Shed Roof

My company is sending me to Toronto for a couple of years, so I am fortunate that many of the issues around visas, transport etc are being taken care of. I am looking at property in the 'burbs for 4 of us (kids 11 and 10), however, I am getting confused by the number of houses that have squeezed a pool into a relatively small garden space. The normal English thing is to have as big a garden as possible (and only gazillionaires have pools), so is the summer so hot over there that

a) it is too hot to play outside, or
b) is it to keep up with the Jones's?

I suppose my question is "is a pool really necessary?" (and does it become a rink in winter??)

Thanks, and happy splashing to those with them.

iaink

Congrats on the transfer, certainly takes a lot of the hassle away.

Yes and no, Ontario summer is hot and humid, A-C is pretty much a necessity. A pool is nice if you can be bothered to maintain it, and a liability if you cant. My kids are usually pretty wiped after playing soccer or whatever. Just hanging around isnt too bad, but when its really stinky theres a lot to be said for a dip in the pool.

Keeping up with the Joneses is as much a part of life here as you let it become, just like in the UK.

A pool does not add value to a home but they are pretty common, at least the cheaper above ground types. As many buyers are looking to not have a pool as to have one though.

They do not become rinks in the winter, you partially drain them and dump a ton of chemicals in them to prevent them freezing otherwise come summer you will have a broken pool and a likely a lot of expense to fix it. If you have a large (flatish) yard you can always build a rink, but thats (almost) more work than a pool to be honest to clear and flood. Been there done that, gone to the arena

If you arent sure, you can get a home without and spend a thousand bucks or less on the temporary type pools from Canadian tire and the like.

On the plus side if you have a pool its less grass to cut...

dbd33

No.

No. They're too common to have snob value.

Only you can say if you'd get the use out of it to justify the sacrifice of space and the, not very large, maintenance cost. I'd say that, having a couple of kids, you might very well do so. I liked it when we lived by a park with a municipal pool; no work to support it and lifeguarding jobs for the kids just across the road.

Souvy

Pools are very common. In my area, most houses have them, in fairly small back yards. The majority of the pools are above ground. All the pools take up most of the yard.

The pools are not used much. Folk spend much longer maintaining them than they spend in them. My neighbour has a pool. He goes away a lot in the summer. Last summer, he asked me to dump chemicals in every few days. In return, I had free access. I used it twice. He never went in it.

Pools are a sunk cost. They do not add to the value of a property and may well detract from it.

Monique_in_Canada

on a positive note....if u love pools then you will love having one.....I have an absolutely gorgeous pool....we bought our house because of the pool...the house was a S*** hole, but we knew we could change that.....pools are not much upkeep, we put pucks in the skimmers twice a week, dump a jug of chlorine in it when needed (fortnightly) and add some other chemicals at the beginning of the year to increase PH and Alkalinity, we swim in it almost every day....the barracuda does the cleaning....I can't wait for it to be open and hate it when the winter cover goes on!!!!

pfw

If you have kids and the summer is hot, they can be a godsend. Ours was fantastic last year during the summer hols.

Don't underestimate the amount of work required to maintain one though. Also there are pools and pools - some are just glorified baths. IMO you want an inground one with a decent depth at the deep end to allow "running bombs" and some actual swimming, otherwise don't bother.

A heater is an advantage as it means you can crank up the pool temp quickly when it warms up in spring rather than waiting two weeks for the water temperature to catch up with the air. However they are not cheap to run.

Pools can be quite dangerous for kids and should really be fenced, in the winter too as a closed pool is very nasty if you fall in.

You don't get the money back on putting a pool in on a house, so if you want one buy one with a pool already there. A big family will probably view a pool as a +ve, a retired couple as a -ve.

You usually "open" the pool around the end of May, this can be done professionally. There tends to be a bit of a spike in your hydro costs as they fill the pool with a hose. Also when the pool is open you have a pump running most of the time, this also adds to hydro bills. Pool would usually be "closed" some time in September.

Most pools are freshwater + chlorine. You keep stabilizing chlorine pucks in the water the whole time and shock the whole thing with a big dose about once a week. If you don't do this your pool turns into an aquarium and ducks and other residents turn up . You also have to clean out the pool pretty much daily, and rinse and backwash the pump once a week. Some of the newer posh pools are salt water - I believe they are meant to be easier to maintain but I've never been in one so don't know.

Finally note that there is the odd maintenance job on a pool that is costly - for example replacing the lining so always check out a pool before buying (pool companies will do inspections and test the pump etc.)

iaink

Depends on the pool, its location, that water going into, how much use it gets and probably dozens of other factors. Most of the time thats true, but not always.

PMM

Hi

One thing to keep in mind with in-ground pools, when it comes to re-sell the house, you are limiting yourself to people who want a house with a pool.

Novocastrian

Not entirely true imho. I have both a very large garden and an inground pool. When we bought the place I was indifferent about the pool, but thought it might be a good idea with 2 kids (11 & 9 at the time).

It was for the next 10 years or so and maintenance isn't a very big problem, although it took me a couple or more years to get it right.

Nowadays I continue to maintain it but it gets little use.

I don't really think it would put many future buyers off (but that might be true if the whole garden had been sacrificed).

lmartin999

Err....pool party?

This could of course be while you are in France.

Novocastrian

Call my son.

G77

The best part of having a pool is it really winds up people back in the UK.

But really, we don't use ours enough to justify it, just don't have the time to get in there... Been in twice so far this summer.

iaink

For older kids its great, but I would avoid a house with an inground pool if I was still parenting babes or toddlers at the time. Enough to worry about without dealing with them getting into the pool when your back it turned. At least with an above ground pool there is a little challenge to them getting in by misadventure. I suppose to some extent that concern comes around again when you become a grandparent. I know a couple who filled in their pool for that reason.


For the OP though (whereever he went), thats not going to be an issue.

G77

Indeed - I have a story to tell there....

The week we moved in to here, biiiiiiink came around to visit with her boy who was 5 or so at the time, he was playing with our boy who'd just turned 2. We was chatting and then noticed they were missing - penny dropped that they'd managed to get outside unattended to the pool Dashed outside to find them both standing by the unfenced pool.... Minutes later and it could have been a disaster - some welcome to Canada that would have been! I still have night sweats over what might have happened that day!

I told the landlord about this, a few days later he showed up and fenced off the pool - it's now padlocked so no one can get in unattended.

I would strongly suggest not having an unfenced pool with young kids around - just too dangerous.

iaink

Some municipalities have by laws mandating fenced off pools. Mine keeps flipflopping on it, at one time even temporary pools needed a fence, now none do...

Even with a fence, sadly there are still kids that manage to evade the precautions and drown every year in Canada. Pool covers can be deadly too.