House With Swimming Pool

[emirate25]

Hello to everyone,

I have 6 months for my lease to end at my apartment. I am a 26 year old young professional that is interested in buying a nice small home with a swimming pool.

My question is the following...how much more expensive is to have a house with a swimming pool? What kind of costs am I up against?

Thanks for your help.

Edited July 24, 2007 by emirate25

[Chamo]

My question is the following...how much more expensive is to have a house with a swimming pool? What kind of costs am I up against?

Thanks for your help.

For somebody lazy like me it costs around $125 per month to have somebody come weekly to take care of the pool maintenance. If you do it yourself, depending on the type of pool and size, you can run a cost of $20-40 per month in chemicals, etc.

My electric & gas bill I don't think are affected much by the running of the pool and spa. I am guessing but I would say extra 2$0-30 for electricity and $5-10 for gas (Of course can be higher if I have a lot of Jacuzzi parties on a given month!).

Also, since you are buying a used house, you might have to consider some near future maintenance costs with the filter and pool equipment and who knows how soon you might need work on the pool surface like an acid wash, replaster or tile changes depending again on the type of pool you have. Some of those can run in to couple of thousand $'s.

One thing for sure..... It is worth it!!!

[musicman]

get it while you're young. i know my parents want to fill theirs in with dirt.

[nativehou]

For somebody lazy like me it costs around $125 per month to have somebody come weekly to take care of the pool maintenance.

We pay a little more than this, plus the occasional repair cost. When you buy your house, make sure the sellers buy you a home warranty, and make sure it covers the pool equipment. We sure used it!

[stolitx]

We pay a little more than this, plus the occasional repair cost. When you buy your house, make sure the sellers buy you a home warranty, and make sure it covers the pool equipment. We sure used it!

Ditto that. Make sure the Home Warranty covers the pool, it's optional coverage.

We take care of the pool chemicals ourselves so we're in the $40 range per month. Couldn't tell you the utility costs since my bills are sky high anyway due to the layout and construction of my house.

Invest in an automatic cleaner (like a polaris or haywood) Best thing I bought for the pool to pick up leaves and debris for you.

[dalparadise]

Once you reach the point of balanced water, a beautiful, sparkling pool needs nothing more than about a gallon and a half of ultra bleach (6%) from the grocery store and maybe a cup of muriatic acid per week to stay that way. Check the water every other day and add a little bleach, if needed. Using this method, you'll be hard pressed to spend more than $25 per month and you will have the cleanest, freshest pool water you have ever experienced. Bleach is merely 6% sodium hypochlorite and 94% water (Liquid pool store chlorine is 10% Sodium Hypochlorite and 90% water, but is often unstable and breaks down to about 8% in heat). Solid chlorine at the pool store is Calcium Hypochlorite, which adds calcium to your water, rather than sodium as it breaks down.

Run the filter four hours in the evening and four hours in the early morning hours to help maintain cool water temps and run a self cleaner about 1 hour per day.

Adding too many pool store chemicals or using pucks in an auto feeder can put some strange things in your water, like copper (which is a pretty good algecide, but can turn your hair green in too high a concentration) or Cyanauric Acid (which you need, but only in the proper amount -- too much lowers the effectiveness of chlorine, despite extending its life in your water)

I have used this very economical approach for almost three years now -- never "close" the pool, break-down the DE filter twice per year and backwash every other month. I have never had an algae bloom or any funny smelling water. You could read the New York Times off the bottom of the deep end.

More to your original question, though -- A nice pool, spa, water features and deck area with landscaping costs about $25,000-$35,000. If it's really well done, it's probably worth about 60%-70% of that value on the real estate market, meaning it should add about $19,000-$20,000 to a home's asking price. If it's a really basic pool, it's probably only worth about a $10,000 premium, although you will have to really work on a seller to convince him of that. Sooner or later, they realize it, though.

So, you have to look at what you'd pay for the house without the pool and adjust accordingly.

[dalparadise]

One more thing -- despite MOST pools inability to draw their full construction price at selling time (good for buyers, not sellers) it definitely is worth it. There's nothing like having a mini vacation waiting outside whenever you want it. Plus, the pride in ownership and attention you'll pay to creating a great environment in your yard are wonderful. It's more than just the swimming. It's the parties with family and friends, cookouts, lazy Sundays drinking big margaritas, discovering how to grow palms and hibiscus plants, etc.

Plus, everyone I've ever known who's owned a pool has designated it as clothing-optional when it's just them and the significant other. That's why a spa is so cool -- on the few near freezing nights we get in winter, you can crank that thing up to about 100 degrees, pop open a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, put some Miles on the outside speakers and nude-out with your significant other.

At least I've heard you can do that.

[musicman]

Invest in an automatic cleaner (like a polaris or haywood) Best thing I bought for the pool to pick up leaves and debris for you.

i recommend the kreepy krawly

[dalparadise]

i recommend the kreepy krawly

I have a Polaris and could not be happier with it. I hear the same raves from Kreepy Krawly owners. With one of these, the need to vacuum or brush is virtually eliminated. I've only had to vacuum once -- after Rita dumped a load of leaves in -- and just do touch-up brushing once per week, to reach places the Polaris doesn't completely cover. I have a zero-depth (beach) entry and a climb-out bench at the deep end that the cleaner can't cover. Plus, around the very top of the edges usually benefits from a little extra brushing. I also give the floor a nice touch-up brushing once a week, or so.

Like I said -- VERY low maintenance -- not really worth paying for.

Edited July 26, 2007 by dalparadise

[musicman]

I have a Polaris and could not be happier with it. I hear the same raves from Kreepy Krawly owners. With one of these, the need to vacuum or brush is virtually eliminated. I've only had to vacuum once -- after Rita dumped a load of leaves in -- and just do touch-up brushing once per week, to reach places the Polaris doesn't completely cover. I have a zero-depth (beach) entry and a climb-out bench at the deep end that the cleaner can't cover. Plus, around the very top of the edges usually benefits from a little extra brushing. I also give the floor a nice touch-up brushing once a week, or so.

Like I said -- VERY low maintenance -- not really worth paying for.

my parents had the polaris yrs ago but switched to the kreepy because it didn't require an extra pump.

[stolitx]

my parents had the polaris yrs ago but switched to the kreepy because it didn't require an extra pump.

There is a polaris model that doesn't require a pump, the 360 model I think. I got mine on ebay for a few hundred less than the pool stores. I've heard good things about the kreepy, they all do the job.