I have been winning the NO Pool battle for 25 years. Give me some more Ammo or prove me wrong.
How much time and money do they really cost to maintain? Yearly and long term.
Give me anything and everything you got.
I have been winning the NO Pool battle for 25 years. Give me some more Ammo or prove me wrong.
How much time and money do they really cost to maintain? Yearly and long term.
Give me anything and everything you got.
Do you have trees in your yard?
If I didn't have trees in the yard, taking care of the pool would be a breeze. Put in the automatic cleaner, check/add chemicals twice/week (10 minutes work). Backwash 3-4 times/year (15 minutes includes rolling up the drain hose), pull apart the filter to clean it fully 1x/year (90 minutes including beer break). I'd 1000% rather take care of the pool than mow the fuckin lawn. Or edge. OMG. I hate lawn work.
But..... fishing leaves out of the pool every day is a major PITA.
If you do go with the in-ground pool, be sure to rig it for a winter cover.
Having to take care of the pool when you can't use it definitely does suck. Winterize and forget it until Spring.
ETA: I can't imagine living in a hot sweaty climate without a pool.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
Fegeddabout it.
Constant maintenance, cost of chemicals, filter cleaning, opening and closing, dealing with bloom, leaves and debris, aftermath of immersion diuresis (or worse, if you have little kids...), to name a few. Not to mention legal and and safety / insurance concerns.
Nah. BTDT. No way in hell I would install a pool.
Everybody wants to have a the pool...until there’s pool maintenance to be done.
It's like a boat but you can't sell it.Originally Posted by BJXDS
I played the "it's for the children" card. Liability laws or not, if some neighbor kid climbs my fence and kills herself in my pool, I am going to feel responsible. I told my wife, "it's like leaving a loaded gun in the middle of the yard." It's worked so far.
Pools are hard work. So, it depends on where you live and what you want to do with it.
I live in Arizona. I find pools here are a lot of work. The water gets hot and algae grows like crazy. Summer and winter storms deposit dust and crap in the pool that needs to be removed. The guy next door has a huge pecan tree that drops all its leave during December. Half of the leaves go into the pool. So, there’s a lot of brushing, vacuuming, back washing, chemicaling and skimming.
And they are dangerous. I got to my 2-year-old (now 31) who ran her Big Wheels off the side into the water as she hit the bottom. Scary. Both my wife and I were within 15 ft of her when she went into the water. So, there is a danger to kids. Our kids loved it and played endlessly in it. They are all moved out now, so the pool isn’t used as much.
BUT,
There is Beer Season. Evenings during the summer months, we float around the pool on swim noodles with an ice chest full of beer floating next to us. The pool temp is about 85-90 and in the evening the water is perfect. We get some weird beers to stock the chest and have been known to drink to extreme. For sure, we have been known to drink well past dinner time. Now, all the kids and their significant others show up with their own noodles and drinks. Makes all the work well worth it.
If you can’t afford the maintenance, you shouldn’t buy a Mercedes. How much does the maintenance cost? If you have to ask...
Same for a pool. I know lots of people that have them and get all wrapped up in mai training them themselves. These are the same kinds of people that mow their own lawns. I assume they just have nothing better to do with themselves.
I wouldn’t own a pool if I was maintaining it. We pay, I think, $120/month for the pool guy. Would have been $100 but ours is kinda big. He charges me extras from time to time for filters and the like, but the plus side is he also watches and knows when the filters need changing so I don’t have to worry about it. *could* I do a better job than him? I’m sure. *would* I do a better job than him? Doubtful.
FWIW in a new pool I’d avoid too many gimmicky cleaning systems. I had a house years ago with an amazingly cool soft-cleaning system in the walls and floors. Until it broke and nobody could work on it and we couldn’t find parts.
Does the above offend? If you have paid to be here, you can click here to put it in context.
I work for a rental management company. This is what I know: Salt pools are better than regular pools. Every year when a pool is opened for the summer there seems to be a problem. The majority of tenants do not take care of the pool during the summer and the owner is stuck with an expensive clean up/chemical correction bill.
That's all I got. I'll show myself out...
--Jason--
My first house in Arizona had a pool and it was dirty all the time thanks to the landscaping around it. Fuck trees and bushes with tiny leaves and flowers. If I had a choice I'd only have landscaping around my pool that had larger leaves (think palm trees). Here in Arizona, we have monsoon season which throws even more crap into your pool like a shit ton of dust and patio furniture. Yep. Patio furniture.
The best thing I ever did though was buy an automatic pool cleaner. Best. Purchase. Ever. Took a lot of the headache out of maintainence. Just let that thing run. Take some water to the local pool store every couple weeks or so for testing and keep the chemicals balanced. Keep your skim baskets clean on a weekly basis. Disassemble and clean your main filter once or twice a year depending on how dirty your pool gets. Time spent on maintaining the pool drops in the winter months. Colder weather means less algae growth, less time running the filter and, of course, less time using the pool - unless you've got a heater.
Regarding safety. Arizona has state laws that require certain safeguards such as perimeter fencing and self closing doors that lead to the backyard. Those things help but you need to be vigilant about safety if there are kids around.
Love having a pool and can't wait to have one again. It's a must for me living in Arizona.
Well the responses I have received so far confirm what I thought, pools can be relatively easy to maintain if conditions are optimal but if not they are a BIG PITA. They are not inexpensive and are a luxury item; the boat example is spot on. Its either a love em like RoyGBiv or hate em like RJ.
Thats why my wife has a BMW Not a MercedesIf you can’t afford the maintenance, you shouldn’t buy a Mercedes. How much does the maintenance cost? If you have to ask...
Same for a pool. I know lots of people that have them and get all wrapped up in mai training them themselves. These are the same kinds of people that mow their own lawns. I assume they just have nothing better to do with themselves.
I wouldn’t own a pool if I was maintaining it. We pay, I think, $120/month for the pool guy. Would have been $100 but ours is kinda big. He charges me extras from time to time for filters and the like, but the plus side is he also watches and knows when the filters need changing so I don’t have to worry about it. *could* I do a better job than him? I’m sure. *would* I do a better job than him? Doubtful.
FWIW in a new pool I’d avoid too many gimmicky cleaning systems. I had a house years ago with an amazingly cool soft-cleaning system in the walls and floors. Until it broke and nobody could work on it and we couldn’t find parts.
The 100 bucks a months is not a deal breaker, but from what I am hearing that part of the maintenance is really the minimal portion. I am sure the maint contract does not cover the everyday cleaning, or the cleaning and testing water quality on a regular basis, after leaves blow in, frogs and other critters end up in the pool, birds shit on it, chairs, tables, umbrellas, floats need to be wiped off and put away. Oh yea, I know the dog will end up in the pool because he like to swim too. But wait, my wife is going to do all that, so I will be able to just cool off after I have done the yard work that is not contracted.
WTF, this all just confirms what I have thought all along, if we get a pool I enjoy it and she does all the work, which is none because we have a monthly contract! I am blessed because I damm sure could have worse issues to consider.
Thanks
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