Cost of pool ownership

[Nancy]

We are in very early stages of house hunting. Many of the house in the area we are interested in have a pool. I have no idea what the cost is to maintain a pool. So I'm asking those of you that have or have had in past, what is the monthly maintenance cost? What maintenance do you do yourself?

Thanks for any insight.

Nancy

 

[DeniseM]

We have weekly chemicals done by a pool service, plus any crisis interventions, and equipment services.

My DH brushes the pool daily himself. He also cleans the filters himself.

Of major concern is the condition of the pool and equipment. I'd have a reputable pool company inspect it. (Not just the home inspector.)

I would say that all-in (service, repairs, replacements) it costs us about $100 per month in CA - if there are no major issues. If you have a major issue - it could cost you thousands.

 

[vacationhopeful]

Pools have other costs also.

Opening in the Spring AND closing in the Fall, a pool costs money.

Chemicals for pool.

Alarm system to for someone/pet in the pool when not in use.

Water costs, to refill a pool at water evaporates.

Additional homeowner's insurance costs ... as you have an attractive nuisance.

Pool cover for the winter (and its replacement every few years).

Electric costs to run the pump and filter system.

Have a great fence .. for security from bored/wayward neighborhood children.

Personally, belonging to a community pool with lifeguards and BIG INSURANCE coverage is more my speed .... even midnight swims "au natural" aren't worth it.

 

[DeniseM]

It depends on the area that you live in - in warm states you don't generally use a pool cover or have the opening/closing of the pool - maintenance is the same year round, except more algae in hot mos.

$100 per mo. includes electricity, water, insurance, etc. for us - all basic maintenance - but not additional repairs/problems.

 

[am1]

If we decide to build one we are going to go with a salt water pool. Suppose to be a lot cheaper. Probably no heater as well.

 

[urple2]

Where you live. Size of your pool. is it screened in,etc. Will vary costs somewhat.

When I bought this home,I knew nothing about having a pool also. Pool service in this area is cheap at 70 bucks a month. That said,the 10 minutes they were at my pool,I decided to take care of it myself and it looks better also.

My costs per week: about $ 2.50 per week(1 chlorine tablet and 1.5 gals of liquid chlorine) Many people have salt pools,so their costs are different. Ive used very little other chemicals to maintain this pool. Stay on top of it and chemicals used and costs remain cheap.

Electricity: I run the pool pump just 5 hours a day. Guessing 25-30 bucks a month.

Plenty of info online. troublefreepool.com for one...

 

[DeniseM]

Suggestion to OP - maintaining a pool requires very faithful regular care, and a little research about testing and chemicals. Often, your local pool supply store is a good source for info. about what is standard maintenance in your area.

If that doesn't seem like your cup of tea, hire a full-service pool service company. Getting busy and letting your pool go for awhile can be an expensive nightmare.

 

[easyrider]

The best way to have a pool is to let your friends and relatives have the pool so you can use it. In fact, having multiple friends and family members that have pools ensures a place to splash and most people with pools are gracious enough to throw in bbq and fridge privledges. My favorite pool is the other guys.

I had one and after it flooded out my basement I decided nevermore.

Bill

 

[bogey21]

$100 per month assuming you use a pool service to keep chemicals balanced sounds about right. I live in Texas where most keep pool running when temperature falls below freezing in the Winter. A Freeze Guard will turn the electricity on and off as needed. Cost though is not insignificant particularly when it turns into 24 hours per day.

George

 

[DeniseM]

I live on the west coast, where freezing isn't an issue, and we don't have to leave it running 24 hours a day. Cold locations definitely have more weather related expenses.

 

[Talent312]

Our HOA has a large pool just 4 houses up the street and around the corner.
Yet, annual MF's are very reasonable 'cuz there's no clubhouse or programs.
But it needs a large outdoor TV.
.

 

[Luanne]

When we lived in California we had a house with a pool. So very worth it when the kids were little. Also very worth it as for years our air conditioning didn't work well and we'd end up in the pool after dinner every night on hot summer nights.

As the kids got older, and we got a more efficient air conditioner, we found we weren't using the pool.

Our experience with maintenance was much like Denise's. Dh tried doing the maintenance himself, but in the end it was better to have a professional company take care of it. I don't remember what we paid.

 

[WinniWoman]

Pools have other costs also.

Opening in the Spring AND closing in the Fall, a pool costs money.

Chemicals for pool.

Alarm system to for someone/pet in the pool when not in use.

Water costs, to refill a pool at water evaporates.

Additional homeowner's insurance costs ... as you have an attractive nuisance.

Pool cover for the winter (and its replacement every few years).

Electric costs to run the pump and filter system.

Have a great fence .. for security from bored/wayward neighborhood children.

Personally, belonging to a community pool with lifeguards and BIG INSURANCE coverage is more my speed .... even midnight swims "au natural" aren't worth it.

Agree with this and I have always longed to have a pool. But the maintenance and expenses are a really big turn off. Even better than a community pool- which is often times packed with kids- is to try to live within a reasonable distance to a lake or the ocean.

This is why one of the highlights of my timeshare vacations is using the pool. Many people have pools at home and surprisingly some have told me they barely use them! For me- swimming is a big treat and I usually am at the resort pool most days.

 

[Luanne]

Our "community" pool was the high school pool, which was also used by the swim teams in the area. There was a cost for us to use it. So having a pool in our yard was very worthwhile. One of the criteria when we bought the house (our daughters were 2 and 4) was to have a pool or access to a pool.

 

[Bucky]

We've had our pool about 8 years now and quite honestly I've never worried about the cost or added them up! It is what it is. I did put a salt water system in and that is tons better than chlorine in my opinion. Once I get my chemicals balanced when opening the pool up I'm done with it until I have to add some salt when we have excessive rain during the season. If we don't have large amounts of rain the pool can stay balanced the whole season (Apr-Oct). I basically count any expenses as a cost of doing business.

 

[presley]

It's about the cost of MFs for one of my high MF timeshares. Costs will depend on where you live and what all your pool has.

Here's some of the things we have that go wrong:

Electric pool cover gets stuck or stops working. We have the company that installed it come fix it. $125 minimum charge, goes up if I need to buy parts.

At least once per year, the solar heater leaks and needs repair.

We started out with a salt generator, but found those need to be replaced every year or two so switched to chlorine, which I hate.

Our fancy pool light that changes colors stopped working after 2 years. I've never had it fixed because I saw a story on the news that says there are a lot of deaths from sloppy workers who don't change out lights properly and people get electrocuted.

Our pool pump is one of our most expensive electricity items. I wanted to switch to a different one, but my husband's best friend runs a pool business and said the other kind are full of problems. So, my husband has a melt down whenever I mention switching it out to save on our electric bill.

I usually have 4 - 5 months where I use the pool often. Our pool is very large and it's too difficult to heat during the cooler months. Even though I use it often in the summer, in the other months, I often think about filling it in with sand and using that money for something else.

 

[FLDVCFamily]

We live in Coastal FL where it hurts your property value not to have a pool. Ours is saltwater. We pay $99 a month for our weekly pool service.

We have had some things go like a salt cell, but we've luckily been able to replace them ourselves. Not sure on electric cost to run our pump, but it can't be that much as our electric bill isn't bad.

 

[Nancy]

Thanks for info. It would be in central Florida. I would not get one without a cage. Just needed info incase house we loved had pool. Not on my list of must haves. I currently live (2 places) that have community pools, so know the good and bad about that.

Nancy

 

[cp73]

We have had our pool for 16 years now. Don't underestimate the effect a pool can have on your monthly utilities. Depending on the number of pumps you have that can add another $200 per month for electric and gas. Especially during the summer when ran more frequent.

Also figure on replacement costs for the main components (rough estimates):
Filter - expect about 10 years life - $600
Pump - 7-10 years - up to $1400 for energy efficient
Salt System - $1000 ? I don't have one of these but they go out

Painting of pool - our pool is a rock pool. Rocks need to be painted/stained about every 7 years...just having redone now....$3300

Then just hope you don't get a leak! We have a small leak in our spa. I was quoted anywhere from $4000-$10000. I plugged it up with some pool putty $50. Next house won't have a pool. Once the kids move out they get little use, except when they come back with grandkids...

 

[bogey21]

We put in a pool when our kids were about 5 years old. It was purposely extra large with the shallow end deep enough to force them to learn to swim and both grew up very good swimmers. Accomplishing this made it worth the cost to build and maintain. Otherwise my view is that a pool is an unneeded luxury and cash drain and probably not worth having.

George

 

[nightnurse613]

I have a large "diving pool" - about 25,000 gallons. We were not looking for a pool when we went house shopping so, therefore the presence of a pool was not a do or die. We live in Arizona and the in-pool temperature was about 84 degree earlier this month. We pay about $60 a month in chemicals (which is very low). We did get one of those energy efficient pumps. Made a huge difference in electrical usage and did a much better job than the old one pushing the pool cleaning jets. Most of my time is in the spa (104 degrees versus 110 air temp!!) My husband likes the pool better. There is plenty of good advice so far-I wouldn't let a pool influence my overall decision to buy a house or not but I wouldn't pay much extra for a house that has one, either. I will say-WATCH YOUR KIDS AROUND WATER!

 

[pittle]

When we bought our house 8 years ago, we had a pool put in. We chose to have the "self-cleaning" (jets) and with an Ozonator blue light kit. Taking care of it is easy - even I can do it when necessary!!! We put pool tabs in as needed (2 in the summer and 1 in the winter - replace when they dissolve) and do the back-flush thing a few times a year. We run the pumps in the low electricity rate time (night or early mornings). We use the AquaChek strips to check the chemical level and basically make sure there is enough chlorine - the person who trained us on pool maintenance said that chlorine level is the most important. We spend about $75 per year on chemicals. Our guy also said that if you use it a lot, you should throw in a back of "shock: Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. With just 2 adults & a cocker spaniel, that is not even necessary.

BTW - I even take some test strips in my vacation bag to just check the pool water at timeshares before getting into the pool. If they do not pass, we do not get in. We have NOT used the pool in one resort.

 

[John Cummings]

We have a large 42' X 22' pool that we put in 13 years ago. We use it pretty heavily for 6 months out of the year. We also have a spill over spa next to the pool that we use all year long.. It has solar water heat, turbo jets, navigator pool cleaner. I am going to install an electric pool lift.

I have a complete pool service that costs $90 /mo. He does everything as I am no longer able to.
The pool/spa is open all year

The pool/spa heater is gas but we don't use it much except for the spa in the winter. The solar heat works very well.

Electricity costs about $75 /mo in the swimming season for 3 pump motors. The cost drops to about $40 in the off season.

Miscellaneous costs are approximately $400 /year.

We do not like community pools at all. We have done that before. We love having our own pool and it is well worth it to us.

We do not have special fences etc. and there was no effect on our home owners insurance.

We also had our own pool for 8 years when we lived in SE Florida.

 

[VegasBella]

When we had a pool we paid our guy about $100/month just to maintain the cleanliness.

Keep in mind there are other costs too:
- fencing to keep kids and dogs out for their own safety
- improvements for aesthetic or safety or legal reasons
- water and heating

---
We opted to not have a pool, mostly for safety reasons. We're all good swimmers but the fact is that a backyard pool dramatically increases the risk of drowning. After birth defects drowning is the leading cause of death for young children. Nearly everyone who has a pool can tell you about an instance of a close call where a child who couldn't swim fell in or something similar.

In my area we have access to many excellent public or community pools.

 

[Nancy]

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies. It's not that I really want a pool, but seems many of homes we've seen listed have them. Have no young children or grandchildren. This gives us an idea and what to think about.

Nancy