“My bread and butter, my reputation, is getting in and getting a pool done,” said Mike Esmond, the owner of Gulf Breeze Pools and Spas. “One of the things you’ll always hear people say about Gulf Breeze Pools is they get the job done. They’re here every day.”
Mike runs the company from his cell phone and is always available.
“You can call me at 12 o’clock at night or 12 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “You can always get through to me 365 days a year. That’s the way I’ve always run it.”
Mike and his team get to work early and stay late to make sure the job gets done.
“You’ve just got to go with the flow. When you do this kind of work, there are things that you might start and if it rains, it delays you. We’ve been in customers backyards until midnight with lights because once you start shooting the structure of the pool with the gunite, which is concrete, you really can’t stop, you’ve got to keep on going,” he said.
Mike loves building pools. He wouldn’t do anything else.
“To me it’s a fun job. I’ve been doing it my whole life. I’ve only had two jobs in my life – United States Army and building pools,” Mike said chuckling.
Mike takes care of veterans because he is a veteran. The first job after high school was in the Army where he spent one year in Vietnam. After completing his Army service in 1968, he went to work for Sylvan pools in Doylestown Pennsylvania for 10 years building swimming pools in different countries around the world, such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the UK, and most of the states in the United States.
In 1977 he moved to Pensacola with his wife and three daughters, and since then has worked on the construction of over 5,000 pools in this area. In 2010 Mike started his own company, Gulf Breeze Pools & Spas, which has become a major leader in the area for swimming pools.
“I’ve always been building pools, and that’s why in 2010 at the young age of 63, I decided to go into business for myself after working all those years for somebody else.”
With over 50 years of experience and more than 6,500 pools built both nationally and internationally, Mike Esmond is well known and respected in the pool industry. Since 1977 Mike has been living and working in the Pensacola and Gulf Breeze communities. Committed to quality products and service, Mike is hands on. His love of the community along the Gulf Coast and excellent work ethic is the driving force of Gulf Breeze Pools & Spas.
Recognized by the Studer Group as a “Difference Maker in the Pensacola Area,” Mike is an active asset in the community. Mike loves to give back because he knows what it’s like to struggle financially.
“That’s how I got into paying bills for people. Back in the 80s I was struggling and I had trouble paying my bills and my gas was shut off in my house and I had no heat. And I happened to pick the coldest winter that Pensacola’s ever had, where it got down to 6 degrees and there was ice on the windows on the inside of the house. So, I’ve struggled and that’s why I got into helping people.”
For the past four years, Mike has paid all the past due bills for Gulf Breeze utilities – anyone whose power was about to get shut off.
“I thought, around Christmas time, people have to make a decision – do I want to pay bills or do I want to buy food or toys for the kids, so that’s why I decided to pay everybody’s past due bill.”
In total, Mike has paid over $100,000 in past due utility bills in the City of Gulf Breeze.
Gulf Breeze Pools
4274 Gulf Breeze Parkway Gulf Breeze, FL 32563
850-232-4133