rw-Pools, anyone ever put one in?

We had an above ground pool when I was a kid.  It was fenced off entirely.  It was old though, there when my parents bought the house, and well, one day when I was probably 8 or 9, I jumped off the side, which we always did, and the side collapsed lol

I haven't read all the posts here, but we put our pool in about 5 years ago.  From ground break to finish...it was about $30K...that included putting a deck around the pool area as well.  Its a 22K gallon pool that is fresh water that requires chemicals to keep it clean.  We have the Polaris pool vacuum (his name is Cruise ). 

If we had to do it all over again, we would do salt water.  I have a friend who converted their pool to saltwater and loves it.  Another friend has a blackbottom pool....and says it stays very cool (relative to Texas weather) in the summer.

Maintenance belongs to DH....all I do is float. 

I just wanted to add that DH would like to add solar and wishes we'd done it at the installation point. We don't really start to warm up until about now but even then, it cools down at night, so it can be awhile before the pool is at a comfy temperature. Now, for kids, that's all different. When I was a kid, I swam in the ocean any chance I got and it was brrrrr cold and I'm sure Eli and Lily would be the same way.

cakana

Now, for kids, that's all different. When I was a kid, I swam in the ocean any chance I got and it was brrrrr cold and I'm sure Eli and Lily would be the same way.

Cathy, this reminded me.  My parents wouldn't let us swim until the pool h2o temp was 70 degrees (and it wasn't heated).  We'd have blue lips and be shivering, but geez, we didn't care - we were swimming!

15+ years ago, my parents had an inground pool installed in our house in FL.  So, whatever my thoughts/experiences were are really outdated.  In FL, it's very typical to put a screened enclosure around the pool to keep leaves/palm fronts/etc out of the pool  Ours seemed to help, not to mention some of the bug issues. And it cut the sun exposure quite a bit (if you wanted to get a tan, you had to lay outside the pool area.) 

Only other thing that might be relevent today - Be choosy with the deck surface.  My grandmother's pool deck was tiny smooth pebbles sort of shellac'd together - was not comfy on the feet.  Our deck was a little prickly - snagged your bathing suit.  *shrug* - I loved having the pool, but the only maintenance stuff I did was cleaning the skimmer, skimming the surface w/the net, and brushing the sides to help the Creepy Crawly (automatic pool vac thing)

My oldest sister had a vinyl-lined pool installed in NH (concrete is pretty stupid in areas where the ground typically freezes).  Having it heated was great, but best of all was the outdoor shower that had hot and cold water - it wasn't enclosed, just a post w/water lines run to it w/hot/cold handles and a surface underneath that allowed for drainage.  (She gussied it up with areas for hanging towels, place to put shampoos, etc)  Having that was the best, because you could rinse the chlorine water off of yourself before going inside.  DEF recommend an outdoor shower area.

When we started removing trees (they were dying, we kept the healthy ones) from our backyard our friends kept asking when we were going to put in a pool, lol.  Ya know, so they could come over and use it.  I would LOVE to have a pool, but we plan to sell this house in a few years.  I think a pool at our next house would be high on the wish list, though not necessarily a requirement.  I guarantee if we had one in this neighborhood, we'd come home to find neighbor kids in it....the kids here are nice, but seem to have no concept of respecting others' property. 

I KNOW Harry would love to have a pool of his very own.  When we went to FL to visit BF's brother, Harry was pretty much in his pool sun-up to sundown (and a couple times after sundown, lol).

Gina, you'll have to let us know when you make your decision!

Had one put in about 20 years ago and it was around $25K, give or take.  I don't think the prices change much so shop around  because it could depend on size (mine is about 20' X 40';) and how fancy you want to get as far as waterfalls, decorative rocks, etc.  Mine is pretty basic ... nothing fancy. Here, chemicals run about $50 a month for weekly visits and I think it would probably cost you that much to be constantly buying the chemicals and doing it yourself.  I upped the service from chemicals only about three years ago to full service where they clean all the crud off the bottom, skim all the leaves and debris off the top and clean all the filters and that is well worth the extra $45 a month. We had an in-ground spa put in at the same time and I heat that sometimes, but I've never heated the pool.  People with pools told me that if you wanted the water hot for a function on Saturday night, you'd have to get the heater going on Friday morning and with todays energy costs, I can't justify trying to heat up 25,000 gallons of water.  The kiddos are grown and it hardly gets used any more, so like Sarah, I'm not sure if I'd buy another house that had one.

Joyce

miranadobe

screened enclosure around the pool to keep leaves/palm fronts/etc out of the pool  Ours seemed to help, not to mention some of the bug issues.

My DH talks about doing this all the time.  I'm warming up to the idea....if not for the bug issue alone.  Not only mosquitos and flies...but every Spring season....these big flying ants as well as swarmer termites get in the pool.  Those are a pain to skim out. 

 We can't have pools here, we have a neighborhood thing, but I thought I would add more to the above ground with deck idea. My uncle bought my grandmother's place from her (which is a double wide trailer actually that he really made look much nicer once he bought it-you'd not really notice it's a trailer.) Anyway, there's a good deal of land, but really only enough flat enough to put in a small above ground pool, which is what he did. But, he built a very nice deck around the pool. I can't remember where I saw pictures of how hotels take pictures of the pools in tricky ways to make them look nicer than and bigger than they really are, but his actually does look like one of the trick pictures, where they did things to make it look nicer than it really is. Around here, from what I know of people having pools, they spend a ton on leveling the land. The school across the street from me isn't called Rolling Hills for nothing.

CoBuHe

miranadobe

screened enclosure around the pool to keep leaves/palm fronts/etc out of the pool  Ours seemed to help, not to mention some of the bug issues.

My DH talks about doing this all the time.  I'm warming up to the idea....if not for the bug issue alone.  Not only mosquitos and flies...but every Spring season....these big flying ants as well as swarmer termites get in the pool.  Those are a pain to skim out. 

So long as your dogs are not the kind to "scratch at the door to go out", you're good. lol  Oh, and one time our cat got so scared by some animal outside the enclosure that he shot right up the screen about 10 feet up and wouldn't come down.  I reached up to try to coax him down and realized the skunk or whatever it was had literally "scared the crap outta him"....  mmm, pleasant.

Excellent point Paige made regarding the deck surface.  I have that pebbly stuff and I hate it but nobody else ever seemed to mind it, so maybe it's just me.  You just need to make sure that whatever they use has a slightly rough texture and isn't real slick when it's wet because no matter how many times you yell at them about it, kids will run.  The only place I've ever seen those big screened in things is on HGTV when someone is house hunting in FL.  Maybe it's because of the difference in summer climate, but we just don't have those big flying critters out here. The whole thing took exactly 30 days from the time they came in with the bobcat to start digging the hole until the day we filled it, but they will totally tear up your whole yard ... and they'll leave it that way because their job isn't to put your yard back together, so have some good, simple landscaping plans in mind.

Joyce

Our pool is 20x 40 with an L.  It takes me about 45minutes once a week to clean it.  Chemicals i would estimate at $400 annually - tho that can escalate if you don't keep it up (preventing algae etc which requires additional chemicals and cost).    I also have someone open ($300) and close it ($350).  The big cost is probably electricity.  I pay on the budget plan - meaning i pay the same amount each month based upon the prior year's usage.  We don't have central air (tho use a room air conditioner on hot nights).  The pool's open for four months.  My electricity bill is currently $265 every month.

One other thought if i were to redo it.  I'd use pavers around the edge.  If it's concrete and cracks, it's expensive to fix.

yanke

One other thought if i were to redo it.  I'd use pavers around the edge.  If it's concrete and cracks, it's expensive to fix.

miranadobe

15+ years ago, my parents had an inground pool installed in our house in FL.  So, whatever my thoughts/experiences were are really outdated.  In FL, it's very typical to put a screened enclosure around the pool to keep leaves/palm fronts/etc out of the pool  Ours seemed to help, not to mention some of the bug issues.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

The only place I've ever seen those big screened in things is on HGTV when someone is house hunting in FL.  Maybe it's because of the difference in summer climate, but we just don't have those big flying critters out here.

My foster family built a house w/ pool in Florida 10 years ago and were required to have it screened in because of alligators.