Cost to Maintain an In-ground Pool

[steve78757]

About $50 a month here, for a pool that less than 20,000 gallons. BUT.. we'll need to resurface it soon, so bye bye 6K minimum. Also, it's suddenly losing 1/2 an inch of water per day, even when it was cool recently. There's always a slight dread in the back of my mind of trenches being dug in my yard, landscaping destroyed, to fix a leaky underground pool pipe. I probably wouldn't buy a house with a pool a second time.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by PatrickAlexander

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

In texas you can use a pool from about may 1 (although it has been cold this year) to about october 1. If you use a heater you can extend it from about mid april through october. You can use a spa all year round.

A good site to look at is troublefreepools.com There are a lot of forum posts there about pool maintenance costs, pool maintenance activities etc

[scm53]

Originally Posted by PatrickAlexander

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

Well, like in so many things, the answer is, it depends. First, how much use will you get? Kids or no kids? Then, if you have kids, are you comfortable in your ability to get them safe around your pool? Is there a community pool? Is it convenient? That will diminish the worth of your own pool. For us, Texas summers are MUCH more enjoyable with our pool. Easy call for us.

Second, cost. I don't know. We buy one bucket of chlorine tabs at the start of the summer. About $80 at Costco. Couple of boxes of two gallon jugs of muratic acid. $15 each. That's it. What I can't break out is the cost of the electricity to run the filter pump and the Polaris. If I was really industrious, I would get the specs of the two pumps, figure the wattage, multiply by hours/day (typically three), then figure my electricity rate into the mix. Guess why I haven't? I know we picked the pumps we did because they were efficient, so don't really worry about it. Our interior surface is Pebble-Tek, so we won't have to refinish for fifteen years. I haven't figured a reserve for that or tge inevitable pump/filter replacement.

Hard to make a blanket statement, but if you can afford the price of the house, I'd do it.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by scm53

Well, like in so many things, the answer is, it depends. First, how much use will you get? Kids or no kids? Then, if you have kids, are you comfortable in your ability to get them safe around your pool? Is there a community pool? Is it convenient? That will diminish the worth of your own pool. For us, Texas summers are MUCH more enjoyable with our pool. Easy call for us.

Second, cost. I don't know. We buy one bucket of chlorine tabs at the start of the summer. About $80 at Costco. Couple of boxes of two gallon jugs of muratic acid. $15 each. That's it. What I can't break out is the cost of the electricity to run the filter pump and the Polaris. If I was really industrious, I would get the specs of the two pumps, figure the wattage, multiply by hours/day (typically three), then figure my electricity rate into the mix. Guess why I haven't? I know we picked the pumps we did because they were efficient, so don't really worry about it. Our interior surface is Pebble-Tek, so we won't have to refinish for fifteen years. I haven't figured a reserve for that or tge inevitable pump/filter replacement.

Hard to make a blanket statement, but if you can afford the price of the house, I'd do it.

Pump - $500, lasts 5 years = $100/year
Filter cartridges - $120 every 3 years = $40/year
Pebble surface - $5000 - every 15 years = $333/year (keep in mind plaster can last 20 years if you are vigilant about pool chemistry, pebble can probably go 20-30 years. An acidic pool will destroy the plaster)
Chemicals 5months at $50/month, 7 months @ $15/month = $355/year
we use about 1/2 gallon of bleach/day in the summer. Bleach is $2.71/gallon at costco so 1.35/day in the summer. We use about 4 gallons of acid/month @ $5/gallon, in the summer. so $20/month. All chemicals are reduced to about 25% in the winter.

Electricity/water - water is about the same as we would have spent watering our yard (we lose about an inch a week, which is about 400 gallons/week @ $6/1000 gallons. So maybe $10/month in the summer. A lot less in the winter. You can reduce evaporation to zero with a pool cover.

Electricity is about $8/month with a 2 speed pump that uses 190 watts on low speed. I run it for 12 hours a day so 2.2 KWh per day @ $.10/KWh



about $1000/year ($83/month)

For just regular out of pocket ongoing maintenance costs, about $48/month (i.e. no big ticket items)

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by Austin97

Pump - $500, lasts 5 years = $100/year
Filter cartridges - $120 every 3 years = $40/year
Pebble surface - $5000 - every 15 years = $333/year (keep in mind plaster can last 20 years if you are vigilant about pool chemistry, pebble can probably go 20-30 years. An acidic pool will destroy the plaster)
Chemicals 5months at $50/month, 7 months @ $15/month = $355/year
we use about 1/2 gallon of bleach/day in the summer. Bleach is $2.71/gallon at costco so 1.35/day in the summer. We use about 4 gallons of acid/month @ $5/gallon, in the summer. so $20/month. All chemicals are reduced to about 25% in the winter.

Electricity/water - water is about the same as we would have spent watering our yard (we lose about an inch a week, which is about 400 gallons/week @ $6/1000 gallons. So maybe $10/month in the summer. A lot less in the winter. You can reduce evaporation to zero with a pool cover.

Electricity is about $8/month with a 2 speed pump that uses 190 watts on low speed. I run it for 12 hours a day so 2.2 KWh per day @ $.10/KWh



about $1000/year ($83/month)

For just regular out of pocket ongoing maintenance costs, about $48/month (i.e. no big ticket items)

I get slightly different numbers but my pool is smaller than yours. I also have saltwater which front loads a lot of the chemical cost, basically I only need salt ($25/year) and acid.

Pump: I recently replaced mine and it was $300, they are easy to DIY, I know that you did yours yourself. You are way better than me

The other cost I would add it sealant for the coping if you flagstone. That can be pricey depending on the quality but it will make the coping last longer.

[shmatbert]

I love this thread because my husband and I have been talking about building a pool for about a year and the monthly maintenance and utilities costs have been something that we've had a hard time getting information on. It's kind of like commute times - everyone seems to understate them when you ask. Another question for us is how it might impact resale at some point. Though more Austinites seem to want pools now, for a long time pools were a hindrance to sales. We aren't looking to get our money back but we wouldn't want our home to sit on the market forever solely because it has a pool. We'll probably be in our home another 10 - 15 years. I'm probably overthinking this. I tend to do that.

[cBach]

Figure about $1 a day for electricity, so $30 there.
Figure about $1 a day for water (assuming your pool is new and has no leaks), so $30 there.
Figure about $50 a month for chemicals.

So about $110 a month if you do it yourself, much higher if you get a pool man.

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by shmatbert

I love this thread because my husband and I have been talking about building a pool for about a year and the monthly maintenance and utilities costs have been something that we've had a hard time getting information on. It's kind of like commute times - everyone seems to understate them when you ask. Another question for us is how it might impact resale at some point. Though more Austinites seem to want pools now, for a long time pools were a hindrance to sales. We aren't looking to get our money back but we wouldn't want our home to sit on the market forever solely because it has a pool. We'll probably be in our home another 10 - 15 years. I'm probably overthinking this. I tend to do that.

If you are going to be in the house that long, enjoy the pool.