We are happy you found us! Everyone on the Mermaid Pools Team works toward one goal: customer satisfaction. We do everything we can to make sure your pool is not only beautiful but that the process is respectful.

Mermaid Pools of Central Florida, Inc., a family owned and operated business founded by Mark and Maria Slaby, proudly enters its fifth year, with great appreciation for the many, many wonderful customers who have entrusted us with building their dream.

As a family owned business, it is not unusual for Mark and/or Maria to visit your jobsite in the company of one or all four of their young children. As home-schooled kids, they are learning first hand the value of customer relationships and quality workmanship. It won't be long and they'll actually be working for their dinner!

We like to keep our projects closer to home so we stick to building in nearby counties: Orange County (Orlando Area), Lake County, Sumter County, Seminole County, West Volusia County and Osceola County. Some of the many places we worked include: Ocoee, Orlando, Clermont, Minneola, Oviedo, Winter Garden, Tavares, Groveland, Lady Lake, Mount Dora, Eustis, Leesburg, Apopka, Deland, Debary, Deltona, Windemere, Kissimmee and many other smaller cities and towns throughout Central Florida

But, if you're outside these counties and would like to be one of our many successful owner-builders, visit us at our Do-It-Yourself site to learn more about that opportunity using our fiberglass surfaces. Your dream is here for the asking...

We are also proud to say from our humble beginnings sprang our zest to build the safest pools in Florida. In only our first year of business we successfully worked toward changing the Florida Building Code to allow all pools to be built in Florida drain-free. Main drain safety is a major issue in the pool industry, and one that Mermaid Pools treats with 100% care. Many pool builders still build pools with drains. We know that if the drain is not there, you are 100% safe from the dangers of entrapment. No pool with drains can claim to provide that level of safety.

We have never built a pool with a drain.

All of us at Mermaid Pools take great pride in building your pool. It is your dream. It is our life. We take it seriously---and have fun too!

Since their undergraduate days, each has continued to achieve professionally. Maria worked in the publishing and marketing industries and also built her own graphic design and greeting card business.

Mark continued his education, earning two more degrees - Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Arts in Applied Economics (MAAE), both from the University of Central Florida. Working in a variety of positions at Walt Disney World, Price Waterhouse and most recently Covanta Energy, Mark has gained invaluable experience to manage a successful pool company. Mark also taught economics and finance courses at the graduate/undergraduate level for 15 years.

Together, Mark and Maria followed their creative urges and designed, contracted and built their own home in Mount Dora, Florida. During that project, they realized that they loved working together on major home improvement projects. They continued to do so with the purchase and refurbishment of several upscale residential rental properties. Again, it was clear that this was something they loved doing together. With that in mind, they decided to start a business where they could harness this joy of creating beautiful things together.

In what proved to be a daunting task, Maria, along with the support of fiberglass pool manufacturer Trilogy Pools, successfully changed the Florida Building Code to allow for safer pool installations. Due to our efforts, we can now build pools without main drains. This is the ONLY way to build a pool with 100% entrapment protection.

It took coountless hours "reminding and convincing" building officials and inspectors over the years that a drain-free pool is allowed in Florida. Why would that be? That makes no sense you say. Well, it's because old habits die hard, and still today, the majority of the pool builders construct pools with main drains, so Mermaid Pools was and still is the "Maverick." Still today, 5 years after the code was changed, we have to remind building inspectors that it's OK not to have a drain. The irony here is that a drain-free installation is a much less complicated installation with absolutely NO hazard. We still don't understand why all builders wouldn't choose to build the safest pool for their customers. Frustration only mildly illustrates the mountains we climbed in this effort to build a drain-free pool.

A Little History

Historically, all pools in Florida were required to be installed with a main drain. The problem we found with this requirement was the potential danger associated with the drain, coupled with its lack of usefulness.

Although remote, there have been some highly publicized and horrific deaths and disfigurement associated with entrapment due to unprotected main drains. Slaby believed, if the drain wasn’t necessary for draining the pool, and if circulation issues could be addressed differently, it was clear that the 100% safe solution of eliminating the drain was the best route for Mermaid Pools to take.

Unfortunately, the Florida Building Code required the drain in the first place. In addition, because of the potential danger surrounding use of drains, the new 2002 code was written to help to circumvent future accidents by requiring three “layers of protection” for the drain system. This included dual drain systems, approved covers and either an engineered vent line system or an approved safety vacuum relief system (SVRS).

The problem we found with this was, not only did she see the first drain as unnecessary, but now two drains were required, in addition to the three “layers of protection” which could never be as safe as the 100% safe solution of no drains that she proposed. If the drain isn’t there, there is no denying its safety. You can’t get stuck on something that isn’t there…

FAQs concerning Main Drains.

To learn more about how this story-turned-drama ended, follow this link to Pool & Spa News.