Outdoor swimming pool (in your garden)

Carole

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
Does anyone have their own pool or have experience/knowledge of owning one?

We have always had it in mind that one day we would downsize and buy a smaller property but something is about to come on the market round the corner from us and we went to look at it yesterday.
We knew most of the layout of the house as the sellers are friends of ours but we went to look with different eyes.

It really is the most gorgeous, beautiful house, very individual, it has lots of lovely features with wonderful views.
(Some expense needed on new bathrooms/en suite and perhaps extending the bedroom, or knocking two bedrooms into one)

The outside has a decking area, pool, hot tub, outside bar area...it is just fantastic for entertaining.
I could so see myself in the house and garden.

However, when I asked how much it cost to run the pool and he gave me the figures for his monthly gas/electric it was £90 more than what we are paying now.

As the house is smaller than ours, I can only imagine that the extra expense is the pool and hot tub.

The idea of downsizing (ready for retirement! ) was to reduce bills .

So, if you have a pool... How much does it cost to run and is it worth it?
 
flossietoo

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
It's not just the heating. Unless you are a fairly confident chemist you will need someone to clean the pool, test the water and adjust chemicals. Ideally, weekly.

Then, periodically, despite your best efforts, it will go as green as the Rio diving pool. It may leak, alarmingly. The heating will fail. And if the pump breaks it will cost a fortune to fix.

Your heart will skip a beat as you peer at an ominous shape on the bottom of the pool, breathing "Don't let it be a rat. Please don't let it be a rat". If it is a rat, the whole thing will have to be drained and sterilised. If it is a bunch of leaves, the maintenance people will laugh at you.

You would also need to ensure that your insurers know about the pool and that you are covered in case of accident.

And yes. Totally worth it.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
flossietoo said:
Your heart will skip a beat as you peer at an ominous shape on the bottom of the pool, breathing "Don't let it be a rat. Please don't let it be a rat". If it is a rat, the whole thing will have to be drained and sterilised. If it is a bunch of leaves, the maintenance people will laugh at you.
Click to expand...
But, frogs and newts are OK?
 
flossietoo

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
No.
Very far from OK.
The worst ones feign death, to make you scream when you fish them out.
The thing in favour of frogs and newts is that they don't carry Weil's disease.
 
Carole

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
flossietoo said:
you will need someone to clean the pool, test the water and adjust chemicals. Ideally weekly.
Totally worth it.
Click to expand...

I know about this bit because I have seen it on films.

I lie around in my bikini with a cocktail and then a gorgeous young tanned person, in micro shorts, comes once a week and puts a long stick thing in the pool, waves it around a bit in the water and all is wonderful.
Yes totally worth it.

flossietoo said:
Then, periodically, despite your best efforts, it will go as green as the Rio diving pool. It may leak, alarmingly. The heating will fail. And if the pump breaks it will cost a fortune to fix.
. Totally worth it.
Click to expand...

Don't like the sound of this bit.
Might it happen on a pool of only 4 years old?
 
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flossietoo

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
Oh Carole, that's EXACTLY what our lovely and very clever pool man looks like.

Exactly.

Except that he suffers extremely bad health and unfortunately, at the moment, can only wear slippers.

*I mean that's all he can wear on his feet, not that he turns up in nothing but slippers.

**Oh God. At this time of night that image is going to be with me until morning.
 
flossietoo

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
Re the breakdowns, I don't know.

Our pool was installed in 1997, judging by what's scratched in the Tarmac. When we moved in, four years ago, we didn't touch the pool, liner or surround but engaged in some very costly work to lay new pipes, fit new heating and its own boiler.

Honestly, never do the sums.

If you were contemplating starting from scratch to create a new pool, I'd recommend the cheaper option of piling every penny you own into a big wheelbarrow and incinerating the lot.

But if it's there already, you can swim while the birds fly, watch the clouds and feel like the luckiest person alive.
 
Carole

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
The pool is not huge and was only installed 4 years ago so hopefully things still working ok.

It was the running costs that bothered me.
 
basil

basil

don't mention the blinds
Carole said:
I know about this bit because I have seen it on films.

I lie around in my bikini with a cocktail and then a gorgeous young tanned person, in micro shorts, comes once a week and puts a long stick thing in the pool, waves it around a bit in the water and all is wonderful.
Yes totally worth it.



Don't like the sound of this bit.
Might it happen on a pool of only 4 years old?
Click to expand...

For a small fee I am prepared to don a pair of micro shorts, and wave a long stick thing in the 'pool area' if Wednesday afternoon is doable then I can come once a week......
 
hop

hop

Well-Known Forumite
Carole said:
The pool is not huge and was only installed 4 years ago so hopefully things still working ok.

It was the running costs that bothered me.
Click to expand...

If you are bothered about costs and yourself / husband are not practical then I would probably forget about it. The current cost of constructing a typical 10x5 pool is 60k including equipment so keep this figure in mind when it gets down to running / maintenance. In a way its like buying a second hand luxury car like a Range Rover. Sure you can buy one second hand for 15k but if anything goes wrong the replacement parts are not cheap and labour is specialised and given owners of pools are generally wealthy you will experience price gouging.

Having said that it is hard to give a complete answer since there are many variables, such as the aspect of the pool, construction type and thermostat setting and local climate. Most people I know set the thermostat to around 27 which you will find cold when you first enter but after swimming a length will get acclimatised to.

If the pool is constructed of breeze blocks and a vinyl liner then the liner will need replacing after 15-20 years. Additionally if you have pH issues the underground pipes will corrode and leak and then need to dig everything up.

We have a 10m x 5m pool which holds 60,000 litres of water.

It is heated which an air source heat pump which is run on economy 7. The heat pump uses 3kw of power (but due to the way a heat pump works outputs 12kw of heat) and the circulation and filtration system uses about 500w.

At the start of the season it takes around 3 days to get the pool up to temperature which costs about £20 in electricity since everything is running constantly. After the initial heat up the temperature is maintained using 7 hours of heat input over night which costs £1 a day. I don't live in Stafford and checking weather stations notice that typically it is a minimum of 5c warmer where I live than Stafford so my running costs will probably not be indicative.

In terms of cleaning the pool we have a robot cleaner which moves around the walls and floors and removes any debris, in addition the pool is a salt water pool which has a device called a promatic which converts common salt (NaCl) to chlorine to kill and algae. We have an automatic pneumatic cover which is secured to the deck and will carry the weight of a horse. The cover being opaque prevents issues with algae blooms which you will most likely experience if you use a bubble wrap cover but above all is safe since kids can not climb over a fence and have an accident, a child walking across it is no problem.
 
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wmrcomputers

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
I've been keeping an above ground pool for the last 2 years. A far different scale I know but I might be able to give you some pointers....

Running costs - To be honest that £90 gas is fairly realistic. If they keep the pool open to lose heat, then you could save money by utilising a pool solar cover. This is like bubblewrap (usually blue) that floats on the water. My above ground pool only uses this and in good weather can reach temperatures of around 30C with no gas or electric heating whatsoever. HOWEVER they're a complete danger aspect if the pool is in ground as they are a drown hazzard if someone falls onto it. Alternatively you can get solar rings like these which help too and are far safer. If you bought enough to cover as much as the pool surface as possible, I would hazzard a guess that it would save you AT LEAST 30% off the heating bill if not more.

Are they leaving the pool heater on the go 24/7? If it's a powerful enough heater to bring the temperature back up in several hours, then you could use the option to keep it off all week and switch it on Friday morning so that the pool is for use only at weekends.

Chemistry next. It's not too difficult to learn, but it does require attention more often than you might think. I adjust mine every 2 days usually. The past week I have been busier than usual, and now I have teal water that I've had to superchlorinate to fix the problem, which in turn means that the pool now can't be used until the chlorine has dropped to a safe level. It's not just Chlorine either, it's FREE chlorine. Then there's combined chlorine, algaecides, PH and Alkalinity adjustment - and because of your expensive pool equipment you're going to need to worry about water hardness aswell. Oh, and also Cyanuric acid (stabiliser) aswell.

Have I scared you yet??
 
wmrcomputers

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
@hop beat me to some even better answers. I forgot he has an inground pool. Although the solar covers don't create algae blooms, so I have to disagree with that part. Free chlorine is key to everything - even in a salt water pool. As soon as you hit 0 you're in trouble no matter what.
 
wmrcomputers

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
I forgot to say @hop, I'm planning on converting to salt water next year to cover my "busy weeks", so will let you know how I get on ;)
 
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