RRhodes

Looking at property some have hot tubs / some pools / most neither. Do people really use pools in the summer a home and hot tubs in the winter?

helcat12

Depends where you are living.

Auld Yin

Well they're not installed because of attractiveness.

singingringingtree

In BC I'd go for a hot tub. Wouldn't go for a pool anywhere in Canada really. Although I have heard of people in the colder climes flooding them in the winter and using them for ice skating.

Hobbess

Our house has a hot-tub, we didn't shop for a house with one, just happened to come with the house that we wanted to buy. I don't think we paid much if any of a premium due to the hot-tub.

We've used it both summer & winter time and to varying degrees. Right now it's empty as we're considering selling it so that we can get a bigger deck.

While we were using it it's not too hard to maintain, as we were only it in at most twice a week (more usually less) I would just spend 5 miinutes or so checking the water and adding chemicals once a week. The local hot-tub shop did free water testing too with advice that was really helpful so I'd pop in there once every few months. It for sure sucks in the winter at anything below 10c to be out testing water, but I've cleaned the hot tub out in my shorts at 0c before!

If you get one there'll be days you love it and days you'll hate it!

Our neighbours have an above-around pool and we hardly see them in it in the summer and it just looks like a mess in the winter.

RRhodes

Yes we would never put a pool in and dont know if we should discount houses with them as they practically take up the whole garden (houses in our price range). If we lived in the UK we would want to buy a hot tub so I guess it would be no different in another country. Our neighbours had one and to be fair they used it a lot. I think rather than looking for a house with one we will just think its a bonus if it has one!! Thanks for the advice lol

helcat12

There are lots of places to buy hot tubs, anyway.
If you find you want one, they aren't hard to install.

singingringingtree

Is there any alternative to chlorine in hot tubs in Canada? Plays havoc with my skin.

PMM

Hi


Yes, you can get salt water hot tubs.

singingringingtree

Thanks PMM - that's excellent news.

Tangram

Factor in the maintenance and upkeep of a pool plus heating costs.

dbd33

I think that, if you have children, a pool might make sense. Given that what Canadians want is "a neighbour with a pool" it might be doubly good for an immigrant family with children. I'd pay for a hot tub but not a pool.

mardyarse

without a doubt a pool! We had one installed last year and have now enjoyed 2 fantastic summers living outside. We eat outside, we entertain outside, we swim, read, lay in the sun its fabulous. Keeps the kids off the video games and phones, means they have lots of friends round to play.

We rarely heat the pool (only up to 80f if we do) but when we do it takes usually 1 hour to go up 2 degrees (something like $7-10 per day) and we don't bother with the AC on in the house. Only today it was 28 and hot and humid in Ottawa, a huge rainstorm came over and we all jumped in the pool it was gorgeous. Its salt water which is great for the skin and hair. I clean the pool every other day and the safety cover goes on at the end of the season. It was a small fortune to install but so worth it. This year went without summer vacation to help pay it off and so didn't miss going away.

Don't like the hot tub thing. It's not good for my skin and I get bored just sitting in bubbles especially bizarre sharing with other people as its like having a bath but without the soap...not my thing!

Cookie

We love our salt water pool too. We have a solar panel so don't pay to heat it. Maintenance is low - pucks autofed, shock packet added once a week, 100ml algaecide once weekly, auto cleaner wanders around the pool every other night.

Opened our pool mid June and the weather is still so good we were in the pool today

getoutofbritainquick

We use Pro-clear which I think is silver iodine pellets in our hot tub (non chlorine based). Rather expensive though in Canada at around $52 for a tube which lasts 3 months. As usual you can get the same stuff for a third of the cost in the States. We only use a small does of chlorine shock occosionally.

With regard to pools many of our neighbours have pools and our kids are in them most of the summer. Lots of people in BC have pools and they seem to be very popular.