How Much Does it Cost to Maintain a Pool? You’ll Be Surprised

The fluctuating temperatures between spring and summer are one of the reasons people who can afford it try to buy a house with a swimming pool in it these days. The luxurious ones come with lounge chairs and a vast grilling area in case you’re going to have your friends come around for a little pool party.

If you can easily maintain a great-looking pool, the hot summers would bring you more friends than you can handle. Have you been thinking about owning a pool? Do you know how badly owning and maintaining a swimming pool would hit your bank account or budget?

If you’re so curious, well, you can’t afford not to read through this informative piece.

Besides being a means of entertainment for as long as you own it, a swimming pool can also be a form of investment. However, you need to understand that if you revamp your home’s kitchen or bathroom, you might have more resale value than if you renovate the swimming pool. Despite this, swimming pools can cost much money for maintenance.
According to Sabine H., who is a home improvement professional, “swimming pools don’t add value to homes for some folks. Some people love swimming pools; some people just don’t value it much.”

You’re not about to take everything the experts say hook, line, and sinker, are you? Making a few types of research is paramount for knowing not just the immediate costs of owning, maintaining and remodeling a swimming pool, but how much you would be spending in the next 5 to 20 years and above as the case may be. Owning a pool might be your dream – you would want to know exactly what you wish for.

So How Much Does It Cost To Own A Pool?

how much does it cost to maintain a pool

Pools are beautiful features in real estate, but they aren’t common everywhere if you own a pool in areas where indoor pools aren’t the norm, finding someone to sell it to might be a dreadful task.

Town zoning authorities require that swimming pools have fences, cleaning nets, thermometers, landscaping, and several accessories. If we ignore these costs, a standard in-ground swimming pool costs around $29,660 on average.

If you care about these add-ons, you should be aware of spending a few thousands of dollars more than the average price of a swimming pool.

Besides buying the pool, you would have to pay for installation, which can get a massive chunk from your bank account. Going forward, you will have to pay for weekly and monthly maintenance consistently, especially in buying chemicals to stabilize the chlorine contents of your pool water and keeping it from going acidic or highly alkaline.

Quoting Wall Street Journal, “recurring expenses such as swimming pool cleaning equipment and chemical purchases are quite underestimated, but they cost around $800 annually.” According to HomeAdvisor, other expenses include weekly payments for vacuuming, pool filters, skimming, and several other recurrent works on the pool.

Maybe you might want to do these activities yourself, but they take up so much time, which you may not have. So most times, pool maintenance is outsourced to professionals who will have to be paid. Some Realtors say that outsourcing pool maintenance jobs to professionals can cost around $50 to $120 monthly – yet the price varies depending on where you are based. However, to be sure, you should do some research online and find out how much pool maintenance professionals charge in your area before going on to install one.

If your swimming pool is new, you may not have to replace any equipment in the initial year, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include equipment replacement in the long term. According to a story recounted to CNN Money by a pool owner, he spent an annual estimate of $1000 for replacing his pool equipment, $2500 for pool resurfacing after 11 years, and $600 to replace the pool vacuum. Even in regions where pools aren’t open all year round, closing and reopening for the season by the professionals would cost at least $500. How about the electric heaters and pumps? Those require extra costs of up to $100 monthly.

A Swimming Pool Has Insurance Liabilities

Insurance companies literally ‘loathe’ pools! I mean, how else can you explain the increased and recurring insurance costs you’re expected to pay as the owner of a home with a backyard pool?

According to Zach Investment Research, a backyard swimming pool is an ‘attractive nuisance,’ which only draws the attention of your neighbors to want to jump in, which may result in severe injuries and eventual lawsuit. Furthermore, the insurance payment varies depending on the kind of pool and where it is located. In the south, where pools are common, insurance premiums on them increase dramatically while in the northern states where they are rare, the reverse is the case.

Often, swimming pool liability insurance can cost as much as $100,000. Real estate experts like Allstate and Zacks advise that a swimming pool liability coverage should be within $300,000 and $500,000 to secure your finances in the advent of someone getting severely wounded in your pool or on your property. This could increase your premium by an extra $75, at least (depending on where you live).

Furthermore, experts advise that you have to pay for an umbrella policy to cover pool-related accidents, and this policy covers up to $1 million in liabilities. However, your premium would be increased by at least $300. If you do broad research, you might get a better deal.

Finally…  

According to experts, the consistent annual swimming pool expenses going forward amounts to at least 15% of the initial price you pay for the swimming pool and its installment due to the fact that there would always be a need to remodel, repair or renovate. Therefore, mathematically, if you paid $30,000 for your pool, you’re going to be spending $3000 to $4500 annually.

After the price considerations, do you still want to have a swimming pool? If you think you can, then go for it. If you consider it bad for your budget, you’re probably right – a pool membership might just do the trick (Haha).

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