Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to join a pool club.

That at least is worth a look see.

In the end, do what makes you happy. A few buyers (like us) will not buy a house in this area that has a pool.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't have a pool I couldn't use year round and I would have a screen enclosure.

Agree. It's kind of a waste to have it in an area where you can only use it for a few months each year. I had zero interest in having a pool when we lived in NOVA. We now live in the SW, where pools are extremely common, and we use ours or at least the hot tub year-round. We don't have a screen enclosure but there are very few flying bugs here.

I wouldn't have a pool I couldn't use year round and I would have a screen enclosure.

I love swimming so I get this. My only issue is that there are going to be so many mosquitos that it may not be possible to hang out by the pool. That makes it a lot less appealing to me.

Anonymous wrote:How much does it cost to heat a pool using natural gas? How long does the heated water last- just for that one day only?

For us it’s about $5/hr for the extra gas to heat the pool (16x28). It takes a few hours to heat the pool from 50 ish degrees to swimmable (high 70s). We rarely heat the pool but use the hot tub year round. Hot tub takes about an hour to heat.

Heated pool will start cooling the minute you turn the heater off depending on air temp. Definitely cold overnight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to join a pool club.

This. My neighbors have an in-ground pool and the pool maintenance company is over there all the time. I often wonder if they make more money on pool maintenance than on installing the pool.

And just to be clear, their maintenance is NOT adding the chemicals and running the Ph tests. It is all the pool machinery and gizmos that are making the pool company rich.

What in the hell are you talking about? It's a pump and a simple filter. Pools are so much less work than people claim. It's truly bizarre when people start trashing them. Is it jealosy?

Completely agree. We maintain our own pool. Pump and everything else. We knew nothing about pools going in. It’s really not that complicated. We’ve even fixed a malfunctioning heater with You Tube and a $12 part. I spend 2 min every few days throwing chemicals in. An hour or two every few months to change the pump filter. It’s really not as hard as people make it out to be

How recently did you put it in, and how long from idea to completion was the project?

2022; Met with builders in February, swimming in August.

Solar panels just for the pool? We have them on our house, but I assume you mean a separate array?

We have a a Natural Gas Heater. I've never seen the solar pool heater you see on rooftops in Florida in the area. I would not have a pool without a heater here. Depending on the weather we get between 4-8 weeks of additional use each year being able to heat. We typically open in April and close in October.

Could you share any ballpark figures about the annual maintenance costs?

We budget around $6K year; that's for opening/ closing and weekly maintenance & chemicals. Long term maintenance items on the horizon include replacement of the salt cell, winter safety cover, and automatic cover. Eventually all pools need to be replastered which is five figure project. We haven't had to make any repairs but pumps, heater, lights certainly can break and need repair.

If you were doing it again, what would you do differently? (Lessons learned...)

Automatic Cover, Salt System, and Heater are worth every penny. Water features/ bubblers/ etc. are a waste.

We had our pool installed in 2022; its both the best and most frivolous money we ever spent. The build processes is long, messy, and chaotic. As a relative that works in the industry always says: "Everyone eventually hates their pool builder."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice would be to join a pool club.

This. My neighbors have an in-ground pool and the pool maintenance company is over there all the time. I often wonder if they make more money on pool maintenance than on installing the pool.

And just to be clear, their maintenance is NOT adding the chemicals and running the Ph tests. It is all the pool machinery and gizmos that are making the pool company rich.

What in the hell are you talking about? It's a pump and a simple filter. Pools are so much less work than people claim. It's truly bizarre when people start trashing them. Is it jealosy?

Do you have a really small pool? We had a beautiful extremely large pool with an elongated kidney shape, diving board with deep end, fountain etc. The shape didn’t really allow for a cover. The electronic robot cleaner thing could never keep up with the leaves and critters that would drown in the pool. I was constantly rinsing the filters, keeping algae at bay and I hated it! Kids loved it.

Hi OP! So excited you're considering putting in a pool. We absolutely love ours. The builder of our pool also maintains it which has been great. They said we are by far the people who use it the most out of all their customers they have built/maintain pools for.

How recently did you put it in, and how long from idea to completion was the project?
Ours was completed March 2023. They started digging the hole to begin construction in November 2022. I think our first meeting with the builder to begin discussions about our vision and budget etc was in March 2022.

Could you share any ballpark figures about the annual maintenance costs?
We keep our pool open year-round bc I like swimming laps even in winter. We use natural gas to heat it. We also pay for maintenance year-round. I'd say probably 10-12k annually (this includes the cost for heating it, running it, maintenance year-round, etc). The total cost of the pool all in (including landscaping and the patio and fire pit etc that were all a part of the pool build)was about 350k I'd say. Our pool is also unusually large bc I love to swim laps. It's about 50 by 25 feet rectangle.

It has been worth every penny for us. We have a 3 year old and 8 year old. We use it every single day from May-October. We love hosting pool parties (we just bump up the heat) on random 80 degree days we get in October and November and March and April. We swam on Christmas Day 2023 bc it was sunny and the high was in the 50s and we bumped the heater up to 90 degrees. Priceless memories made.

I hope this helps! I will come back and post again once I discuss/confirm the maintenance costs with my husband. I was just estimating.

Don't do it. Use the money instead to join a club. Preferably, the one your kids' friends would belong to.

How much does it cost to heat a pool using natural gas? How long does the heated water last- just for that one day only?

We love our saltwater pool. The construction process was just as chaotic as the builder promised and my backyard looked like a war zone for a long time. However, the finished product was worth it and it's been great having our own pool to share with friends and family.

JUST DONT. Unless you are mega rich

In this area, unlike Florida for example, a pool is a luxury and not that common. Just go into it thinking that way.

We moved from solar heating to gas heating, because the solar heating neded a lot of maintenance (it's a bunch of pipes on the roof) and that maintenance is difficult. Our pool main company didn't go up on the roof, and our roofer didn't know how the thing worked. Much happier we switched to gas.

In this area, there's just a handful of pool companies, so you're subject to their schedule. It could be 6+ months to get in their schedule.