One of the biggest challenges in the pool industry is that homeowners can get caught up in size, features, finishes, and the idea of building the biggest pool their yard can hold. But a backyard can look impressive and still miss what matters most. It has to work for the people who will use it every day.
During a PowerChat hosted by Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, Chris Argenziano, CEO at The Pool Boss, shared a different way to think about the backyard. As a custom inground pool builder in North Jersey, The Pool Boss starts by looking beyond the water and asking how the whole family wants to use the space. Chris said some of his best childhood memories came from family and friends gathering around a pool. Those memories still shape how he works with homeowners today. He wants to know who lives in the home, how old the children are, why the family wants a pool, and what they hope the backyard will add to their lives.
“The pool is the centerpiece of it all,” Chris said. But for him, the experience does not stop at the edge of the water. Outdoor kitchens, lounge areas, dining spaces, patios, fire features, and other gathering spaces can all help turn the backyard into an extension of the home.
That focus on the homeowner is one reason the conversation aligns with Power100’s mission. Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Through PowerChat, Cummings presents ideas and leadership lessons to help contractors better serve homeowners.
In this conversation, Chris showed why a luxury pool and backyard design company in New Jersey should not begin by asking how much can be added to a project. It should begin by asking what the family needs from the space. Some homeowners may want a full outdoor living area with places to cook, eat, relax, and gather. Others may simply want a pool where their children can swim all day. Chris believes both can be the right answer because the best backyard is not the one with the most features. It is the one that fits the family who will live in it.
As Greg Cummings moved deeper into the conversation with Chris Argenziano, one idea kept coming back. A great backyard should not be built around what looks biggest or most impressive. It should be built around what the family will actually use. That means thinking about the pool, but also thinking about what happens around it.
For Chris, those questions help turn a pool project into a space that can become part of everyday family life. His answers also showed that this same thinking shapes how he leads, how he grows the business, and how he stays connected to clients after the project is done.
Chris Argenziano, CEO at The Pool Boss
Chris made it clear that the pool still matters. It is where children swim, families cool off, and many of the best moments begin. But he does not believe the water should take up all the thinking behind the design.
“The pool is the centerpiece of it all,” Chris said. He then explained that homeowners can build different areas around it, including outdoor kitchens, lounge spaces, dining areas, fire features, and other places where people can spend time together. The goal is to think about the whole backyard, not just what happens inside the water.
That idea is especially important for a luxury pool and backyard design company because a larger project does not always mean a better project. A family may want several places to cook, relax, and entertain. Another family may only want a pool where the kids can swim from morning to evening. Chris sees value in both.
That is what makes his point feel less like a sales message and more like a design rule. He is not saying every homeowner needs more features. He is saying that every homeowner needs a space that fits how they live.
Chris summed it up simply when he said, “Depends on the client, really.”
That line says a lot. The best backyard is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that feels right for the people who use it.
For a custom inground pool builder, that can mean treating the pool as the starting point while giving the rest of the yard a clear purpose too.
Chris’ view of the backyard is personal because he knows what a pool can mean beyond swimming.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100
He shared that some of his best childhood memories came from family and friends gathering around the pool at his home. It became a place where people spent time together. Those memories stayed with him. Now that he has a family of his own, he sees an opportunity for other families to create similar memories in the spaces his team creates.
That is why some of his first questions to a homeowner are not about tile, shape, equipment, or upgrades.
He wants to know who lives in the home.
He wants to know the ages of the family members.
He wants to understand why they want the pool.
He also wants to know what they hope to do in the backyard when the project is complete.
Those questions help Chris understand the life the space needs to support before he starts guiding the design.
He also made another point that matters for homeowner trust. His role is not to walk into a backyard and tell a family what they have to build.
Instead, he listens first.
Then he draws on his years of experience to suggest ideas the homeowner may want to consider.
That approach changes the contractor’s role. The goal is not to push the homeowner toward the project the contractor wants to sell. The goal is to help the homeowner make better choices for the backyard they will actually use.
For families looking for a pool builder, that kind of conversation can matter just as much as the finished design because it helps put the family’s needs at the center of the project.
Chris also pointed to a change in what homeowners want from their backyards.
He said pool sizes have decreased in some cases because families want to use the rest of the yard for more than just water. A homeowner may want more patio space. They may want an area to eat. They may want room for people to sit together or enjoy another feature outside the pool.
That shift changes the question.
Instead of asking, “How big can the pool be?” the better question may be, “How much of this backyard can the family actually use?”
Chris sees the same change happening inside the pool itself.
Deep pools with diving boards are not as common as they once were. More homeowners are choosing shallower designs because that is where people often spend the most time.
Chris compared the shallow end to the kitchen in a home.
It is where everybody gathers.
That idea became even clearer during the rapid-fire part of the interview.
When Greg asked about one of the biggest pool design mistakes a homeowner can make, Chris answered, “Going too deep or too big with the pool.”
When Greg asked what feature homeowners rarely regret, Chris said, “More shallow end.”
And when he was asked what pool trend he believes will stay, his answer was simple.
“The shallower pool.”
Those answers all point to the same lesson. More space does not always create more value. The best space is the space people actually use.
That can be an important guide for homeowners considering installing a custom vinyl-liner pool. The shape, depth, patio, and open areas should all work together around the way the family plans to spend time outside.
The way Chris thinks about outdoor living did not appear overnight.
He grew up around the pool industry and credits his family with teaching him the value of hard work. He remembers watching his grandfather, father, and other family members give everything they had to the work in front of them.
“They were doing it 110%,” Chris said.
That lesson stayed with him.
Later in the rapid-fire conversation, Greg asked Chris for the best advice his father ever gave him.
Chris answered, “Anything you do, do it a hundred and ten percent.”
But Chris also explained that learning from his family did not mean copying every part of the earlier business model.
He saw a focus on high-volume pool installations. Over time, he began to see another path. To him, the backyard could become much more than a place where a pool was installed.
“The backyard space was more of an extension of your home,” Chris said.
That idea helped shape his decision to build his own company and explore more of what a complete backyard could become.
Chris described the difference simply. The work ethic came from his family. The vision was his own.
That gives his story two strong sides. He did not reject what the generations before him taught him. He kept the standard of hard work while giving himself room to rethink what customers could receive from the experience.
Chris’ focus on the full customer experience does not stop when construction ends.
He explained that the company offers ongoing service to the customers whose pools it builds. That can include opening the pool, winterizing it, and providing weekly care, during which the team balances the water and cleans the pool.
That matters because pool ownership does not end with the finished reveal.
The homeowner still has equipment to understand. The water still needs care. Questions will still come up.
Chris wants clients to have support through those moments too.
For homeowners who want to care for parts of the pool themselves, he said the company uses QR codes on equipment that link to videos and remind them how certain things work.
His goal is to ensure clients are not left searching elsewhere for basic help after the project is complete.
That approach also explains why Chris places so much value on controlling the customer experience as the company grows.
During a period of very high demand, he said there were times when the company stopped taking new work because he did not want his team to become exhausted and allow the quality of the work to suffer.
“I have to put my people before my profit,” Chris said.
He said roughly 125 to 150 projects is a range he feels comfortable with because taking on too much could make it harder to protect the quality of the work and the experience around it.
Greg later turned that idea into a direct, rapid-fire choice.
“Growth or control of the client experience?”
Chris answered, “Control.”
Then came a final question that tied the whole conversation together.
Greg asked what mattered more, the finished pool or the relationship afterward.
“The relationship afterwards,” Chris said.
That answer brings Chris’ full philosophy into focus. The design should fit the family. The backyard should serve their life. The team should protect the quality of the work. And once the pool is finished, the homeowner should still know who is there to help.
By the end of the PowerChat, Chris Argenziano’s message came back to something simple. A backyard should feel personal. It should fit the family, the home, and the way people want to spend their time together. That may mean a large space built for entertaining. It may mean more shallow water where everyone can gather. It may mean a strong patio, a quiet place to sit, or simply a pool where the kids can play all day.
The Pool Boss showcases The Hampton in Westfield, NJ.
Chris knows the value of those moments because some of his own best memories were made around a pool. Today, his work gives other families the chance to create memories of their own. That is why his approach starts with listening before designing and why he does not believe every homeowner needs the same kind of backyard.
“Depends on the client, really,” Chris said.
That thought carries the whole conversation. There is no one perfect pool because there is no one perfect family. The right design is the one that supports the people who will live with it, enjoy it, and remember the time they spent there.
For Chris and The Pool Boss, the pool may be the centerpiece of the backyard, but it is not the whole story. The real value comes from what happens around it and the life that continues there long after the project is complete.
As homeowners continue to think differently about outdoor living, Chris’ message offers a clear path forward. Do not build around the biggest pool that fits. Build around the people who will call that backyard their own.
No. Power100 says its ranking system does not use a pay-to-play model. Power100 uses a proprietary five-layer process that combines business data, AI scoring, human review, external feedback, and a final ranking. The platform evaluates areas such as growth, customer experience, company culture, community impact, and business performance, rather than allowing a company to purchase its position.
No. Power100 looks beyond company size and revenue when it evaluates home improvement leaders. Its ranking system reviews thousands of CEOs and considers leadership, customer experience, company culture, growth, community impact, and other business signals. Power100 says its five-layer system combines technology with human review, so one strong number does not tell the whole story of a leader or company.
No. The Pool Boss focuses specifically on custom inground vinyl liner pools. The company does not install gunite, fiberglass, or above-ground pools. This focus allows the team to specialize in custom vinyl-liner pool installations in New Jersey while giving homeowners flexibility in pool shape, size, and depth.
No. Chris Argenziano takes the opposite view. During his PowerChat with Greg Cummings, Chris explained that some homeowners now choose smaller or shallower pools to create more usable space around the water. He believes families should consider where they will swim, sit, eat, relax, and gather, rather than using every available foot for the pool itself. His approach as a custom inground pool builder in North Jersey focuses on how the family will live in the entire backyard, not simply how large the pool can become.
The Pool Boss designs more than the swimming pool. The company describes itself as a pool and backyard design-and-build firm and creates full outdoor living spaces with features such as custom stonework, pavilions, fire features, water features, outdoor kitchens, and hardscape. This broader approach supports Chris Argenziano’s belief that the pool should serve as the centerpiece, while the rest of the backyard offers families more ways to spend time together.
No. The Pool Boss reserves its pool opening, closing, and weekly valet services for existing customers and pools that the company installed. That choice supports the long-term service model Chris described during the interview. The team knows the pools, equipment, and systems it installed, which allows it to continue supporting those homeowners after construction ends.
Homeowners should start the process early. The Pool Boss says a typical vinyl liner pool installation can take about 30 days from excavation through liner installation when weather and town inspections cooperate. However, the company recommends starting the overall planning process about four to six months before the desired completion date because permits, planning, design, and local approvals also require time.
The Pool Boss offers in-home and virtual consultations and provides a complimentary 2D design to help homeowners see the proposed backyard before construction begins. Homeowners can also choose an upgraded 3D design or animation. More importantly, Chris Argenziano says he starts by learning about the people who will use the space, including the household size, the ages of family members, and what they want to do in the backyard. That approach allows a luxury pool and backyard design company in New Jersey to shape the project around the homeowner instead of forcing every family into the same design.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Led by Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, the platform gives leading CEOs, contractors, and industry partners a trusted place to share the ideas, values, and business practices shaping home improvement across the country. Through independent recognition, industry research, PowerChat conversations, and leadership features, Power100 helps contractors learn from proven leaders while giving strong companies greater visibility with the customers, partners, and professionals they serve.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
