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So we are house-hunting from a distance (ugh!) and have our eye on a property that has a lovely back yard that just screams for a pool. A pool is one of our must-haves.
But I'm concerned about what appear to be high and low points in the yard as well as a slight slope away from the house toward the back (good) and a slight slope away from the back toward the house (bad). I would think things could be graded appropriately with the dirt removed when the pool is dug, but...
The house was built in 1995, and there are pools within the neighborhood. How do we find out if a pool is a possibility before we commit to buy? What are the features of the property that we should look out for? The inability to put in a pool would make the property a complete non-starter for us.
Any advice would be appreciated (except the "pools are expensive and not a good investment" kind of advice).
If its in an HOA talk to the community leader. We had dreams of adding a pool on our property but were lead to believe it wasn't an option on our property and in the end we agreed. We settled for a community pool which isn't always ideal.
Choose your pool company first and they will come out and look at the property that you're interested in and they can tell you if/how the pool can fit.
Get someone out to do an inspection/estimate and then talk to the HOA (if there is one) to make sure there are no restrictions. It may be possible but cost prohibitive, or there could be some HOA issue with the particular work you want to do. In my childhood home, we were able to put a pool in, but as it was a corner lot, the front yard was large and the back yard was too small for my parents to be able to put in a lanai along the whole back of the house or screen in the pool. The HOA had restrictions on permanent structures being at least a certain distance from the lot lines. They did put in a large awning instead of the lanai.
Slight slopes can be accommodated easily when installing an in-ground pool. This is our backyard. Pool installed in 1987. New decking, coping, and liner in 2004. I may have replaced the timbers in the retaining wall in 2004 also. I know I have done it once, just not sure of timing. Four levels high of 4x6 timbers laid flat.
Be aware of underground utilities that may need to be relocated or worked around. Our installation was a timing nightmare because the pool on the builder's job list immediately ahead of ours sat atop a storm sewer main that was somehow missed. That sewer delayed that job, and all subsequent other jobs in that season. The builder tried to keep everyone happy by working a little bit on everyone's job, but just P-O'ed all his customers by dong that.
I hand dug the 2-foot deep trenches to relocate the underground electrical and phone service to our home, and laid the PVC conduit, all ahead of construction. We also had to relocate a much deeper 1-1/2 inch sump pump discharge line by re-routing it within the pool excavation rather than digging a separate deep trench.
So we are house-hunting from a distance (ugh!) and have our eye on a property that has a lovely back yard that just screams for a pool. A pool is one of our must-haves.
But I'm concerned about what appear to be high and low points in the yard as well as a slight slope away from the house toward the back (good) and a slight slope away from the back toward the house (bad). I would think things could be graded appropriately with the dirt removed when the pool is dug, but...
The house was built in 1995, and there are pools within the neighborhood. How do we find out if a pool is a possibility before we commit to buy? What are the features of the property that we should look out for? The inability to put in a pool would make the property a complete non-starter for us.
Any advice would be appreciated (except the "pools are expensive and not a good investment" kind of advice).
We just bought a house in October and put a pool in. What an ordeal but now it's done and I love it!
What we should have done, in retrospect, was have a couple of pool companies come out and give us bids and all that during what we have as an "option period" before buying, because what we didn't realize is that we would have to completely change the septic system type, which was about $6500. Oh well, that's what we ended up doing but we didn't know it going in. We just assumed because the yard would definitely hold a pool, we could put one in. Au contraire, per state law! Not without changing out septic systems entirely!
Anyway, if you have some sort of time period you can either buy or whatever, build into the pre sale contract, you can get all inspections and bids and all that prior to the closing.
So I would recommend that you narrow your search for a good pool builder down to one or two builders that have a great reputation, and then have them come out and give you a bid during the option period. And yes, they can grade your lot, but you also have to consider the lots of your neighbors and water flow and all that.
We just completed installing our new fiberglass pool. Our back yard is very flat, but it goes downhill at the property edge My next door neighbor got some of our water in his back yard, and I hope the faint salt mixture doesn't kill his grass.
And I'm learning how to handle the saltwater generator and sand filter. Just backflushing the filter produces a lot of water. I've got to make a decision on whether to run a 2" pipe 150' to the street. Fortunately the utilities are on the other side of my property.
So there is more to consider than the elevation of the lot. When they dig the pool, there will be a mountain of dirt to be removed or reallocated to other parts of your yard if it needs built up for the pool. A top rate pool installer can give you advice on all of these issues.
Obviously I didn't have a top rate installer as water flow after the fact was never addressed. They wanted to spend 1 1/2 days putting the pool in the ground and then turning it over to the electrician and the concrete man. My installer has 8 more delivered fiberglass pools on the ground right waiting to be installed.
Thanks, everyone, for your replies! I really appreciate hearing your experiences and opinions.
Kathryn, I've been following and enjoying your pool-build thread and the posts from others who've chimed in with their experiences. I think it was a comment you made about drainage issues on another property that kept you from building a pool there. That got me to thinkin'...
I've asked our realtor to find out from the HOA if a pool can be built on this particular lot and whether there are any complicating requirements/restrictions (size, placement, etc.). DH has reached out to a couple of pool contractors and emailed them some pictures to get a preliminary idea about some of our concerns. There is definitely *room* for a pool with space to spare...it's all the technicalities that concern me. And the market seems to be moving really fast in this area for homes that are priced appropriately, and this one seems to be. I fear we'll be competing for this property with quick "come what may" decision makers/risk takers (which we're not).
I've attached a couple of the listing photos that seem to show sort of a "dish" in the back yard part-way between the back tree/property line and the deck. That's what has me concerned.
Thanks, everyone, for your replies! I really appreciate hearing your experiences and opinions.
Kathryn, I've been following and enjoying your pool-build thread and the posts from others who've chimed in with their experiences. I think it was a comment you made about drainage issues on another property that kept you from building a pool there. That got me to thinkin'...
I've asked our realtor to find out from the HOA if a pool can be built on this particular lot and whether there are any complicating requirements/restrictions (size, placement, etc.). DH has reached out to a couple of pool contractors and emailed them some pictures to get a preliminary idea about some of our concerns. There is definitely *room* for a pool with space to spare...it's all the technicalities that concern me. And the market seems to be moving really fast in this area for homes that are priced appropriately, and this one seems to be. I fear we'll be competing for this property with quick "come what may" decision makers/risk takers (which we're not).
I've attached a couple of the listing photos that seem to show sort of a "dish" in the back yard part-way between the back tree/property line and the deck. That's what has me concerned.
Depending on utility lines/drains in the yard, I think a pool contractor would consider that yard a breeze to work in. You should see some of the tiny, strange angled yards that they have been able to work something into.
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