The only thing Gary and Patty Bednarcyk don’t include with their custom in-ground pools and spas is the water.
Their business, Design Pool & Spa, supplies everything else needed to make a splash and now they have a retail store in front for customers to pick up chemicals, general maintenance equipment, some toys and safety gear.
The Bednarcyks pools are all made of gunite, a durable concrete-based material that can be sculpted, making it perfect for custom designing spas and pools in all shapes and sizes. Each comes with a lifetime warranty against leaks in the gunite shell. The couple work with customers, helping them make their ideas a reality. Their motto is “Life is better by Design.”
“Our pools are top of the line,” said Patty, noting they range in price from the high $30,000s to around $150,000 or more, but Design started offering a family-value pool two years ago, making gunite more affordable for a wider range of customers.
The Bednarcyks also do commercial work — mostly hotels — and have built pools for the Butterfly Conservatory at Strong National Museum of Play and a primate area at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. An equine pool for horse therapy is being built at Morrisville State College in Madison County.
Design Pool & Spa’s geographic area covers much of New York, from Monroe County east, and they’re getting inquiries from Pennsylvania.
A pool business has been on the site since Gary’s father, Gene, bought it in 1968. He and Patty bought Whiting Pools from his father in 1986 and changed the name to Design Pool and Spa.
Their son, Kody, 21, a business student at Ithaca College, will eventually join the business. He’ll be interning with the commercial side of it this summer. He and his siblings — Kurtis and Kacie — have worked many summers in the business.
Kurtis, 23, an Ithaca College graduate, plans to study biomechanics in grad school. Kacie, 17, is a member of Fairport’s Class of 2010.
The new retail store, opened May 1, is also a showroom with a small spa and pool intended to look like a lagoon in its natural setting. The pool is dedicated to the memory of Gary’s parents, Gene and Carol Bednarcyk.
“We really wanted to honor them,” said Gary. “It’s been a good business for us. It’s been good for the community. We have mostly Monroe County workers.”
Design Pool & Spa is also the only local Orenda dealer, offering its ecology friendly pool chemicals guaranteed to prevent algae. The retail store fills a void left when a pool store next door closed. It also provides an additional service for their customers and other area pool owners.
