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First year with our AG pool and the best advice I can give you is by ALL MEANS use CHLORINE products.It cost us under $100.00 a month.We opened the pool using BAQUACIL and our pool was a money pit after spending hundrend's of dollar's on chemicals trying to get it clear once it turned GREEN we drained the pool put fresh water in pool and switched to CHLORINE chemicals and my pool is a dream come true SPARKLING CLEAR and no more problems.So do yourself a big favorite and check it out I used the Baquacil( because they gave it to me when I brought my pool) against my friends advice and now oh how I had of wished I had listened to them. Get the pool best thing I ever brought LOVE IT.
You know, the thing that is missing in this discussion is the budgeting you'll have to do for future maintenance. Every 5-8 years you'll need to re-plaster (gunnite) the pool. Figure on $5-8K, every 5-8 years you'll need a new main pump @ $350 if you install yourself, a new booster pump @ $300 (for the pool cleaner). Every 5-8 years you'll need a new Polaris pool cleaner ($600+) assuming you do running repairs on it. You'll need filter cartridges if you have a regular system every 18 months - 2 years ($250 for 4 Hayward C4000's) if you install yourself and power wash them twice in that period. Our 28K gallon pool takes $150 of electricity, $60 of chemicals, $40 for evaporated water and $13 for insurance PER MONTH and I budget another $20 PER MONTH for something that is going to break (replacing pump seals every 6-12 months, finding leaks in underground pipes, fixing the auto top up system, repairing the air pump for the spa after mud dobbers made their home there, replacing leaking light fixtures, replacing a heater control module after yellow jackets made a nest and shorted out the old one etc. etc).
I think a realistic true running cost for my pool is $350 per month, based on my 8 years of owning it, and I bought the house with it installed, so I didn't have to amortize the $40-$50K initial costs.
If I could do it all again, I WOULD NOT have another pool, they are the original definition of a money pit....
YMMV but I am pretty sure of the numbers, and I do it all the maintenance myself; if I had to get someone in to do the maintanance and fix all the things that go wrong, I would need to add 50-100% to the maintenance costs.
You know, the thing that is missing in this discussion is the budgeting you'll have to do for future maintenance. Every 5-8 years you'll need to re-plaster (gunnite) the pool. Figure on $5-8K, every 5-8 years you'll need a new main pump @ $350 if you install yourself, a new booster pump @ $300 (for the pool cleaner). Every 5-8 years you'll need a new Polaris pool cleaner ($600+) assuming you do running repairs on it. You'll need filter cartridges if you have a regular system every 18 months - 2 years ($250 for 4 Hayward C4000's) if you install yourself and power wash them twice in that period. Our 28K gallon pool takes $150 of electricity, $60 of chemicals, $40 for evaporated water and $13 for insurance PER MONTH and I budget another $20 PER MONTH for something that is going to break (replacing pump seals every 6-12 months, finding leaks in underground pipes, fixing the auto top up system, repairing the air pump for the spa after mud dobbers made their home there, replacing leaking light fixtures, replacing a heater control module after yellow jackets made a nest and shorted out the old one etc. etc).
I think a realistic true running cost for my pool is $350 per month, based on my 8 years of owning it, and I bought the house with it installed, so I didn't have to amortize the $40-$50K initial costs.
If I could do it all again, I WOULD NOT have another pool, they are the original definition of a money pit....
YMMV but I am pretty sure of the numbers, and I do it all the maintenance myself; if I had to get someone in to do the maintanance and fix all the things that go wrong, I would need to add 50-100% to the maintenance costs.
- Tim
Thank you Tim for that very detailed list of maintenance costs. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
You know what they say about boats "A boat is a hole in the water surrounded by wood into which one pours money." Well, in this case it would be "A pool is a hole in the ground surrounded by cement into which one pours money."
You know, the thing that is missing in this discussion is the budgeting you'll have to do for future maintenance. Every 5-8 years you'll need to re-plaster (gunnite) the pool. Figure on $5-8K, every 5-8 years you'll need a new main pump @ $350 if you install yourself, a new booster pump @ $300 (for the pool cleaner). Every 5-8 years you'll need a new Polaris pool cleaner ($600+) assuming you do running repairs on it. You'll need filter cartridges if you have a regular system every 18 months - 2 years ($250 for 4 Hayward C4000's) if you install yourself and power wash them twice in that period. Our 28K gallon pool takes $150 of electricity, $60 of chemicals, $40 for evaporated water and $13 for insurance PER MONTH and I budget another $20 PER MONTH for something that is going to break (replacing pump seals every 6-12 months, finding leaks in underground pipes, fixing the auto top up system, repairing the air pump for the spa after mud dobbers made their home there, replacing leaking light fixtures, replacing a heater control module after yellow jackets made a nest and shorted out the old one etc. etc).
I think a realistic true running cost for my pool is $350 per month, based on my 8 years of owning it, and I bought the house with it installed, so I didn't have to amortize the $40-$50K initial costs.
If I could do it all again, I WOULD NOT have another pool, they are the original definition of a money pit....
YMMV but I am pretty sure of the numbers, and I do it all the maintenance myself; if I had to get someone in to do the maintanance and fix all the things that go wrong, I would need to add 50-100% to the maintenance costs.
- Tim
We have a 35k gallon pool and this sounds about the same amount we spend monthly... my husband does all the work himself-
But, do you really need to replaster it every 7-8 years? We've lived here for 12 and had ours done last summer. Should last another 15 before it needs done again.
My advice is if you're gonna have a pool, make sure there are NO trees around it! Oak trees and crepe myrtles are the WORST! If we didn't have our pool surrounded by oaks, it would be a breeze to maintain...
You know, the thing that is missing in this discussion is the budgeting you'll have to do for future maintenance. Every 5-8 years you'll need to re-plaster (gunnite) the pool. Figure on $5-8K, every 5-8 years you'll need a new main pump @ $350 if you install yourself, a new booster pump @ $300 (for the pool cleaner). Every 5-8 years you'll need a new Polaris pool cleaner ($600+) assuming you do running repairs on it. You'll need filter cartridges if you have a regular system every 18 months - 2 years ($250 for 4 Hayward C4000's) if you install yourself and power wash them twice in that period. Our 28K gallon pool takes $150 of electricity, $60 of chemicals, $40 for evaporated water and $13 for insurance PER MONTH and I budget another $20 PER MONTH for something that is going to break (replacing pump seals every 6-12 months, finding leaks in underground pipes, fixing the auto top up system, repairing the air pump for the spa after mud dobbers made their home there, replacing leaking light fixtures, replacing a heater control module after yellow jackets made a nest and shorted out the old one etc. etc).
I think a realistic true running cost for my pool is $350 per month, based on my 8 years of owning it, and I bought the house with it installed, so I didn't have to amortize the $40-$50K initial costs.
If I could do it all again, I WOULD NOT have another pool, they are the original definition of a money pit....
YMMV but I am pretty sure of the numbers, and I do it all the maintenance myself; if I had to get someone in to do the maintanance and fix all the things that go wrong, I would need to add 50-100% to the maintenance costs.
- Tim
Not completely disagreeing with you, but there are a couple of differences that I have seen from friends since they have had their pools longer than me. a 35k gallon pool, sounds nice. I wish I had built a pool around 20k gallons but that is not going to change now.
If you go for pebble sheen or stonescapes instead of plaster the life expectancy for the pool is expected to last about twice as long. I was talking with one of the pool maintence workers and they suggested that the filters be cleaned every other month which will make the last a lot longer.
Our salt water pool requires almost no chemicals monthly other than a little acid, I think the advantage is that a salt water pool maintains the chlorine at a constant state vs. peaks and valleys of a traditional pool.
Not completely disagreeing with you, but there are a couple of differences that I have seen from friends since they have had their pools longer than me. a 35k gallon pool, sounds nice. I wish I had built a pool around 20k gallons but that is not going to change now.
If you go for pebble sheen or stonescapes instead of plaster the life expectancy for the pool is expected to last about twice as long. I was talking with one of the pool maintence workers and they suggested that the filters be cleaned every other month which will make the last a lot longer.
Our salt water pool requires almost no chemicals monthly other than a little acid, I think the advantage is that a salt water pool maintains the chlorine at a constant state vs. peaks and valleys of a traditional pool.
we had ours converted to salt, but ended up going back to chlorine. I didn't like the taste of the water or the burn in the eyes. (and no i don't drink the water..lol).. also I think the size (jr. olympic), and area where ours is at, the salt didn't do very well.
We had ours plastered with 3m quartz, and it's BEAUTIFUL! We justify the cost, because we are home bodies and prefer to stay home instead of going on vacations.. epec with 3 kids!
It does seem we have to replace a filter grid every 3 months though, and we found that liquid shock is way cheaper than powder -that's saved us lots of $!
I'd say $50-75 including the insurance and electricity on my end on average. I've got the pool pretty well closed up for about 6 months out of the year though. I spend about 25-30 on chemicals. That does vary on how well I've taken care of the pool. If I have to clean up some algae or something it of course goes up.
I agree that $400 seems high. I shop online for pool chemicals and my other pool supplies at that store.. I've found their prices to be great, and so far with a little planning ahead I haven't run into an emergency issues where I didn't have what I needed.
My wife and I are in the process of deciding whether it would be better to buy a house without a pool and put one in or buy one already installed.
Keep in mind that we are pool novices....
We've been looking at a house with the following pool (see pics).
Honestly, the pool scares us because it's so intimidating. The pictures don't really do it justice; it's actually feels bigger in person, partially because it is drained. The house is a short sale and the owner was one of the owners of SmartPools before it went under...
My question is....how much do you think this would cost to maintain each month? It has a slide and a grotto, but I suppose you don't necessarily have to have those running, right?
Get the home warranty to include the pool if you didn't build it yourself! Most people don't know how to properly take care of a pool and they don't always recognize that there are mechanical issues happening and then just let them get worse and worse. We had to do about $10K in work when we moved into a house in Dallas once to replace the pump and much of the system. Thankfully the warranty covered it.
Honestly, for us, it is less of a headache to own a boat than it was to own a pool, so that's saying something, but the pool in our house was older and not cared for. We ended up hiring someone to come by weekly and check on it, fill it, clean it, etc. because we were out of town during the week due to travel. So that got expensive. But better than having another major repair. He charged $100 a month and that included chemicals, etc. But be prepared in those hot summer months to have your level drop drop drop...and then add water restrictions in Austin. Ay yi yi.
A house with a pool wouldn't keep my from buying the house but I would never put one in of my own volution. We chose to live in a neighborhood with a great pool instead.
Wow, awesome pool.
My wife and I are just in the same situation, buy house with pool or no pool??
Mainly the maintinance issue.
Great thread, lots of input but still far apart on the cost of owning a pool!
cheers.
Patrick
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcgeo
My wife and I are in the process of deciding whether it would be better to buy a house without a pool and put one in or buy one already installed.
Keep in mind that we are pool novices....
We've been looking at a house with the following pool (see pics).
Honestly, the pool scares us because it's so intimidating. The pictures don't really do it justice; it's actually feels bigger in person, partially because it is drained. The house is a short sale and the owner was one of the owners of SmartPools before it went under...
My question is....how much do you think this would cost to maintain each month? It has a slide and a grotto, but I suppose you don't necessarily have to have those running, right?
Anyway, any help would be appreciated....
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Awesome Pool!
