My husband and I are considering purchasing a home with an in ground pool. Neither one of us have any idea what the upkeep is on having one. Can you give me an idea of what all is involved in maintaining one and the problems that can arise. Also is it better to have someone else service it instead of doing it yourself? Thanks for any input.
Hi Caroline,
I don't have a pool, but my parents got one right after my sister and I both moved out and we still give 'em heck, just kidding. Anyways, their's has a crazy filter station on the side of their house that's supposed to reduce the amount of chlorine needed. Since my parents aren't the best about the upkeep of other things, they didn't keep up with their pool and now they have problems. They should have hired a service, imo.
If I were you, I'd see if the realtor can give you all the info on the pool and filter and then call some pool service companies near the new house and just start pricing and also asking lots of questions. Most places will be happy to sell you the chemicals and accessories if you want to do it yourself. You could probably keep it up yourself if you are the kind of people who keep up with other things like the service on your cars and your air filters for your furnace, etc. And if you start doing it yourself but it ends up being too much, you will already know which local service you want to use.
Best of luck!
Michelle
We had one at our first house. We hardly spent time in it at all however, we spent a lot of time cleaning it and making sure the water was ok. We went to a pool supply store and had water tested routinely.
We are contemplating putting one it at our homme now. I am still on the fence because I know I will be the one cleaning it.
I'm not much for paying services to do something I can do myself unless it is truly warranted for some reason.
Time-$$
We have an inground pool in our house, it is our first house, we have a 21 month old, and we love it! We have lived in the house for nearly 4 years and yes we have had to spend some money on the pool, but it was well worth it. We had to replace our filter about a year after moving in, but the previous filter was very inefficient and the pipe work was too. We found a reliable and inexpensive pool guy through another friend with a pool, and we used him to maintain little issues that came up here and there. During the warm months as long as you keep chlorine and any other chemicals needed in the water it should run itself in a sense. We buy the water test kits and test the water our self, but you can go to the pool stores and have them do it. We have a polaris that cleans the bottom and walls, we have palm trees in our back yard so we only get leaves from the neighbors, and we just try our best to keep it maintained. It has been so much fun for all of our family and friends to come over and hang out with us, and what a great way to beat the heat in our summer months!
Good luck with your decision!!