Why Wahoo's Pricing Is Fixed (and Why That Matters)

One of the questions we get most often is some version of: 'is your price actually the price?'

It's a fair question, because in pool building specifically, headline quotes often aren't the final invoice. Variations get added during the build. Soil conditions get blamed for cost overruns. Council fees get passed through. Ten weeks in, the $50K pool somehow costs $58K.

Wahoo's pricing is fixed. Here's how it works and why we run it that way.

What 'fixed' actually means at Wahoo

The contract you sign is the price you pay, full stop, with two narrow exceptions:

1. Variations you specifically request after contract sign (e.g. 'can we change the pebble-crete colour' or 'add a sun ledge'). These are quoted separately, in writing, and signed off before any work happens. You see and approve every cost change.

2. Genuinely unforeseen and major site issues — and even these are rare. In two decades we've had maybe a dozen jobs where we hit something during excavation that materially changed the build (an unmapped sewer line, a buried oil tank, undocumented rock at depth). When that happens, we stop, document, and discuss before any extra cost is incurred.

Outside those two narrow situations, you pay what the contract says.

Things we explicitly carry as risk

We absorb the risks that other builders pass on to clients:

• Standard soil conditions. If your dig is harder than average, it's our problem. We quote based on a thorough site survey before contract.
• Standard access. If our excavator can't fit through the side return as expected, we figure it out.
• Trade pricing fluctuations. If our concrete supplier puts up prices mid-build, that's our cost to manage.
• Council fee adjustments. Council changes a fee schedule mid-build? Our problem.
• Standard weather delays. No timeline charges from us for normal Brisbane weather.

We can carry these risks because we've been building long enough to price them in. We're not winging it.

Why we don't do 'subject to' clauses

'Subject to' clauses are the pool builder's friend. They let the builder come back and say 'oh, this part wasn't covered'. Most clients don't read them carefully at sign-up.

We removed them all from our contract about six years ago. Our quotes today either include something or specifically exclude it on a separate line. There's no grey area.

If a builder's contract has a 'subject to soil conditions' clause, ask: what does that mean for me? At what point would I pay extra? You should get a specific answer, not a general one.

Why fixed pricing costs us money sometimes

Fixed pricing genuinely costs us occasionally. Some jobs we lose money on. A horror dig, a difficult council, a string of weather delays — they happen.

That's the deal. We make average margins across all our jobs, and the clients on the rough ones don't pay for our miscalculation. The clients on the easy ones don't pay extra to subsidise the hard ones either.

The whole industry would work better if everyone priced this way, but the temptation to win the quote with a cheap headline and back-load the variations is too strong for most.

What you should look for in any builder's contract

Three clauses, in order:

1. A schedule of inclusions that's specific (not 'standard pool', but 'Zodiac Ei2 expert variable-speed pump').

2. A list of exclusions that's clear and exhaustive.

3. A variations clause that requires written approval from you for any cost change.

If those three things are present and clear, you're protected. Ours have all three. Many don't.

The bottom line

The cheapest quote isn't usually the cheapest job. The most predictable quote usually is. We've held to fixed pricing for two decades and it's the single biggest reason clients refer us to friends.

If you've got a quote you're not sure about, send it through. We'll read it the way an experienced builder reads it and tell you what to ask.

— Mike