Holliver

Hello,

We are looking to buy our first house and boy is it hard work. There just doesn't seem to be the inventory and houses are being snapped up from under us.

Originally we were looking for houses without pools, but that seemed to limit our search a bit, so we've now started looking at houses with them.

We found a house we like and it has a pool, but I'm a bit concerned about the price of maintenance. Does anyone have a house with a pool? How much do they cost to run? Do you get someone in to take care of it? Our realtor told us that you can pay someone about $100 a month to maintain it. We could possibly afford that, but would prefer to save that money do it ourselves.

My aunt used to have a pool in the south of France, which my uncle cleaned everyday and tested chemical levels etc. So, surely we could do it here?

Any advice appreciated,

Jerseygirl

My husband opens our pool each year, maintains it and closes it for the winter. We bought an auto pool cleaner that goes up and down the floor and sides cleaning the pool. We get the chlorine from Costco. Our main expense is heating the pool because I like the water temp at 90F.

Holliver

Ah, Ok, so it's doable then. How much roughly would you say it costs for the cleaning stuff and chlorine?

From what you say it shouldn't be too expensive providing we don't heat it. I wonder if pools in CA get warm in summer without heating them.


Our realtor was also saying that many people now have salt water pools. Interesting, but I don't know anything about them. Apparently they are better for your skin, you probably can't swim underwater with your eyes open though. Ouch!

sir_eccles

$100 a month sounds about right for someone to come in and do it for you.

I do my own maintenance and to be honest probably don't do a great job of it sometimes and occassionally have to fight back odd colored water. Places like Leslies will do free water checks for you and suggest treatment options.

I just jumped in for the first time this past weekend. Water temp was a bit chilly at 70F.

Jerseygirl

There was a thread about salt water pools a few years ago. Ray went over to salt water.

I'll have to find out how much the chorine costs. As for cleaning products...I don't think we use any...just let the pool cleaner do its job. It scrubs the pool and suck up all the debri on the bottom. Going around the pool daily netting the leaves etc only takes a few minutes.

Worst part is getting snakes, frogs and toads in the pool. ***shudder*** Hubby nets them.

sir_eccles

Oh we changed our pool to salt water when we moved in.

You can swim underwater with your eyes open it's lovely. The water is much nicer to swim in, doesn't leave your skin feeling icky or smelly. It isn't salty like sea water, just barely tastes salty. Sort of less maintenance but you do have to clean the chlorinator regularly otherwise it clogs up and balance the ph.

As I said right now it is about 70F, by mid summer it is well into 90s water temperature.

Holliver

Thank you. Brrr, I don't know what the weather's been like in Arizona, but it's been darn chilly in CA these past couple of months.

Holliver

Is that like the 'dark' side? haha.

Eek, snakes, frogs and toads. Yes, the husband will be in charge of ours too. If we get this house, that is!

Holliver

That sounds nice. We're getting all excited about getting a house with a pool and a nice BBQ area. Fingers crossed no-one else buys it.

Jerseygirl

The bull frogs sit by the side of the pool at night tormenting me with their croaking.

SanDiegogirl

I do my own maintenance. Once a week, check the chemicals and brush the pool. I have a 'crawly which' is an automatic cleaner which works its way around the pool.

I buy 2 x tubs of tablets = $150.00 per annum
Muriatic acid = $40.00 per annum

Frog mineral supplement = $100 per annum

Electricity costs around $120.00 per month. The number of hours filtering the pool goes up in the summer, gets reduced in the winter.

How much you use the pool and how many people regularly use it will affect the amount of chemicals you use.

Plenty of books around for pool maintenance.

sir_eccles

Recent unexpected cost, $1400 to put in a childproof fence even though he is stubbornly refusing to crawl right now.

Michael

Normally to be comfortable in a pool, the temperature should be 78°. San Diego summer days get above that but the night cooling from the ocean keeps the temperature of the pool well below that temperature during the day.

Holliver

Darn it. Hmm, I wonder if somewhere sells magical tinfoil looking covers to keep the heat of the pool in. Would that work?

I think I'm getting far to excited about this pool now. Is a swimming pool part of the American Dream? No, well, it's my American Dream.

Holliver

Very helpful, thank you SD girl