Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

Craft Over Scale: Why Working With The Owner Matters

• Rachel Fyffe & Don Gentili

Share episode

A maintenance license wasn’t supposed to lead to a custom pool legacy—until it did. We sit down with builder Don Gentili of Gentili Custom Pools to trace the arc from servicing lines and underground repairs to crafting award-winning backyard centers of gravity. Don explains how hands-on experience shaped his approach to design, how he navigated the leap from maintenance to construction, and why an owner-led model delivers better outcomes for detailed, custom work.

We dive into the knife-edge trend—sometimes called a zero knife edge or infinity knife edge—where water meets the coping as a perfect mirror and vanishes into a hidden trough. Don walks through the engineering behind that serene effect, the precision required to keep the water level exact, and the cost considerations homeowners should weigh before committing. If you’ve dreamed of a resort look at home, his guidance clarifies when the investment pays off and how to avoid common pitfalls that can undermine the clean visual line.

Sustainability gets a clear-eyed look as Don tackles one of the biggest myths in residential design: that pools consume more water than lawns. Citing studies and field experience, he explains how, after the initial fill, a properly managed pool can use less water than turf irrigation over a season. We talk practical strategies—covers, wind control, efficient filtration—to keep evaporation and top-offs down without sacrificing clarity or comfort. For homeowners balancing beauty, function, and resource use, the insights are refreshing and actionable.

Beyond design, Don shares how decades of referrals have shaped his business, why he scaled back from a larger team to personally lead each project, and how that choice speeds decisions, tightens quality control, and aligns expectations. We also get a glimpse of the person behind the builds—surf sessions that clear the mind, the patience required for custom work, and the satisfaction of seeing a mirror-flat surface come to life in a client’s yard.

If you’re considering a custom pool, curious about knife-edge designs, or weighing water use against lawn care, this conversation delivers practical advice, hard-won lessons, and a blueprint for working with a builder who shows up from the first call to the final walkthrough.

 Visit: https://www.gentilicustompools.com/

 Enjoyed the show? Follow, share with a neighbor, and leave a quick review to help others discover us.

SPEAKER_01:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Five.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, are you looking for a unique custom designed pool? Well, this resource is closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Don Gentili, with Gentilli Custom Pools. Don, how is it going?

SPEAKER_00:

Very good, Rachel. Thank you for inviting me on your uh podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we are excited to learn about your custom pool business. So tell us about your company.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we've been in business for 50 years. I started in 1975. I was only five years old. No. Um, so here's what happened when uh I wanted to actually just clean pools. I started doing that for the first few years. And then I realized I needed to get a license to do whatever thing I was doing. And so I applied for my license where I was was a C61 for cleaning and maintaining pools. But the contractors board kicked it back and said, No, you're overqualified for this, you need to get a C53 for building pools. I told them, Well, I didn't want to build pools, I just wanted to clean them. They said, Well, you can still do that. I said, Oh, okay. But I didn't have any plans at all to start building. But as soon as I got the license, I started building pools. I just started doing it.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. So you kind of touched upon that. How did how did you get into this type of business?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, so I mean, I owe I knew everything about pools to begin with because of all the maintenance that I did. And I did a lot of underground work, and so I had pretty much good knowledge of uh how pools were built. And uh the only thing I didn't have good knowledge of is how do you finance it? Because I used I was thinking, well, I gotta come up with the money myself to in order to you know pay for all the work. And then I would later I realized you know it's not my money I'm using, I'm using the client's money. So then I made it a little bit easier to figure that out.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. So, what is really the hottest new uh pool design these days that you find your um really popular?

SPEAKER_00:

For the last eight to ten years, one of the latest, hottest designs is what's called some people call it a uh infinity knife edge or sometimes a zero knife edge, where it looks like the water's just like a sheet of glass all the way to the top of the pool and just disappears over an edge, which you can't really see. It just has a very unique look. It's there's a lot of engineering involved, and it adds quite a bit to the cost, but uh the the total effect is great. I mean, let me I have a picture of one that we went on award on here. You can see the negative edge here comes right up to the edge, and it looks like it's going to overflow, but it doesn't quite do that at all. It just disappears behind a hidden a hidden trough. And uh that's one of the latest designs that's been real popular in a lot of areas, although it does add a lot of expanse, though. That's the one drawback is kind of expensive doing that one design.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, what are some miss or misconceptions in your industry? Do you think?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I think the biggest misconception is if we have a pool, we're just going to be using a lot of water. And the studies that have been done have shown that when you have a pool, you're actually using less water than if you had grass and watering it every day. And that those are scientific studies that have been done. So this doesn't count the initial fill-up. So there's an initial fill-up that when you fill the pool initially, but once it's filled up, you're actually using less water in a pool than if you had a lawn there and you're watering it every day.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Now we know marketing is really the heart of every business, Don. So how are you finding your customers?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, most of them, because we've been in business for so long, most of them are referrals. We do a little bit of advertising in some of the like the local magazines and we do some home and garden shows maybe one or two a year. Uh, but uh we don't do a whole lot because most of it's from referral.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Have you ever thought of doing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_00:

I I have, and I have a lot of ideas, but I just haven't had enough of the knowledge to know how to really do that.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Well, now outside of work, Don, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, that's interesting because I I enjoy surfing and I actually went surfing just a couple hours ago. So that's one of my ways of uh relaxing and and uh decompressing, and uh it's better than lifting weights at a gym. So I I enjoyed. I've been doing that since I've been 15 years old.

unknown:

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

So, Don, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Gentili Custom Pools.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we're unique in a way because you're actually going to be working with the owner. I mean, we we've had our company be larger at different times, and I've had a lot of salespeople, repair people, supervisors, and that was always a lot to manage. And then I just scaled it back to where basically I'm the go-to guy. When the phone rings, I'm the one that's answering it, I'm the one that's on the job site. So you get to deal with the homeowner who I'm that the owner of the business you get to deal with, and so that way you I can make decisions that are don't have to wait for someone else to get okay. Um, it's a lot better um getting you know getting back to the clients as far as you know, falling through on the construction, making sure everything's being done right. And it just has a whole lot better um final product with that when we when I'm able to manage it myself. Now, the only issue with that is I can only handle so many projects in in a at a certain time, and so other people project maybe have to wait or or we just can't do them. But so we just keep uh I keep uh just uh enough to keep me busy, but enough to where I can also manage it properly.

unknown:

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, how can our listeners learn more about gentili custom pools?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you can go to our website gentillicustompools.com. That's uh g-e-n-t-i l i custompools.com, or our phone number is also listed on there too. That's the best way. When you call, you can call myself and I ask will answer myself.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, Don, I really appreciate you being on the show, and we wish you and your business really the very best moving forward.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, thank you very much.

unknown:

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnporangecounty.com. That's gnpoorangecounty.com or call 714 941 8862.