Tell me why I don't want a house with a pool?

here in the burbs of Houston most neighborhoods have a neighborhood pool... its one of the few redeeming factors of the HOA I suppose... we rent right now and the pool is 2 houses away, the last apartment we lived in we could see the pool from our window...

we had one of the larger walmart above ground pools and while it was great having it right in the backyard having to skim it and check chemicals all the time sucked, if you let it get to far out of balance it was a real pain to bring back... I know friends/family with proper in grounds and it just gets worse because of the size.

I would love to have one without all the liability... so don't think I'll likely ever have one haha.

I'd rather own a boat than deal with a pool, boat is probably about the same cost anyhow.

z31maniac wrote:

mtn wrote: Also, why not a hottub instead of a pool?

She wants both!

If she is mostly interesting in using the pool for exercise, consider a Swim Spa.

They are normally installed above ground (in ground or in-deck installations seem to be an option) but will be way cheaper then a pool, allows swimming AND can be used as a spa. It's not a "pool party" kind of thing for kids and such, but it will probably actually ADD to the value of your house.

They are quite large for a spa, but very small for a pool. Just a consideration.

Pools (and spas) can be like many other things. You THINK you will use them all the time, but once you get one, you don't use it as much as you would think after the initial interest wears off.

Lawyers will tell you a pool is an attractive nuisance. We had one in my teen years, we came home a couple of times to find kids swimming in it. Dad's attorney told him even with the locked gates on the 6 foot fence around the back yard if someone got hurt or worse he'd be pretty well screwed. I do remember detesting the maintenance it took but that was the 1970's before salt water pools came into widespread use.

My house is "A". I am the one of the few cheapskates who won't get a pool. Most here use their pool from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I watch my neighbors and the pool excitement wears off and some seem to rarely use their pools.

I've always thought I'd like one, but never had one. Don't want to/can't afford to have one installed. At my current house, I can go swimming in the backyard when I want, but it is no pool.

My house had a small inground pool when I bought it. It was nice, but it got to be where I spent more time cleaning and maintaining it then swimming in it. Then I had kids. I didn't like the idea of it being years before my kids would be able to safely go in the back yard by themselves. I filled it in, and built the area into a playground. It gets a lot more use now, and I've saved a lot of time and money. I miss it maybe a couple days a year, then quickly get over it when the whole memory comes back.

We bought a house with a pool four years ago, it is nothing but a pain in the ass, maybe if you have kids, we do not, I hate that damn pool, money pit, big time!!!

My wife wanted a pool. I wanted a corner lot, so I could build a big shop.

I told her if she could find a house in our price range with a pool and a corner lot, we'd buy it.

BUT, the deal was SHE would maintain it. Not me. Not because I am unwilling, but because I know myself well enough to know it wouldn't happen.

My kids swim every day. In the NEIGHBOR'S POOL.

My wife gave up on it 3 years ago, and now we have a nasty frog pond that needs thousands of dollars worth of work to make it usable (failure to maintain a good balance in the chemicals contributes to rapid deterioration of the liner).

It attracts mosquitoes, and other nasty critters. And the worst part...

...it's NEXT TO MY SHOP. I get to be eaten my the bugs and put up with the crap and smell while she is swimming at the neighbor's house with my kids.

I'm not bitter, but it really takes a lot of effort to remind myself that I love her, and try not to remember what our original deal was.

A month ago, I started maintaining the pool.

Convinced yet??

I had a buddy who was looking for a house with a pool. He knew that it didn't add any value to the property, but it was going to save him a ton. He put some steel spans across it, built a garage over it, and had oil change pits under his cars.

In general, pools suck. They take a ton of money and effort to maintain for occasional enjoyment. Go camping near a lake instead.

aircooled wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

mtn wrote: Also, why not a hottub instead of a pool?

She wants both!

If she is mostly interesting in using the pool for exercise, consider a Swim Spa. They are normally installed above ground (in ground or in-deck installations seem to be an option) but will be way cheaper then a pool, allows swimming AND can be used as a spa. It's not a "pool part" kind of thing for kids and such, but it will probably actually ADD to the value of your house. They are quite large for a spa, but very small for a pool. Just a consideration. Pools (and spas) can be like many other things. You THINK you will use them all the time, but once you get one, you don't use it as much as you would think after the initial interest wears off.

No she doesn't want it for exercise, her new job has her gone 4-5 nights per week.

She wants it for on the weekends when she is home and can layout by the pool and sunbathe whilst occasionally jumping in. I would probably use it for exercise and enjoy on the weekends.

But honestly I'm a bit afraid of the liability aspect (I used to work Homeowners Claims and know how ridiculous our society is nowadays.)

nderwater wrote:

racerdave600 wrote: Anyway, my total spent so far on the pool this year has been $38. That includes 4 bags of salt to top up the salt water system, and well, that's it! It stays perfect all the time since I installed the salt system. If you get a pool cleaner with the pool, your maintenance goes to almost nothing. Seriously, if I had not done this, I would have filled it in 6 years ago. Before that, I used chlorine, and was spending about 200 to 300 per month.

We're using chlorine and running our pump nearly 24/7. I'm going to google salt conversion now, but in your experience, is the cost of actual salt vs chlorine the only budget difference?

The cost of the system is not insignificant. I think mine was about $900. Once you have that however, it's unbelievably less to operate. I usually add about 2 bags of salt each year when I open (about $6 each), and then one to two throughout the year as it gets diluted with rain and when you have to top up the pool. Other than that, I add one bottle of algaecide when I open, and another when I close. That's about it. Before I had salt, I was also constantly screwing with the PH and Total Alkalinity, now it too stays pretty stable. Other than an adjustment, maybe, when I open, I rarely have to mess with it anymore.

I would say an average year usually has me spending no more than $100 on the pool, unless the wife decides she needs all new toys.

Now if something breaks on the pump or filter, that's a different story, but I've found if I do the work myself, that's not all that expensive either. I did buy a safety cover a few years ago now that we have grandkids, and it was pricey (about $1,800), but it was not a requirement. And I replaced the liner when I bought the house as it was the original and 20 years old (about $2,000). Other than that, it has been remarkably easy to maintain, once the salt system was installed that is.

Oh, and I only run my pump about 8 to 10 hours a day. If it does not have a main drain, and many pool builders leave these out to save on costs, that can cause a lot of problems on its own. If you are looking at a house with a pool, and it does not have one on the deep end, keep walking. The bottom part of the deep well will not get circulation and it can cause all matter of issues.

I have a salt system pool. Maintenance has been easy, but things wears out and the pool equipment suppliers don't give stuff away.

I wouldn't have paid for a pool but it came with the house and it is a luxury that makes Momma happy - so I bite my tongue for the most part and keep my grumbling to myself.

Life is short, and all of that...

I worked for a swimming pool company in between undergrad and grad school. My liberal arts undergrad got me a job delivering chlorine and maintaining pools, hence the need to move on to a useful grad degree.

Anyhoo, I learned about the stupendous amount of repair and maintenance that goes into pools and swore off of them forever. People usually get them for kids, so with no kids there wasn't much pressure except from the wife. And she was really only interested in the sound of water, so I got her a fountain.

We were househunting a year or so ago and found a house with a shop for me and pool for her. All we had to do was look at the power bill for running that damned pool and we both decided it wasn't worth it.

LOL at the thinking that a pool would be easier to deal with than mowing the yard!

I have one, POOLS SUCK! my buddy just filled his in and made a nice little garden.

Just as an alternate perspective. We have an inground pool. My wife, the kids and I use it pretty much every day. We had one at our last house too. In both cases the pool was there when we bought the house. We didn't go looking for a house with a pool but for us it was a bonus.

I just recently found a nice little swimming hole on Blewett Falls lake, only about an hour from where I live. My four year old and ten yr old dont even want to go to the neighborhood pool anymore, just wants to go to the lake to swim and fish

Just about everyone Ive known that had a pool in their back yard hated the upkeep and cost

Basil Exposition wrote: LOL at the thinking that a pool would be easier to deal with than mowing the yard!

I don't think anyone believes that. But mowing the yard sucks, so less yard that must be mowed is not considered a downside to owning a pool.

ProDarwin wrote:

Basil Exposition wrote: LOL at the thinking that a pool would be easier to deal with than mowing the yard!

I don't think anyone believes that. But mowing the yard sucks, so less yard that must be mowed is not considered a downside to owning a pool.

I spend 10x the amount of time mowing my lawn then keeping up the pool. And I spend more on gas than I do pool chemicals, so yes, in my case, the lawn is far more troublesome than the pool. I know a lot of the answers on here are negative, but truthfully, they are also out of touch with modern pool upkeep. I've been around pools my entire life and there has never been an easier time to own one. 10 years ago I would have given you a different answer.

Curmudgeon wrote: Lawyers will tell you a pool is an attractive nuisance. We had one in my teen years, we came home a couple of times to find kids swimming in it. Dad's attorney told him even with the locked gates on the 6 foot fence around the back yard if someone got hurt or worse he'd be pretty well screwed.

In my township, a pool is required to have a 6' fence with a locking gate around it.

My mother occasionally threatens to get a swim-spa pool, but she wants it fully inclosed so she could use it year-round. More likely to happen is in a decade or so she sells her current house and moves into a retirement community with a pool.

I have some friends who have a hot tube on their deck and I have to admit that after a long mtn bike ride relaxing in the hot tub with a cold beer is nice.

My wife rides horses, I ride a motorcycle.

We both have bad backs.

There is nothing better after a long day of riding than a soak in my hot tub.

Maintaining the spa and the extra bit on the electric bill still costs less than the pain pills we both no longer need.