Adding Pool To Older Home in Tight Neighborhood (Sarasota, Venice: for sale, HOA) - Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area - Florida (FL) -Manatee and Sarasota Counties - City-Data Forum

PBToast · 01-31-2021, 08:27 AM

Hi Everyone! Quick question. I have seen some nice houses with a good sized back yard but no pool. Only there appears to be very little space between the adjoining homes to get heavy equipment through? Are there paths in developments left open where it can move? Or do they dig by hand or something? Or is a pool not possible in this case?

beach43ofus · 01-31-2021, 11:03 AM

They can get machinery in there somehow. They might have to chew up your neighbors lawn, so you'll need to get their cooperation to agree to it for the 3 months it takes to complete the process, and then put it back to its original condition.

If there's no way to do it there, they should be able to find a utility easement where the gap is wider to use.

Your HOA might be able to advise you on this too. You'll need HOA approval from them anyhow, if you have one. The county will advise you of the setbacks from your property line. I think its 5 feet in Sarasota country at the rear of the lot. Your pool contractor should know this.

We have a 3,000 sq ft home with a nice-sized backyard w/o a pool. I don't want the cost or upkeep, because we had planned to do a lot of traveling...until C-19 hit. C-19 is a boon to the pool industry, but we are still not doing a pool...for now.

Most people don't actually use the pool themselves, & it's a bad investment. You might get 40% of your money back when you sell, plus your insurance rate & utilities will go up. Our friends use their hot tubs, but not their pools.

I was considering just adding a hot tub without a pool, & extending the lanai floor & cage instead. Not near the top of my wish list at this time however.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

vacoder · 01-31-2021, 07:04 PM

Hiow much is very little space? I have seen pool companies put in a pool with six feet between thr houses. They use a mini backhoe. I imagine it may cost more due to more labor. When i had a pool put in I first picked my pool installer and then had them evaluate the site prior to putting in the offer. Other considerations can be setbacks. Owned three homes in florida and all had a pool. For me its a necessity.

macrodome2 · 01-31-2021, 07:06 PM

As Beach said, lead times for pools are crazy now and some of that is due to the municipal permit process. I talked to several pool companies and they said City of Northport and City of Venice were better than unincorporated Sarasota. Unincorporated Sarasota was 6 weeks and that was back in May. I have a friend who is enlarging his lanai and putting in a hot tub in Venice and he's waiting weeks for the permit.

The pool people told me that you need to be 5 feet off the back of the house for a depth of 4-5 ft. If you want a deeper pool you need to be further off the house. We had to have more than 5 ft setback off the back property line and I don't remember if it was because the HOA required it or because we're on a pond. Also, our HOA won't allow you your cage to extend beyond the line of the house, so you are limited by the width of the house.

Ultimately we decided not to move forward with a pool. The decision wasn't so much money but use. We go down to the community pool to socialize as well as swim. Many of the community pools shut down in the month of April due to COVID which is why there's a run on them now. I think it's unlikely we'll have another shut down. Unless you have kids you want to watch in your own pool, you probably won't use it often. All of the adults I've asked that got a house with a pool or put one in have told me they don't use it as much as they thought they would and they're not big enough to do laps and get exercise.

rfomd129 · 01-31-2021, 08:19 PM

Our experience with a pool in FL is a little different. We have a heated pool that isn't large but I can get some decent exercise swimming around it, and back and forth, doing exercises designed for pool workouts and then just relaxing on the steps with a book. We were here for the entire summer last year and we used the pool just about everyday and we loved it. I would do errands in the morning and couldn't wait to get back to the house to exercise and cool off in the pool.

We've been using it less during the winter because it's cold when we get out of the pool. While we're in it, it's just heavenly. We had a pool when we lived in the southwest desert and used it much less than we use our pool here. The point is everyone is different. This might sound crazy but I prefer the heat of the summer to the weather we're having now during season. It's been way too cold for me this winter. I've had to wear sweaters and jackets at the beach at night and I really don't like that.

When we were looking to buy a house here we told our agent that it didn't matter if the house had a pool or not. If we were ever to buy another house in Florida (very unlikely) a pool would be a must. I wouldn't be comfortable using a community pool.

PBToast · 02-01-2021, 07:47 AM

Thank you so much for all of your answers! Small back hoes was what I was thinking. 5 feet...okay! That is less than I was imagining. Paying the neighbors to fix their lawns...oooooh. Okay, will bear that in mind too. We have a pool and will always have one, so we are in that crowd.

Hopefully will buy a pool house to avoid this.

We have been coming down for years and our plan was to buy this spring!!!

I cannot believe the run on property there. Had this plan for 5 years and now I'm seeing people beat it to FL like lemmings. And drive prices up! That's what made me look at non-pool homes and perhaps putting one in. Oh well...we will deal. May wait a bit though to see if this frenzy ends. Not sure now when we buy. But I'm keeping an eye on things. And broadening parameters given the situation.

Thanks again!

bab_LeBeau · 02-01-2021, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBToast

Thank you so much for all of your answers! Small back hoes was what I was thinking. 5 feet...okay! That is less than I was imagining. Paying the neighbors to fix their lawns...oooooh. Okay, will bear that in mind too. We have a pool and will always have one, so we are in that crowd.

Hopefully will buy a pool house to avoid this.

We have been coming down for years and our plan was to buy this spring!!!

I cannot believe the run on property there. Had this plan for 5 years and now I'm seeing people beat it to FL like lemmings. And drive prices up! That's what made me look at non-pool homes and perhaps putting one in. Oh well...we will deal. May wait a bit though to see if this frenzy ends. Not sure now when we buy. But I'm keeping an eye on things. And broadening parameters given the situation.

Thanks again!

This is the smartest thing you can do. Too many people as you said. Hurry up and wait.

butterflygirlmomof2 · 02-01-2021, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBToast

We have been coming down for years and our plan was to buy this spring!!!

I cannot believe the run on property there. Had this plan for 5 years and now I'm seeing people beat it to FL like lemmings. And drive prices up! That's what made me look at non-pool homes and perhaps putting one in. Oh well...we will deal. May wait a bit though to see if this frenzy ends. Not sure now when we buy. But I'm keeping an eye on things. And broadening parameters given the situation.

Thanks again!

That was our plan, too. We've visited various locations in FL over the years and prefer the Gulf side but this big run on homes has us second-guessing whether the time is right.

I know there are lots of "halfbacks" in SC and NC; Northeasterners who moved to FL, were stunned at the heat/humidity and then relocated half-way back to this area. Part of me is thinking the summer of 2022 will bring a flurry of For Sale signs because of that. But I'm not sure we want to wait that long. For us, heat/humidity is preferable to 26 degree mornings!