Tips for owning pool? (Sawgrass: HOA, house, heat pump)

[EricBoyd]

Originally Posted by Jay1981

I don’t want to hijack the thread but how much are you guys paying per month roughly for pool company to maintain your pool? Thx.

Pinch-a-Penny handles our chemicals for $75/mo. They visit every Monday. By comparison, one of my clients has a small pool company handling full service and they are charged $30/visit plus the cost of chemicals and a small "fuel surcharge".

[thelma123]

Originally Posted by Jay1981

I don’t want to hijack the thread but how much are you guys paying per month roughly for pool company to maintain your pool? Thx.

No worries not hijacking at all, pricing was my next question. Lol

[thelma123]

Can we swim in the winter in Jax with heated pool or is it too cold? How about solar heating? They work and cheaper?

[Thundarr457]

Originally Posted by thelma123

Can we swim in the winter in Jax with heated pool or is it too cold? How about solar heating? They work and cheaper?

If you are a polar bear it will feel just about right. Seriously almost no one swims here in the winter. Heating a pool will be prohibitive and solar won't matter that much. If you have a screen enclosure it will be even colder.

[mooksmom]

Learning the pool chemical thing is SO EZ, and I have never had a pool chemical company not help me out IF I ever needed it. They are who you use for your chemicals and become friends with. You take your water to them in a baby food jar and they test it (until YOU learn the chemicals and buy your own test kit). They also sell fun stuff for pools: lights, rafts, fences for toddlers, etc. Here is the BIG secret for keeping your pool clean and in balance.....USE IT! Use it often and keep the water stirred up (which also stirs up any leaves etc in the bottom of the pool to get them out). Buy a long handled net to fish things out. We had a pool in Miami and NEVER owned a vacuum for it and never needed one because we swam in it daily and kept the water stirred up and the occasional frog, etc fished out. further inMeet your neighbors and allow them to come and use it when you don't feel like it. Most of my BEST memories as a kid/teen were of parties my Dad threw on the back porch at the pool.
I'm gonna retire in Jax in a year and open a pool care business if you won't learn it; I will certainly come and take your $$$!

[thelma123]

Originally Posted by Thundarr457

If you are a polar bear it will feel just about right. Seriously almost no one swims here in the winter. Heating a pool will be prohibitive and solar won't matter that much. If you have a screen enclosure it will be even colder.

Waaa! Sorry that is me crying that I won’t be able to swim in winter. I guess I will have to be happy with just the other months of the year. Lol. thanks so much for all the tips.

[thelma123]

Thank you all for the great tips! It is so helpful. Now here’s another question? Does anyone know of a reliable pool builder in the area? Although we are hoping to buy a home already with pool, if we don’t find home we love that has one hubby wants to buy home without and put one in. We are estimating about $50k for a standard sized pool, hot tub and screen enclosure. Does that sound right?

[EricBoyd]

Originally Posted by thelma123

We are estimating about $50k for a standard sized pool, hot tub and screen enclosure. Does that sound right?

I'm not sure what a standard size is, but ours is a 16x33 free-form pool w/ enclosure and no hot tub or other water features. We paid about $55k. A screen enclosure will cost no less than $10k. Ours was $11k.

I won't recommend my pool company, not because they did a bad job, but because I wasn't overly thrilled with the way they treated me at the end. I also didn't think they did a good job selling me a pool with regard to features, etc, since I'm a first time pool owner. You can DM for their name, if you'd like.

I have a couple of friends who have used Breakwater Construction, and they were very happy with the finished product. I wish I had known about them. https://www.facebook.com/BreakwaterConstruction/

[Thundarr457]

That price is not even close. I can recommend Inground Swimming Pools & Spas | SurfSide Pools | Jacksonville, FL. We already have a pool, so we didn't need a new one, but they have an excellent reputation. For 50 k you can maybe get a plain pool and a possibly a screened enclosure but a spa needs a heater, 2 speed or variable speed pump, a bunch of valves and a concrete spa which is very inefficient compared to a free standing unit. We thought about adding one but the cost was prohibitive 15-20k and we decided against it.

[thelma123]

Do most HOAs in the communities in St. Johns area all allow screens over pools? Is that something you have to get permission from them to build in your yard?