unlike anything the industry had seen before. “Pool pros were never busier,” he says. “We will never experience another season like 2021 ever again.”

If he could offer advice to someone just starting in the industry—or even to himself during his first week—it would be simple: embrace technology and the benefits it brings. He cites AutoCAD as an example. Chris uses it every day to create detailed swimming pool drawings, which dealers send to vinyl-liner and safety-cover manufacturers. These drawings help manufacturers produce accurate products efficiently.

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