Recently my wife and I decided to have a swimming pool installed in our back yard. We have a small windfall from a house that we flipped and recently sold. I guess the extra cash is burning a hole in our pockets, but that is another post for another day. Ask me about the flipped house though, if you want, and I will gladly spill the beans...
Neither of us has ever owned a swimming pool. Even as children if I wanted a dip, I had to go to the gym where we were members. My wife lived near the Cajun Riviera, (Holly Beach, Louisiana) so her swimming pool was the Gulf of Mexico. Anyway, both of us are newbies at this, so we are doing our homework. And luckily we have a few resources to look to for good up-to-date information. We have some friends that have recently added new pools and we asked for their advice. What we learned was really helpful, so I thought it might shed some light for others looking at buying a new pool.
Does A Pool Help Or Hurt A Homes Value
First, we've all heard that adding a swimming pool to your home does not help the overall value of your home. I happen to disagree with that statement, simply because I would pay more for the same home if it had a swimming pool over one that did not. Maybe I am the only one in the entire market that feels that way, what do I know. But according to our friend Keith, a swimming pool can add value to your home. Keith and family started their pool the same day they moved into the newly built house in our subdivision. He said that he had the house appraised after the pool was put in and was told that his house value did increase because of the pool. So I believe that in our area and neighborhood pools do add value to your home. This is probably because of the need to escape the sweltering heat that lasts from early summer to well into fall. The case may be different though in areas where the summer heat is less intense or does not last as long. In this area, you can usually expect to get 4-5 months out of your pool each year. I imagine in the more northerly areas the time frame is less, so many people don't want them.
Adding A Built In Hot Tub
Both of our friends added a built in hot tub with their pool. Ron and family regrets adding it, Keith likes the tub but seemed indifferent. They kind of tub that both added is the one that is built by the pool company and sits right next to the pool. You know, the kind that spills into the pool from a notch in the side. They are usually built using the same material as the pool and look really nice. During the summer the water is great because the sun keeps it warm. But according to our friend Ron, during the winter their hot tub takes 45 minutes to heat up. Plus they said that the number and placement of the jets that were installed are not to their liking. They felt like they could have gotten a better deal by just buying a pre-made hot tub, where the seats are contoured to a sitting position and the jets are placed in all the right places. Also with a pre-built tub, you can leave the lid on and let the water stay hot all the time. So anytime you want to hop in, you can just take the top off and enter. According to the company we are dealing with, a built-in hot tub would add around $6000.00 to the price of the pool.
Size And Shape
For the size of the pool we are opting for the biggest we can buy and afford. You pick the size of your pool by how many feet it is from the deep end to the shallow end. Our pool company allows you to choose from 30, 32, 36, 38 and 40 foot pools. We are going with the 38 foot pool. According to our sales person, each foot more in length costs about $1500.00. Your pool can come in a variety of shapes. If you can imagine it they can probably design it. Our salesperson had 40 or so small pool templates we could look at. We found that the more shapely/curvey the pool the less volume and width it seemed to have. In the end we decided to go with a pool the in shape of a paisley, for lack of a better way to describe it. So our pool will be 38 feet end to end and 22 feet from side to side. I think that it will at least give the illusion of being large.
Negotiating On Pricing
Our friends also told us to negotiate on pricing. Usually the first price you are quoted is not the price you should pay. Feel free to shop around too, getting more than one bid allows you to work one against the other. Ron, had two bids for the same setup that were nearly $10,000.00 different.
This is pretty much where we stopped. I will add another post as we move onto phase two. The post will include information on LED lighting, adding a Gratto, my thoughts on the layout of the deck, and the use of saltwater in the pool. Phase 3 will consist of doing the contract and getting started with the project.
The image to the left is a design that I did to illustrate to our sales person what I am looking for.