Who has a pool? Would you do it again?

[gabriellyn]

The pool decking is almost as important as the pool itself. I've seen so many people get something that gets way too hot, or went for a natural stone that gets wet and slippery. We love our automatic pool cover. You can walk across it without worry. Our only incident was a drunk and naked pair of teens who thought they would sneak in for a skinny dip and not see/comprehend the pool cover. I got a good chuckle watching the police fish them out.

We absolutely love our pool. It is kind of a pain to maintain and cost $$$ - but ours is older and has issues we haven't totally addressed yet, but they're on "the list". It really is super relaxing to float in the water after a long day at work.

We totally recommend.

 

[muscarello4]

We pay $60/month for a pool company to come out and deal with chemicals. It increases our electric about $80-100/month. Water is negligible. (We don't really have to add that much.)

No heater, but my kids are in from April to October. DAILY. Three times a day in the summer. I don't know what we'd do without it. We'll see how we feel when they are all in college.

We have had our house 3 years. The pool in 10 years old. NO REPAIRS so far. It is a good quality pool with a huge filter and a good quality motor. Pay for the good equipment. It matters. Nobody wants to have to call the pool guy for repairs. GO FOR THE POOL!

 

[kacaju]

we bought our house with the above ground pool. We love it. A few years ago the old pool started to break and we debated fixing it. We have a town pool that we could have joined. Our girls wanted the pool in the yard again, not the town pool!! I really thought they wouls rather go to the pool with their friends, but they said they would rather their friends come here.
I like that they use it all summer. With the 3 girls we often have a few friends here at any given time.
I stock up on cheap snacks for them.

 

[CruiserMom]

We love ours too. We built it 4 years ago, a vinyl lined inground pool. My DD12 and DH have already been in it this year, but we have a heater and it got the water temp up to 79 degrees (still WAY too cold for me!). We use it several times a week and all weekend from middle of May to the end of September.

One regret: wish we had put in a salt water chlorination system when we built it. We are out of town alot for vacations, and have to make arrangements for someone to maintain the pool (I'm the pool girl otherwise!).

We will probably be moving in the next year to a larger house, and I hope to find a house that already has a pool, instead of having to shell out the money to build another one!

 

[MoniqueU]

We have our dream pool, we actually moved from the same model around the corner mostly for the pool and the upgrades to the house. It costs 200 more a month to run then our last house with no pool. We have electric rates here in So Cal that are TRIPLE what my friend in Alabama pays even though our weather is just as hot. 1000 bucks a month in the summer is not unheard of. Right now I want a one story with one AC unit and no pool. Only my youngest uses it now or if we have partiies, not worth the expense and I don't even know what the chemicals cost and don't want to.

 

[polkadotminnie]

We have had ours for 6 years and do not regret it.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I built a pool for my kids when they were in 1st and 3rd grade because they begged and begged LOL . It is a gunite pool with a light that changed the color of the water . I moved 2 years ago and gave that house to my DD who is 23 now her DH HATES that pool LOL .
We moved to a very nice neighborhood that has 4 pools and I can walk from my house to one of them . I LOVE this pool because there is NO work for us at all . We slide our little ID card in the slot the gate opens and wala swimming like Nemo : )

My DD told me a couple of weeks ago that she knows why I was not that happy about the pool not being used when they got older. It seemed as though I was always dipping leaves out of it and now she said that is all she does !

 

[v.t.]

Thanks guys, I love all the honest and differing opinions. I was also glad to read about the salt water, that was my next question. Now, I guess I need to look into vinyl liners as well. I had better do some more research before calling for estimates.

 

[ckmommy]

We have had 2 pools built. They have been one of the best investments that we have made. Our kids are great swimmers, love the pool and are always at our house over the summer (which could be a negative). I love to be the house that the kids want to play at. With our first pool, we had a basic gunite, white plaster, chlorine pool. With this pool (18 months old) we went for the salt water, natural, lagoon look. I love it. I feel like I am at a resort in my own back yard--well not right now--here in Houston all of our plants (palms and anything tropical) have either died or look dead and brown.

I say go for it!!

 

[gobraves39560]

We have an above ground resin based saltwater pool put in 3 years ago. It is oval shaped, and we love it!! Literrally just take the cover off every Spring and its ready to go. Salt water is so easy!!! It cost us right under $5000!! Just an idea!! My kiddos love it!!!

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Another pro pool.

In ground, salt water, screened in pool. We have a heater and do use the pool year round.

Upkeep, cost of salt and muriatic acid is minimal.

 

[okeydokey]

I have a big hole in my yard right now. We bought a pool kit online and my DH and his friends are putting it in themselves. We helped a friend do his this way a few years back and it turned out great. It's an L shaped pool so it has a whole lot of shallow, which we love. We also upgraded to the salt clorinator (another $900). We're hiring a concrete guy and a company to put up the screen house, but other than that it's a do it yourself project.

 

[v.t.]

I have a big hole in my yard right now. We bought a pool kit online and my DH and his friends are putting it in themselves. We helped a friend do his this way a few years back and it turned out great. It's an L shaped pool so it has a whole lot of shallow, which we love. We also upgraded to the salt clorinator (another $900). We're hiring a concrete guy and a company to put up the screen house, but other than that it's a do it yourself project.

Okeydokey,
I would love some more information. Could you PM the website you ordered from and any tips. We are a DIY type of family and that sounds like something right down our alley.

 

[okeydokey]

Okeydokey,
I would love some more information. Could you PM the website you ordered from and any tips. We are a DIY type of family and that sounds like something right down our alley.

I send you a PM!

 

[Calliaz]

We built with Shasta and can't say enough good things about them as we have a high quality pool and they have been great with warranty/repairs. Not sure if they are in Texas or not.

We went with a Navigator (the vacuum that drives around the pool all night) and we are on our 3rd one...they only last about 2 yrs and they cost about $450...just be prepared for that.

Shasta remodeled our pool last year! We got their pebble finish and new tile. I wish we had redone the deck at the same time.

I wanted to comment on the pool cleaner. We have a Hayward that we bought 9 years ago. You can get it repaired instead of replacing it. It still costs us money to get serviced each year, but it's cheaper than replacement. B&B pools does ours, but there are other places. I think a complete overhaul cost us $100 last year and the year before that we did minor maintenance for $40.

Overall, the pool doesn't cost us that much to run and with a 7-year-old it is really great to have.

 

[iluvwdw4ever]

Anyone have pictures to share???????

 

[wdwfan1]

We put in our in ground, L shaped pool about 20 years ago. My best advice to you is to make sure you get a main drain. My next door neighbors did not go for one and their pool doesnt stay clean and fresh like ours does. We still have our original pool cleaner--a Polaris. It still does a great job and our pool is always sparkly. We did have to replace the Polaris' "booster pump" (I think that is what it is called), but it was well worth it. Polaris cleans the pool without relying on the filter and works really, really well.

It is a lot easier to maintain than the above ground we had before this one.

Enjoy your new pool!

 

[MiniGirl]

We love our pool, and like others have mentioned, we find the upkeep to be minimal in both cost and time. We are able to use it from late March to early Oct (or there bouts). We do have a heater but don't use it much. During the summer, the girls will practically live in the pool. They'll get up and put on their swimsuits and spend the day in and out of the pool. When they are done for the day, they'll put the pjs on and hang the suits up. (I love summer laundry. LOL!!!)

Many will tell you a pool does not increase your home's value, but that depends on what area of the country you are in. Around here (central Florida) it definitely does.

OP, you said you wanted it for swimming laps, etc. I think lap swimming in most home pools is very hard. They just aren't long enough. If that really is something you are wanting to do, you might want to look into some of the "swim in place" systems. (Here is a link to one as an example.... http://www.fiberliner.info/index.htm, but there are others.) Also, someone mentioned the pool deck and the materials for it. However, I think when it comes to pool decks, size does matter. You should try to get the biggest one you can. Almost everyone around here has a pool, and not one person I know wishes they had a smaller deck. I know many though who wish they had more deck space though.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Got our pool in 1994. I would do it again too.. my kids do not use it as much as they did when they were small, but they still use it. Living in SW Fl it isn't a luxury to have a pool but a necessity..

There is one thing I would do different if I were to do it over, I would get a whirl pool installed with it. I have a nice pool but no whirl pool. When the kids were small, I was afraid they would get hurt (sucked under) if they went in it so we didn't have it built.. and we never did get a portable one.

 

[kkmcan]

I will add that we only got a 5 ft deep pool thinking it would just be a play pool (no slide or diving board) and we do regret that. Dh can stand in the deep end and not even be close to being all the way underwater. I wish we would have gone for 6 ft deep.

Ours is your basic kidney shaped plaster. We did go for the salt water system which is great! And we added extra decking so that we have at least a 2 ft wide walkway all the way around the pool and 2 nice sized seating areas. Adding that cost $700.

No heater for us. We live in an all electric neighborhood ( no gas lines) so adding the heater would require installation of propane tanks next to the house. Huge cost and we weren't too sure about having 2 huge propane tanks right next to the house. Our solar cover works very well though. Sometimes the water is so warm its not even refreshing ( +90 degrees)!

I say go for it. I grew up with a pool and it was fabulous- the pool parties, sleep overs, family get togethers. Lots of great memories. I'm so glad my kids get to grow up with a pool as well.