Add a Glacier chiller and all set!

We've had ours for 2 years now. The only PIA is leaves, but it comes and goes pretty quick.

I think the level of maintenance required depends on what kind of pool you put in. Ours auto cleans (without the robot thing) so all I need to do is check chemicals and brush the bottom to the drain if it gets a heavy load of dirt or something. Basket clean about once a week.

We opted for a chiller rather than a heater. With the blue pebble texture, it does get warm in July and August. We also opted out of a hot tub and just went with a larger pool. 18 x 32 x 8ft deep in the middle.

I'm not sure I really noticed a huge change in our electricity bill since we added it.

It was $$$, but I'm hoping that money upfront has reduced $$ in the long run.

If you can afford it and think you'll enjoy it. Do it!

Ya they are the pits

Had a pool my entire childhood. I was the official pool boy. As an adult, I LOVE having a neighborhood pool at the end of our street instead. However, I constantly get pulled into helping with my in-laws pool tho.

All that said, it 100% depends on usage, which that in our life changed over time. More when kids were younger, a lot less once approached college years.

A lot of justification on here!

I'll get some estimates.

Any recommendations?

We have three people in our neighborhood who have filled in their pools and made a nice backyard out of it.

Southlake said:

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A lot of justification on here!

I'll get some estimates.

Ant recommendations?

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Location?

a pool is like a boat....for every hour of enjoyment you get out of it...you'll put in hours and hours of work. if you're ok with the enjoyment/work ratio....then do it. if not...then don't. I used to be ok with it when my kids were younger (more importantly when I was younger) but these days not so much.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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Southlake said:

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A lot of justification on here!

I'll get some estimates.

Ant recommendations?

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Location?

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Southlake.

I'd be happy to throw my hat in the ring but I don't do work over there yet. Most of my work is the west side of Fort Worth. Feel free to reach out if you'd like, I can at least give you a ballpark on a design and answer any questions you might have.

Corps.ag12@gmail.com

Some of the larger companies would be a good place to start. A lot of them have fancy showrooms with tile and stone and plaster displays, they want you to make selections while you're doing your free design consultation. My showroom is at my shop but it's small. I'll typically deliver samples to the customers home that they select after we've contracted.

I'd recommend Claffey Pools. I haven't heard bad things so that's always a good start.

J Caldwell builds over there too. I think it's luck of the draw on supervision but I've heard stories of some people having to pester them to show up and do the work and then the homeowner having to tell the crews what to do and where to put stuff because there's not supervision. Other people have been extremely pleased with their work.

Adventure Custom Pools is similar to my company and they way I build. It's owned by the father of the guy that owns the plaster company I use for my pools. I think he only builds a small number of pools each year though.

Aggie_wes is repeating all of the same lines you've heard before.

But one thing I don't agree on is his claim that putting a pool in doesn't add value. Thats not entirely true post covid.

If you live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood and you put a nice pool in, you will absolutely get a good ROI on it. Anything short of high demand house+high demand neighborhood will leave you footing the bill though.

In my neighborhood, if you've got a 30 year old pool your house commands about a 50-60k premium. The one dude who put in a stinking nice pool with a nice, large, well thought out covered patio paid 120k for it and got all of it back when he sold a few years later (and all of that was pre-covid).

Its not a forgone conclusion that pool=bad for home values. BUT I would add there is current disconnect between home prices and concrete/labor prices for a pool. I've started to have handymen reach back out to me asking for work in this slow down, but pool builders costs/profits are still too much for me right now.

nm

I live in OPs neighborhood and we built our own pool in 2020 because I got tired of going to that gross one up front of the subdivision. Yes for the most part it's empty, but there was always bandaids, crazy ants everywhere, nasty bathrooms, and trash. Only time it's pretty much not empty is when they let the local kids swim team use it twice a week. Then there's 100 people there that don't live in our own neighborhood and don't care to maintain it, hence all the trash and nasty bathrooms.

Just pull the trigger. You'll be happy you did.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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I live in OPs neighborhood and we built our own pool in 2020 because I got tired of going to that gross one up front of the subdivision. Yes for the most part it's empty, but there was always bandaids, crazy ants everywhere, nasty bathrooms, and trash. Only time it's pretty much not empty is when they let the local kids swim team use it twice a week. Then there's 100 people there that don't live in our own neighborhood and don't care to maintain it, hence all the trash and nasty bathrooms.

Just pull the trigger. You'll be happy you did.

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We go there all the time and it's very nice and clean. Bathrooms are clean. There's rarely more than 5 people in the water.

That being said, we decided we're going to put in a small soaker pool with a gazebo next month.

Love our pool. We use it all the time in the summer. It brings people over and brings the family together. You have a beer or two, you cook some burgers, everyone floats around ... it's fun.

If I ever moved, I would not build another one just because of the cost today. But we built ours 17 years ago, and we've definitely gotten our money's worth.

Glad to see they've got someone taking better care of it these days.

Congrats on decision.

I don't understand how/why people are spending hundreds of dollars a month to maintain their pool. My first pool I owned 10 years, new one 8 years now and I rarely have to do anything other than throw 2-3 chlorine tabs in the skimmer basket a week ($20-$30 a month). My new pool, after the initial installation, I haven't added anything other than chlorine.

Now that robotic pool cleaners are a thing I don't have to brush the sides, just the tops of the steps, but in pool season just the kids playing does that. Weekly I dump the skimmer baskets and pool cleaner bag, toss in the chlorine tabs, takes 5 minutes. I disassemble and clean my cartridge filter once a year, that takes about an hour.

Only downside is my kids want to play in it all the time. They're little so they constantly are climbing on me, wanting me to throw them, watch them jump, so it's not at all relaxing, but they're having fun.

htxag09 said:

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nm

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Don't you worry. I read it before you deleted it. I can't remember what you wrote, but I remember being aghast, insulted, but also captivated by your argument.

You are mostly right though. Buying a pool with the idea that you'll get good ROI on it is right up there with 'go to college to get a good job'. The general sentiment has some truth but also a lot of pitfalls.

I spent some time on HAR yesterday because of all of the naysayers but I've still come to the same conclusion as I have before.

In my general neighborhood the delta between my house and the 'dream house' my wife wants is about 400k. That would be a home with an extra bedroom, a nice backyard patio, and a pool.

Guess how much all of that would cost if I didn't lift a finger, had it all added to my house via contractor. Around 300-400k.

If I search and take the pool option out, it drops about a 100k off the house search and a 100k of the improvement price.

Much to my wife's chagrin I am a big DIYer so she'll be getting all of these things for 50% off at 300% increase in timeline.

Kids love pools, Kids don't take care of pools, Kids do move out and away pretty fast. This leaves you with taking care of something for eternity.

Skip the pool and turf the back yard.

RC_57 said:

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I'll sum up my thoughts on one by stating….

You come dig ours up you can have it.

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I'll do you one better. I'll dig mine up and deliver it to you for $12.

I'll just say if you are in a neighborhood that has 100% ROI on a pool, that is extremely rare.

I'd guess a really good ROI on a pool in most neighborhoods is like 40%.

You can't really argue the simple point that a pool shrinks your buyer pool, pun intended. You have people who don't want a pool. You have people who want a pool but don't like the design you went with, or size you went with, etc.

Hell, even things like kitchen remodels don't have 100% ROI. If I'm paying the full price of the updates (or a pool) I'd rather do it myself and pick my own finishes....

And to reiterate my thoughts....none of this is really relevant. If you want a pool, get it. But getting it because you think it'll be a good ROI is probably not very smart.....

I'll give my pros and cons as a pool owner and as an appraiser.

Pros
1. It makes being outside in 100+ degree weather enjoyable. Also creates a great view.
2. Way better than hauling everything to the HOA pool.
3. My neighborhood has several pools. I bet I could sell my house today and recoup most of the cost.
4. Salt water pool...so easy to maintain. Its the way to go for sure.

Cons
1. We have Cedar Elms all around us...leaves can be unreal in the fall.
2. Added cost. I will say, I think most people run their pumps at too high of an RPM and that jacks up their electric bill.
3. Added maintenance, but outside of the fall, its not even an hour per week. Again, go salt water pool. Also, robot vacuum cleaners.
4. If you don't use it, you have a very expensive hole in the ground.

Love our pool. Like most said, I'm in it at least three times a week. Girlfriend maybe once a week. Something about getting her hair wet??? My sister brings her kids over every weekend and it's a blast. I can't wait to watch football while floating in the pool. I'm on year one, so we will see if the novelty wears off. But I'm very happy with it as of now.

this guy Datelines.

If you DO get a pool, don't get a weird shaped one, unless it's pretty big. I swim 3 days a week for 1.5 hours each time. But the pool at our house has a weird shape so it's not really good for laps (or anything), so I swim at the aquatic center. I do ALL the cleaning, all the work, all the chemicals, everything...but have probably been in our backyard pool a total of 30 minutes in 10 years, even though I swim a ton every single week. It was fine when others were using it, but now they don't so it's just really frustrating every time I go out to clean it.

One thing a few of our friends with pools agree on, the cost of drinks, snacks, and I'll add toys (goggles etc…), floats and towels.

This cost far exceeds cost of pool chemicals. Kids friends will come over and really put a dent in these things. I always wonder why kids that are invited over never think to bring a towel? Maybe mine didn't before we had a pool, I honestly don't remember. Some of these towels don't stay at your home. On the flip side we probably do inherit towels so maybe towels are a wash.

But the real thing is drinks and snacks. You will likely disproportionally have kids at your house when you have a pool. Be prepared to basically watch a drinking/eating contest of kids chugging soda and eating your snacks. This really adds up fast

Maybe not something you will see when your kids are little but man, when they get to that age. It will start to bug me but I remind myself I'm just glad they're hanging out here so I let it go

Was hot as hell today….even in the pool….

Costco & Sam's are your friend for bulk cheap snacks

Even with all of the maintenance and costs this is the exact reason we put in a pool... They are at our house with their friends, not someplace else doing who knows what.

RoyVal,

If you've got a super hot pool, putting in water feature that circulates the water with air helps a ton through evaporative cooling. Even those simple shooting water fountains help a lot. They make a dedicated pool chiller as well but I've never seen one in person. I think I found out about it here on Texags on your annual summer pool thread.

https://glacierpoolcoolers.com/

Its basically a mini cooling tower. Mix finely distributed water and air and the water will cool off.

one MEEN Ag said:

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RoyVal,

If you've got a super hot pool, putting in water feature that circulates the water with air helps a ton through evaporative cooling. Even those simple shooting water fountains help a lot. They make a dedicated pool chiller as well but I've never seen one in person. I think I found out about it here on Texags on your annual summer pool thread.

https://glacierpoolcoolers.com/

Its basically a mini cooling tower. Mix finely distributed water and air and the water will cool off.

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I misspoke. I thought you were referring to those things that shoot the water in the air. Yea…I absolutely need a glacier pool cooler!

RoyVal said:

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one MEEN Ag said:

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RoyVal,

If you've got a super hot pool, putting in water feature that circulates the water with air helps a ton through evaporative cooling. Even those simple shooting water fountains help a lot. They make a dedicated pool chiller as well but I've never seen one in person. I think I found out about it here on Texags on your annual summer pool thread.

https://glacierpoolcoolers.com/

Its basically a mini cooling tower. Mix finely distributed water and air and the water will cool off.

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I'm familiar with them and they don't help much. (Speaking from experience)

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What are your thoughts on drilling a geothermal loop a couple hundred feet in the ground for pool cooling.

one MEEN Ag said:

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RoyVal said:

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one MEEN Ag said:

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RoyVal,

If you've got a super hot pool, putting in water feature that circulates the water with air helps a ton through evaporative cooling. Even those simple shooting water fountains help a lot. They make a dedicated pool chiller as well but I've never seen one in person. I think I found out about it here on Texags on your annual summer pool thread.

https://glacierpoolcoolers.com/

Its basically a mini cooling tower. Mix finely distributed water and air and the water will cool off.

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I'm familiar with them and they don't help much. (Speaking from experience)

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What are your thoughts on drilling a geothermal loop a couple hundred feet in the ground for pool cooling.

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I edited my previous response. A glacier cooler would work perfectly. Just need to pay the man and get it done ha!