Pool cost?

[miss_sterious]

For those who own a pool or have in the past, what is the approximate cost to have a smaller backyard pool installed? This would be with medium/average cost materials. Also, what does a typical pool cost on average per month or year when you factor in chemicals, servicing, and so on? Also, does it increase a home's value if the home
Is in a neighbourhood with larger homes with pools as well?

[featfan]

Order your pool online from the USA. Get it delivered to Bellingham or somewhere close to the border.
Rent a trailer and go down and pick it up. Get to the border and pay NO DUTY, love free trade.
Hire a surveyor to mark out your property lines and setbacks.
Hire a company to dig the hole.
Hire another company to put the pool together in the hole.
Hire someone to do the deck and tile.
Hire a fencing company to surround it.
Or pay an exorbitant sum to get someone to do it all for you.

[TMBOkanagan]

Keep in mind that installing an in-ground pool does require a building permit through the City. Any pool from the USA must also be stamped by a BC engineer (adding cost). You are better off just to hire a contractor to take you through the process start to finish.

[lesliepaul]

In Kelowna.........the price is HIGH. Historically a pool will not increase the value of your property, although a "pool sized" yard can be a plus at selling time.

When you buy a house with a pool, in most cases you are getting a free pool. Neighbors had a pool, took forever to finish it since money was tight.......ended up foreclosing. New owners buy thinking WOW.....a brand new pool! Ended up the previous owners did not have the proper or any permits for it. New owners had a lot of work to do to meet compliance.

If cash for a pool is in the budget..........go for it........be prepared for future maintenance bills and sometimes HUGE.

[LoneWolf_53]

be prepared for future maintenance bills and sometimes HUGE.

Maintenance costs are just like anything else, look after it, and it will last a long time and generate minimal maintenance costs, or neglect it and you can indeed see some huge bills.

ph going out of whack can do quite a number on some components.

As for whether it will increase home value that's a tough one to answer. Some home buyers have zero interest in a pool, yet for some reason beyond comprehension they'll go look at homes with a pool, and often times cough up money to have it turned into a planter.

Meanwhile for others it is a feature that they view as a bonus. All depends on who the buyer is.

A lot of real estate agents hate pools because they often cause them more work, especially if the seller has already moved out.

[Bpeep]

Adjust ph daily.
It's quick, easy and costs almost zero.

[Bpeep]

I had an indoor pool once.
It was nice, but it was just another responsibility in a busy life. I can see how some like it, it just wasn't for me.

[skydawg]

Pools = Money not wisely spent. Save your money. Go to the beach.

[jasond_71]

I priced out a pool last year. For a standard 16x32 pool with stamped concrete around edge was 40-50 thousand. Even if you swam 20 times a year for 20 years it would be $125 per swim. Plus maintenance so probably more.
You do not get it back in resale and you eliminate anyone who doesn't want a pool.
However I've seen tons of houses with pools sell quickly so who knows, a lot of people from Vancouver and Alberta want the okanagan lifestyle.
Like the other poster said you can save a lot of money doing it yourself but it's a lot of work.

[Catri]

As I understand it, there are 3 main options for an inground pool. Least expensive and most common is a vinyl lined pool, next is preformed fibreglass, most expensive is concrete. Once they're installed, the operating and maintenance costs are all pretty much the same (until the vinyl liner needs replacing). A friend who has one tells me that her unheated average sized pool costs about $500/year to run and maintain. You might check in with some of the pool companies in town, they'd probably be able to give you a better idea on the costs of different options.

[spigot52]

Had a concrete pool for 17 years. It was 12 years old when I bought the house. I had to replace the pump motor once.
I had two large black rubber rooftop solar heaters, that made a huge savings in heating costs. Had to replace the blanket once, Pools are for kids. Mine and all my friends kids lived in it all summer.
Chlorine costs varied depending on how hot the weather was, and how many kids were using the pool. Sold the house because the kids grew up and moved out, and I was afraid after all those years with no
problems something bad would happen. (I knew many people with vinyl lined pools that had horror stories)
edit: forgot I had to paint it one time

[HP]

I can only speak to our experience. The post is lengthy but somebody else may get tuition value from what I post. We overhauled our back yard with a pool and hot tub a few years ago.

What we got
We got a 14' x 32' pool with a 4' foot shallow and and an 8' deep end as well as an 8 person hot tub. Typical pool accessories. We elected to go with a chlorine pool. The quote from the pool builder was $55k. I was OK to do a bunch of work myself (i.e. why were they hiring day labour to run around with a wheelbarrow? I relocated all my irrigation. my contractor was good about that sort of thing but I also went to great effort to not be a pain for them).

This was a pretty well inclusive price as far as the installation went. There were no surprises. Things like, earth disposal fees, turf to fix our lawn, that kind of thing... was all included for us.

What your quote probably won't include
1) Electrical. You're going to need to hire somebody to come do a grounding field around the pool deck as well as do the connections for the pump and whatever other sanitation equipment you elect to go with. Depending on your electrical situation this will not be cheap. Because of our situation (our house was only built for a 100 amp entrance) we had some extra charges but it came to around $5000 by the time it was all done.

2) Fence. This is a must-do according to the city of Kelowna bylaws and every other municipality I've seen. Not just any old fence will do either, there are specific requirements around height, space beneath the fence, and auto-closing gates. We went with a cedar panel fence and I think the whole cost was around $7500 installed but just like the electrical, the actual cost will depend on your situation.

3) Surveyor. This is related to your fence installation. I managed to track down the iron pins on my lot and I have some transferable skills so I could identify the boundaries of my lot with precision. Unless you are confident in your abilities (your fence installer will not provide this service) I suggest hiring a surveyor to mark your lot boundaries. This is going to be around $500 but can save you immense nightmares down the road when/if you go to sell again.

4) Natural gas upgrades. This was the most irritating cost for me. See the discussion on heating below so it may not apply in your case but we needed to increase the pressure to the house, replace the meter, and then put regulators in everywhere... it just seems like there should have been a better way to do it but there was not. I can't remember the whole cost - I've put it out of my mind. The guy we got was great and we passed inspection on first go but grrr.... that said, I learned a lot.

Jack-in-the-box moments
Again, because of my profession and our specific situation I was able to avoid these but you should be aware they can exist and plan a contingency accordingly.

1) Relocate utilities. This could be expensive. CALL BEFORE YOU DIG. PERIOD. IT'S FREE. You never know where a gas line is located and you're excavating. In fact, if you aren't certain I'd just make the call before you get any quotes because it could have a material impact on the cost of your project to move a poorly placed sewer line.

2) Environmental surprises. If you unearth an old fuel tank or a septic field, work will stop while an environmental assessment is completed. There is little you can do to avoid this if the situation exists and you can't just re-fill the hole.

3) Ground water. Oddly enough, you'd think you're building a pool so ground water is not an issue but it is. The excavation needs to sit for a while and then the city comes by to make sure there is no pooling water before you can go about inserting your pool. The reason is that subterranean creekbeds exist all over. If you've disturbed one, your contractor will need to excavate further and backfill with crush to allow the creek to flow correctly.

4) Rock. This can be a significant cost and time. We're in Glenmore, we had clay. You can't just dig through rock, you need to blast. Worse, there are areas of town where the first foot or two is topsoil followed by bedrock.

Decisions you make that drive cost
1) Concrete. Concrete is stunningly expensive at between $8.00 and $11.00 per finished foot. Stamped concrete is the most expensive. You can expose aggregate (which we did and we're thrilled with it) or broom finish and it will be on the lower end. Your quote will probably include a 4' pool deck and whatever concrete is required to support a liner but if you're like us and decided to add more, you're going to pay. budget accordingly.

2) Fancy addons. Some things we wish we'd have done differently. I wish we would have gone with a dual stage pump (see the 'operating costs' section below). If you want deck jets that shoot water like the Bellagio fountains then get ready to pay for that.

3) Material choices. We needed a retaining wall. We went with a block wall. Contractor wanted to do a rock wall. We win because we had the $$ but like building a house, if you decide on fancier materials it will cost you accordingly. You may elect to go with a pre-formed fiberglass pool or something (sprayed gunnite can be done in Kelowna but don't do it... you'll spend your life fixing that thing when it falls apart after the first freeze). You'd be surprised that it's not that much different in price between an in-ground fibreglass or a steel wall and poured concrete pool.


Maintenance
Ours costs almost nothing for maintenance. During this heat it's costing me about $10 per week in chlorine but in cooler weather the costs are far less. I refuse to use the products from pool stores because they are brainwashed chemical salesmen - not bad people, they just only know what they've been told to sell. Once I came across the site: http://www.troublefreepool.com I was much happier and everything became a lot cheaper for both the pool AND the hot tub. Invest in some understanding of the chemistry of your water and you'll be better off for the experience.

Two other parts of maintenance:

Pool opening you can probably do yourself. It's not hard. Remove the plugs where the water is supposed to come out... put the plugs back into the places water is not supposed to be coming out... add an obscene amount of sanitizer... wait.

Pool closing I do not recommend you do by yourself. You need to make sure you clear all your water lines out and pool maintenance companies have proper methods and tools for that job. Frost damage will be the most expensive thing you've ever tried to fix - I wouldn't take chances with it. I think it costs me the princely sum of $150/yr to close? Whatever. it's worth it. The cost of fixing cracked pipes encased in concrete will be much higher.


Operating Costs
There are three basic costs to enjoyment after your pool is installed. Maintenance, power, heat.

One of the things I wish I would have done is gone with a dual stage pump. This is basically a pump with a higher throughput setting for when the pool is in use or I'm trying to filter water and a much lower setting for plain old circulating water during a low use period. The reason why is that your pump WILL impact your electrical bill (think $200/mo). We let it run 24x7 when we first got it and almost fell off our chairs when we got the first bill. If you have a lower stage on your pump, you can let it run to circulate water without personally financing the power company's next fleet purchase.

As for heat there are a few schools of thought on this topic. We went with a natural gas pool furnace and here's why - you can go with something like solar on your roof but the sun isn't hot enough during the times when you want to heat your pool (early season/late season). When the solar is effective, your pool will be so hot that you're just going to bypass it anyway. Nat gas furnaces blow flame at around 200,000 BTU's so you don't want to run them much longer than you have to. We found that if we use the solar cover, ours will heat our pool at a rate of around 1 degree F per hour and it costs us around $100/mo in early/late season. Your mileage will vary.

Will it increase property value?
I don't think a person installs a pool to increase property value. It increased our property taxes because our assessment went up and our insurance rates but that's about it (neither went up materially, by the way... property tax moreso). You install a pool to increase the enjoyment factor of your property. My kids are in there 10 hours a day during the summer. Since my wife and I both work from home, 'just go to the beach' isn't realistic for us. I suspect we'll probably break even on the pool portion if we ever sell and that's all we could have asked for.

This is finally over
Anyway, if you've survived to the end of this post I congratulate you. This is just stuff that we learned in the process and I'm happy to share. We're thrilled with the investment. There are some things we would have changed. If you have specific questions you can ask in this thread or ask in a Private Message.

[Muzza]

A little bit of useless but interesting (I think) trivia. I lived in Quebec for 3 years. I noticed when I went for my walks that almost everyone had above ground pools instead of in ground. I finally asked someone about it, and was told that in ground pools are added to the square footage of homes to determine property taxes. Above ground pools are not. I wonder if that will ever happen here......

[TylerM4]

A little bit of useless but interesting (I think) trivia. I lived in Quebec for 3 years. I noticed when I went for my walks that almost everyone had above ground pools instead of in ground. I finally asked someone about it, and was told that in ground pools are added to the square footage of homes to determine property taxes. Above ground pools are not. I wonder if that will ever happen here......

Neat. I don't think that model will make it's way over here anytime soon as currently property taxes don't consider the residence square footage at all.

In BC, it's done differently - you must get a permit to install a pool. During the permitting process you must specify the cost/value of the job. That cost/value is automatically added to your assessment. For example: I built a $30,000 garage, told them it was a $30,000 garage on the permit paperwork, and the next year they tacked $30,000 onto my assessment.

[kel764]

My advice is: NO, a pool is not worth the cost. We have had an in-ground pool for nearly 25 years and in hindsight, we regret that we had it installed. There were many expenses we had not anticipated: increased property taxes, increased house insurance cost, high cost of using the gas heater (solar blanket is all that is needed during hot summer days but once the nights start getting cool you need to run the gas heater if you plan to use the pool). Very high cost for any service work done on equipment. Replacing the vinyl liner cost over $3000.00 about 12 years ago. Chemicals (chlorine, shock, algicicide, etc.) are all expensive. Solar blanket, winter tarp, etc. etc., it all adds up. Salt water pools might be less costly as far as chemicals are concerned, I don't know. It costs us around $180 for the pool to be winterized each fall (lines blown out, antifreeze, winterization chemicals put in pool).