Do you own a pool? Is it worth it?

[Kitty 34]

DH and I talk about putting in a pool every summer but nothing ever happens!!

A couple of questions for you pool lovers out there.....

1. Our boys are 14 and 16.....is it too late to get the full enjoyment out of a pool? (They'll be out of the nest by the time the cement dries!!!)

2. Inground is more expensive....but is it better?

3. Just how much ($$) goes into "maintaining" a pool every summer?

4. We live in Michigan where winter is SO much longer than summer.......are we nuts to spend a ton of $$ for three months a year of enjoyment??

Thanks!!

 

[FOJMO]

We live in Florida and we have an inground pool. Not big, mind you, but a good size.

We hardly ever use it! Don't really know why, except that we're usually at work all the time and on weekends we tend to be so busy, we don't have time for it.

It's not really a hassle to maintain it. You just have to clean it and make sure your chemicals are balanced. Don't let it get too dirty or you'll have to "shock" it. Make sure you aerate it with the pool motor every day (ours is on a timer).

Our DD BEGGED us to get a house with a pool -- we had our house built and the inground pool was a free option when we contracted for the house.

We'll have to make a point of using it more this summer. Don't know how I'd feel about having one in Michigan, though...

 

[mickeyfan1]

I have had my inground pool for 5 summers and I use it almost every day once the water temp is 84 or more. But I live in Arizona, and it is a "normal" thing to have a pool. You are the only person who can decide if it is worth it. I know on the east coast pools are drained for the winter, we don't do that. I spend less than $100.00 per year for chemicals, and we run our filter every day for 8 hours, and the vacumm runs when I see a few leaves that have blown in. I would want to have a pool no matter where I lived, because I love relaxing in the water when the sun is shining.

Above ground pools require maintenance, too. Chemicals, cleaning, filters, etc. Yes, they are less expensive to install than in ground, but the maintenance costs would be the nearly the same. Also, I don't know what the life is on the vinyl liner, I expect my pebble tech to last 15 to 20 years before it would need to be redone, same with my cool deck.

 

[marlasmom]

We are on our third pool here in Florida. We had one in Illinois and one in California. I would caution you that when you sell your house you do not get all the money you spent in building the pool. (BTW I think we spend a lot more for chemicals. I will have to find out how you do it.) When my kids were in high school it was definitely the hang-out place. We lived in a middle class neighborhood but the high school took in an area that was awful - many gangs - lots of ways to get into trouble. I knew where my kids were and with whom. (There was the night that Alan and his friend brought two girls who had a reputation of being "loose" to swim but the electricity went out and the house got so hot, Sarah and I joined them in the pool.) Rules were no noise after 10:00 on weeknights and 11:00 on weekends. When I was trying to get the house ready to sell and move I came home to find one boy edging the lawn, another shampooing the carpet, someone else fixing a leak under the sink and lots of others doing miscellaneous chores. When I asked why they said you have been good to us and we are saying thanks. I just told them how grateful I was and sent out for pizza. From that standpoint it was definitely worth it.

 

[CamColt]

Is it worth it? In a word...YES!

We got our pool at the end of last summer. While we only had about 1 month in it, there were many times I claimed it was the best investment we ever made(think 7 day heat wave in August, reaching over 100 some days). So far this year, this is day 2 in it and again Im feeling the same way.

My kids are only 3 & 6 but they absolutely love it. Even at your kids ages they would get quite a few good years in it...plus Im sure they would come home to visit...and bring the grandkids...etc...

I would definitely prefer an inground but it wasnt in our budget when we decided to go for it. But after being in the above ground, I have no complaints. It sure beats nothing.

DH deals with all the cleaning and maintenace so Im not sure about that area. But I do know he hasnt made too many expensive stops at the pool store this year.

Again, even last year with only 1 month in it, I thought it was sooo worth it. We live in MA and I dont expect to get a full 3 months in it this year, but for the time we are in it, it cant be beat.

Good luck deciding and enjoy it if you get one.

 

[JESW]

Yes and yes.

This will be our second year with an inground pool and so far we have been loving it. The end of the season last year we put in the patio/deck around so this year we don't have to walk on all those nasty rocks. We also got a fence up so no more ugly orange plastic fence!

Our kids are younger - 4 & 8 - so we will get a lot of use out of it. I am a SAHM so we will be there A LOT this summer. A lot of the folks in town go to the local beach but i am not a big fan of ponds - especially not by august! I like to have people over to swim and I like knowing where my kids are.

If you add a heater you can use the pool from may to october. You can also get a solar cover to keep the water warm.

I am not sure of the material costs...haven't added them up.

If you are not sure you want the long-term committment, then maybe an above-ground would be just right for you.

Jill

p.s. we live on the east coast but we don't drain our pool for the winter. We have the pool company come out and they "close" and cover it.

 

[LvsTnk]

Living in the midwest I have one word HEATER, you will get much more use out of your pool.

We love ours use it everyday, 14&16 yo love it too!

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

When we built our new home in the midwest we faced the pool vs. hot tub question. The hot tub won and I wouldn't change a thing. We use it everyday and I don't see that changing!

My sister had an above ground pool and spent much more time cleaning and maintaining it than the family did using it. As soon as the kids moved out, they tore out the pool.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[April76]

Just curious for those in Florida (or other warm climate).... how many of you have a pool heater and do you really get a lot of use from it?

 

[Lanshark]

We live in GA and love our inground. We do not have a heater because of the cost of gas. We chose to remove several large pines that surrounded the pool and the water temp went from a constant mid 70's to a consistent mid 80's. My kids are 16 and 12 and use use it daily from about the end of May until Labor day. DH maintains the pool and unless something funky happens the chemicals probably run a couple of hundred a year. This includes startup and shutdown. Our best investment has been a automatic vacuum.

One thing to consider is landscaping. The pool we have is about 20 years old and we've been in the house only 6 years. From the original receipts I know the other owner spent almost as much putting in drainage, retaining walls and fencing as he did in the original cost of the pool. An area with very good drainage is extremely important to keep the integrity of the pool intact and the water usable. We once accidently blocked a drain and then got a huge rain storm. Imagine 22,000 gallons of red clay colored water. It looked like the pool was filled with mud. That one cost about $100 and a lot of work to fix.

 

[ChiTownZee]

Just curious for those in Florida (or other warm climate).... how many of you have a pool heater and do you really get a lot of use from it?

Yes we have one, and yes we use it, though we usually don't heat the entire pool (it's very large) and just heat the jacuzzi with it, unless we have guests visiting, then I'll heat the whole pool.

Maint. isn't bad becase I don't do it other than pool skimming! But DH just makes sure the pumps are working properly and coordinated and the filter is clean and the pool surface is good. We don't do pool chemicals because we have a salt generator, just dump a few hunded pound of salt in it once a year.

I would do it again in a heart beat, even if DD was older. We love our water time. I remember when I was a kid/teenager I could live in a pool, and having my own was a dream come true.

I personally think inground is better, but I live in S. FL! We never "close" it, even if we don't use it for a few months. One of my favorite features in our pool is a cement bench that curves around one half of the shallow end. I LOVE that bench, and I wouldn't have been able to do that with an above ground (as far as I know) Our daughter loves the pool as well, she always likes to run the waterfalls, and recently discovered staying underwater with a scuba tank, and even before she could swim her favorite place in the world to be was sitting/squating on the bench in the water, playing with her Disney figures at the table.

I vote pool!

 

[Melrosgirl]

We put a pool in last fall.

The pool is great and looks beautiful. Although I received the pool companies very well and chose one of the country's largest in ground, concrete pool makers, I would not choose the same company again. In fact, I would NEVER build a pool again.

Long story there.

To answer your questions though. I prefer in ground and concrete pools. I do not have to drain my pool in the winter. I'm in PA.

Maintenance -it's an everyday thing. We have an automatic pool cleaner which helps a lot. We also have a propane heater. That is costly.

I'm hoping for the hot weather to come and STAY for more than 3 days this summer, so we can really enjoy it though.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Couple of things
Maintenence is totally dependent on the pool design. Our designer promised us low maintanence and we spend about 5 minutes a day and maybe an 1/2 hour once per week, if that.
A few features that help lower maintanence are automatic chlorine feeders and automatic cleaners.
An often overlooked important feature is the proper placement of the jets and skimmers, doing that properly makes a big difference!
Also forget the pricing you see advertised for inground pools, add in the landscaping, concrete for the deck, fencing etc and you can triple it!
We have never drained our pool in massachusetts

 

[Mishetta]

I live in MI too & I've often thought about getting an above-ground pool. We do not plan on living in this house for much longer so it wouldn't be worth it for us to spend the $$ for an inground pool. Anyway, one of my cousins is having one put in now & it's costing them $70,000 due to not only the pool but all the other cement needed around it & re-landscaping the back & they have to re-do their deck. YIKES!

Anyway, a neighbor 2 doors down just put up an 18 ft round above ground pool & it cost them about $1400 & they & all the neighborhood kids are in it daily! Matter of fact, I haven't seen my 8 y/o since their pool went up!

I'm even more tempted to get one since sometimes the neighbor boy picks & chooses who gets to go in & sometimes my little guy is excluded & it's like the end of the world for him! In other words, if he had one too, he'd be just as popular & he'd have more summer fun!

Good luck on your decision!

 

[powellrj]

We had an inground pool in Indiana several years ago, and finally filled it in. If you don't work and have lots of time to invest in it great, but dh works long hours and I work full time, and it was just more work than we were able to keep up with.( We didn't put it in it came with the house and so it had some age on it and it was really hard to maintain.) Also the weather was a real factor too. Some years due to cold rainy summers, we were never in the pool. I bought an above ground kit at Target for 90% off a couple of years ago, and its still in the box in the garage, because I am still not able to face another pool! Our next door neighbor just filled her pool in this year for the same reason we did, it was just too much work for no longer than you are able to use it in Indiana.

 

[Melrosgirl]

In ground pools do start to add up price wise very quickly. Our $30,000 pool ended up costing well over $40,000 by the time landscaping was done, etc.

I could write a book (or a big pamphlet at least) on what to do and what not to do when building an in ground pool !

 

[Lucky4me]

We LOVE our pool!

It's an above ground 24ft and a breeze to maintain. I have a big deck around it and attached to the house so very little grass gets in. I only need to vacuum a few times a month. I skim it daily for bugs and what little dirt does get in. We were going to start using baquacil this year but the pool people said our water looked so good so why bother? We dump in a gallon of chlorine a couple of times a week and it's fine. The annual cost to maintain must be less than $50.

We bought a pool that will last 30 years (or so we were told) and paid about $4,000. Weeks like these where it's over 90 degrees, we practically live in it. The water temp was 80 today. Heaven!

Yesterday we had the first of many pool parties and it was so much fun! My 8yo dd is very good about inviting everyone from the neighborhood in. Her motto is the more the merrier. There are times when I have 20 kids in at once. It's a little crazy but I love it.

Summer is here, go get a pool!

 

[DemonLlama]

My hubby has two words about pools: NEVER AGAIN.

Our house came with a 24 foot above ground, but a year later it started to leak and we could never find the problem. It became a swamp and I kept waiting to get malaria. Instead of paying $1200 for a new liner, which was the only option, we sold it on eBay and the buyer came and took it down and set it up at his place (with a new liner). My hubby never looked so happy the day that pool was gone. T

he kids miss it, but their great-great-aunt down the street has an inground that we frequently use, so now we've got the best of both worlds -- a private pool with no maintentance or cost!

 

[Angelrose]

I absolutely LOVE my above the ground pool. It has a redwood deck completely around it. I just walk off my back porch onto the pool deck. We got it second hand when my DS was about 6 or 7. We took it down and put it up with a new liner and new aluminum wall. My DS is now 31 and we still have the same liner. Granted it has been patched a few times but it is still here. We usually buy a 50 gal container of Chlorine at the end of a season and have it for two or three years. Every year we buy the PH+, algaecide and stablizer. That is less than $50. Every 2 or 3 years we buy new earth for the filter. Maintenance is easy. We vacuum a couple of times a week and we have solar heaters that we couldn't live with out. That gives us a couple of weeks on either side of the season. It's just my DH and me in the pool now, but we live in it all summer. It is so relaxing and fun.

 

[mrsmom]

I have an ingound fiberglass pool, i love it! you don't drain it in the winter and the cost to maintain it is less than a concete pool.and alot cheaper too, we have had it for 4 years i loved it. I miss it really bad now because my dh got transfered here to Cincinnati, ohio and our house In Indiana is up for sale now . http://www.permaglasscorp.com/ is the website and pricing of pools like this and my kids sent them a picture and it's on the website there under ,about us, they are the kids swimming under water
Kim