Thinking of building a pool...what are the pro's and con's?

[harley]

I am a swimmer, and would love to have a pool assuming it was large enough to actually swim in. Most aren't. But I've been a lifeguard, and I've owned a home with a decent sized pool, So I know what's involved with taking care of a pool. I don't think I ever would do so again. There's a lot of maintenance involved, and if it's just a cool off pool I don't think it would get used very much. Also, depending on where you are the usage months can be pretty limited. In VA (where I owned a home with a pool) we were lucky to get 5 months of use. I've been in neighbors pools in FL, but they're very small and after March of so become bathtubs with water temps in the 80s or more.

I've considered doing an indoor infinity pool, or whatever you call those things that blow the water at you so you never need to do a turn. I might do that if we ever get to the owning one house stage. But to each his own. A pool for me is for swimming. If I can't swim, I don't see the use of it. The kids have neighborhood pools. As a matter of fact, DGD1 is starting her first job this week lifeguarding at their neighborhood pool. Pretty much what I was doing 50 years ago. I was thinking of going over and running around, to see if she'd blow her whistle and throw me out.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley ... I've considered doing an indoor infinity pool, or whatever you call those things that blow the water at you so you never need to do a turn...

I have seen videos of these. I wonder what kind of pump you need to have a decent flow of water. The pool tends to be narrow. It would have to be, else the pump would be huge.

[Cobra9777]

We love having a pool. DW and I get in 3 or 4 times a week, often just to cool off and relax after working outside in the Texas heat. When our kids were here, they were in the pool nearly every day, May through Sept. Now our grandkids use it when they come over. It's great for holidays, family gatherings, etc. It's also a beautiful part of the landscape, which includes decks, planting beds, stone walkways, and lots of other features. We enjoy sitting out on the pool deck in the morning with coffee while the waterfall is trickling.

We're out there multiple times everyday. So maintenance is just a normal part of our daily routine, like checking the skimmers whenever you walk by. We have a Polaris cleaner that vacuums and brushes every day. All we do is empty the bag every 2 weeks or so. We never close the pool or cover it. In the off-season, I reduce the run-time on all the equipment and check chlorine maybe once a week. In summer, I check and adjust water chemistry more frequently and more thoroughly, but it's still no more than 10-15 minutes per week.

The only maintenance I dread is cleaning the filter. About twice a year, or whenever the pressure gets to a certain level, I have to break it down, hose down the cartridges, and then put it all back together. It's a messy job and takes about an hour.

We've had a pool for the last 22 years, starting when the kids were 8 and 11. Now... I can't really imagine living in Texas without one. It's great for cooling off, entertaining, and it's a beautiful part of the landscape.

[street]

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Originally Posted by Aerides I could probably point to any number of indulgences or things others spend their money on and make the same comment. But I never would, because that's an unhelpful and discourteous response. Everyone has different tastes.

x2.
I splurge and spend a lot of money of vehicle gas in a years time. It is one of my things I enjoy doing, so I don't care what it costs but I go and drive. In my country to do or get anywhere you have to drive miles and miles to get there thou.

[big-papa]

We had ours put in about 12 years or so ago here in central TX and we love it. It also includes a built-in hot-tub that we use during the winter. I probably spend less than 5 minutes on it a day, mainly just to check skimmers. On weekends, I'll check Ph & Chlorine levels & maybe bring in a sample to the local pool shop for a deeper chemical check probably once a month. Maybe once a month or so I'll shock & backwash. Twice a season I have my repair guy come out and clean the grids as I decided that the small cost of doing that is worth it on my back.

It really only gets to be a pain when leaves drop. We have two seasons for that: autumn for most leaves (mainly Cedar Elm here) then again in the late winter/early spring when the live oaks do their thing with leaves followed by pollen stalks. Those are the times where I really have to stay on top of things. We wanted ours to look somewhat natural so all of the decking is limestone.

Things we'd do differently
1. I hate dealing with DE. I would go with a sand filter next time, even if the filtration isn't as good as DE.
2. We used a plaster that was too dark. The pool gets really warm in the summer. We bought a cooling unit (swamp-cooler type of unit) that we'll run overnight if we know we have guests coming over. Works like a champ. Will replace the plaster with a lighter color when the time comes.
3. I would have provisioned for a cover for the leaf seasons.

Somebody else mentioned a fence. In many municipalities, this is code - required. Even outside of that, it's just a good idea for safety purposes.

Cheers

[pb4uski]

The other thing to consider is that the grandkids will probably only be interested in the pool for a limited number of years... the older they get the lower their interest in hanging with gram and gramps at their pool will be. $100k is just the initial cost... you have maintenance costs after that. But even just the $100k initial cost divided by 15 or so year that the grandkids will be interested is over $6k a year.

[NW-Bound]

We used our pool quite a bit when my kids were young. Then, it sat mostly unused for the last 20 years, while I put a lot of money into it.

This year, when my 5-year-old grandniece came to swim in my pool everyday, and I joined her along with her grandpa (my BIL), the pool gets used again. I have been in the pool this year more times than in all of the last 10 years.

My grandniece keeps urging my wife to join in. My wife said she would do so when the water temperature gets in the 80s.

[EastWest Gal]

During Covid isolation last summer, we enjoyed our pool a lot more than usual.

Regarding cost: Consider the cost of landscaping around the pool. That cost a lot more than the pool itself. I recommended concrete. We put in paver, which is much more difficult to keep clean. The landscaper we hired came highly recommended, but he did not do the paver drainage very well and we had to redo a lot of it, which added to the cost.

We put a fiberglass pool in 19 years ago. Gunnite would have been more expensive, but we live a couple of miles from a quarry, and when they dynamite a new section, it registers about 3 on the Richter scale and has been enough to put cracks in one of our neighbor's pools. It has held up well. It isn't to hard to do the chemistry and it needs cleaning, but swimming in it regularly helps as well as using the robot vacuum.

We will continue to use it far more now that I am retired. I like to swim for exercise-can't really do it in our pool. But that's not the only exercise I do.

Regarding Harley's swim spa comment. There are several brands of swim spas. We have one of the smallest ones, When we redid our deck, we built it around a new swim spa. Usually we use it as a spa, and I have to let it cool to swim for exercise. If you are thinking about putting one in the basement, think again. You need a wide entrance to have it installed. And you will have humidity issues.

[Franklin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Wow, I did not know pools are getting so expensive. Could you share the size of the pool, or any special feature it may have?

Hi, OP here. The responses have been very helpful. Regarding the pool budget, the pool is rather small but the other stuff adds up as follows:

Pool in ground $72K (includes pumps/heater etc)
Add electric and Plummer $5K
hardscape to connect to the house (tabby) $8K
Landscaping $4K
Water features $2K
Gate around pool area $6K
Cover $3K

The wait list is similar to what others have suggested (late 2021). Just trying to decide whether to push ahead or call it off. GK's visit only twice a year and we have access to a pool at the nearby club (as plan B). We have a dock and canal/creek (w/boat) but also have an occasional alligater which dampens the swimming mood. Thankfully never had any issues. Can't decide!!

[Jerry1]

Given that you have access to a club pool and the grand kids only come a couple times a year, I think you’d have to decide solely based on your desire to use the pool (you and your spouse). Unless the budget and work involved are no big deal to you, it doesn’t sound like the pool will get used enough.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Lots of good information here, so I won't add too much. Depending on where you are and how big the pool will be, watch the depth sizes. If you have a smaller "sport pool" (say 15,000 gallons) if it's too shallow (say from 3.5 to 5.0' deep) then it can get VERY warm in the summer. Also, before you contract to build, make sure the builder has ALL THE MECHANICAL items IN STOCK. Pumps, valves, heaters, etc....there is quite the shortage on many items because of COVID and the freeze that destroyed so much in TX/OK/LA a few months ago. I am sure you would love to have a big concrete hole in the ground sitting empty for months while waiting for a pump to show up in the supply system.

+1 on a SWCG (salt water chlorine generator). Chlorine pucks are getting pretty expensive and some areas of the country getting liquid chlorine can be quite the pain.

Get a variable speed pump as opposed to a single or two speed. They are MUCH cheaper to run and next month, there is a law that will pretty much preclude selling single speed pumps for pool use.

Last thing...there is a pool forum (Trouble Free Pools) that was/is absolutely instrumental in me learning all about having and maintaining a pool. It's free and there are a lot of very smart folks on there and many threads on builds past and present. Those folks save my arse when we had a few days of -15 degree temps and a pool that I don't winterize. There is also a lot of great info on the dependability on systems (pumps/heaters/SWCG/etc) that is also helpful.

[iloveyoga]

I just took a quick look at your budget. We added a pool in 2018 and the extras were all more than I had planned, sometimes 2 x more. As others have mentioned, we did redo our whole city backyard and two decks (with Trex). The whole project took about a year and cost just under $100K with my DH doing the work that he could, including the deck, dirt work and landscaping.

We pay the pool company to open and close, each is about $400. We have a salt generator and I would recommend that. I am able to do all of the chemicals and testing. I would also recommend an automatic cover.

We live in Iowa so the season is short, early May to mid September. A heater is a must here.
That all said, we love it, we swim every day that we can and my only regret is not doing it earlier.

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franklin Hi, OP here. The responses have been very helpful. Regarding the pool budget, the pool is rather small but the other stuff adds up as follows: Pool in ground $72K (includes pumps/heater etc) Add electric and Plummer $5K hardscape to connect to the house (tabby) $8K Landscaping $4K Water features $2K Gate around pool area $6K Cover $3K The wait list is similar to what others have suggested (late 2021). Just trying to decide whether to push ahead or call it off. GK's visit only twice a year and we have access to a pool at the nearby club (as plan B). We have a dock and canal/creek (w/boat) but also have an occasional alligater which dampens the swimming mood. Thankfully never had any issues. Can't decide!!

Follow your gut instinct: Don't do it. Use that $100k for college fund for grandkids. Use the community club pool.

[38Chevy454]

We built a new house 4 years ago, then put in ground fiberglass pool about 3 years ago. Salt system, and a pool cleaner robot. It really is not any significant work. No heater, just the sun and ambient temps. Big cartridge filter that is easy to clean or replace. The biggest work is closing pool in winter, about 2 hours start to finish including putting everything away and the safety cover on. Opening in spring is about 1 hour. The fiberglass is quick install, as Bamaman said approx 2 days to install it. The some additional electric work for the pump, and then whatever the concrete around the pool takes to get done.



The pool does get some small junk that either floats into the skimmer basket, or sinks and the robot picks it up. Beyond that the chlorine is automatically controlled by the salt system. I check the water chemistry a few times a year, but for the most part it really is not any work once the pool is open and running the normal pump cycle. I get about 4, maybe 5 months of use depending on the spring and fall temps. I could extend that with a heater, no need at this time.


Would I do it again? Not sure, my DW is the one that really wanted it. The pool does allow for great family parties with the younger kids. To me it is the money spent and not the increased workload. That money could have stayed invested or used for different purpose. But it was part of the total house cost.

[Cobra9777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by big-papa ...Things we'd do differently 1. I hate dealing with DE. I would go with a sand filter next time, even if the filtration isn't as good as DE....

I'd take a look at new cartridge filters before sand. I've had DE, sand, and now cartridge. For me, cartridge is the easiest to deal with. No backwashing which wastes water... and no backwash valve to restrict flow. No DE or sand to be replaced. You just have to hose down the cartridges once or twice a year. It's still a pain but WAY easier than DE. The grids in a DE filter are near-impossible to put back together correctly after cleaning. In my experience, sand is the worst of the 3, in terms of effective filtration and requires more backwashing than DE. DE is the best, but recent improvements in cartridge filters are starting to rival DE at 5 microns.

[Brat]

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Originally Posted by OldShooter What's not to like about this? Arrange unlimited use for you and your family in exchange for taking over managing the maintenance of the pool, maybe even paying or sharing the cost. If no fence, add a fence at your expense or share expense with a convenient gate from your property. Write down the agreement, at least informally, and agree on a term with escape clauses for both sides as necessary. Keep the $100K in your pocket.

Give that a try before you put in a pool.

[Midpack]

We had a pool at our house in FL, never again. Once the novelty wore off, we only used it to jump in to cool off, and then back out again. Not worth the expense and upkeep for that. And we found out the hard way what happens if you don't maintain Cl, pH, etc. (yellow algae bloom), though I've heard saltwater pools have become very popular - I don't know anything about them. The only people I've known who found pools worthwhile were those with kids and/or grandkids that wanted - it's a big draw for kids of all ages.

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack .The only people I've known who found pools worthwhile were those with kids and/or grandkids that wanted - it's a big draw for kids of all ages.

And that last part "draws kids" means it can also be a liability. Attractive nuisance for neighbor kids.

Too many stories of kids drowning in pools. Even kids getting caught under pool covers.

Remember Lou Costello, the famous comedian of Abbot and Costello fame? He and his wife had a child drown in their pool. He was never the same after that. Ruined his life.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franklin ....GK's visit only twice a year and we have access to a pool at the nearby club (as plan B). We have a dock and canal/creek (w/boat) but also have an occasional alligater which dampens the swimming mood. Thankfully never had any issues. Can't decide!!

We often load up on our pontoon and head out on the lake and then swim from the pontoon boat. We also have spots on the lake that are shallower that we can anchor and then swim and walk around. Is there a better place that you could boat to and then swim that would be safer from alligators?

[Franklin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski We often load up on our pontoon and head out on the lake and then swim from the pontoon boat. We also have spots on the lake that are shallower that we can anchor and then swim and walk around. Is there a better place that you could boat to and then swim that would be safer from alligators?

yep, plenty of water all around but best to be in the boat until we get in the open waters. We do swim once we get out of the creeks and find a sand bar.