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Pool? or NO pool?

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Deal Addict
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May 28, 2009
1544 posts
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Ottawa
CaptSmethwick wrote: Oh baby. ;) Heck, I did a good 30 laps just this afternoon (13C and raining but the pool was 79F)

As for gas pipe, we had to lay 100' of it and our heater is 400k BTUs - that requires one serious (and fairly expensive) pipe but there's truly nothing like it. :)
absolutely lovely Backyard. We go to a nearby house once in a while to take a dip and they have a solar panel installed on their roof for the heating I believe. I remember hearing that the initial cost was high but well worth it in the long run.
Deal Expert
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Aug 9, 2004
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Newmarket
Former pool owner here.
We bought a house with one about 7 yrs ago, thought it was really cool, but the amount of work/expense started to add up.
When we bought a cottage, the pool never got used. It became like a fancy car in your driveway that you have to wash every week, insure, maintain etc...but you never have time to drive. Addtionally, I liek a real warm pool...80deg +, but couldnt justify the expense of a gas heater (solar blanket is a joke from my experience...did little other than heat the top 3 inches and contribute to algae growth), so didnt really enjoy it that much.
every f-ing thing went wrong with it in the 5 yrs we owned it...liner, pump, filter, one of the buried pipes cracked,, etc.

So when we started looking for a new house, we insisted on one WITHOUT a pool.
That said, lots of ppl like homes with pools, so cant say it affected our resale more than any other personal preference in a house.

I think they can be great for ppl of a certain lifestyle...homebodies that like to constantly putter around the house, and already do tons of entertaining. we didnt find it attracted a lot of ppl over to our house at all...not nearly as much as a new big kitchen and home theater did.
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Nov 21, 2009
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CaptSmethwick wrote: We had a pool installed in 2004 and our backyard is essentially our cottage. We practically live outdoors in the summer (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) and we entertain a lot - and the pool is unquestionably the focal point. We also use the pool for exercise - ours is 20x40 and I'll do 40+ laps before I come to work. Last year, our first swim was April 5th and our last was November 15th - that's consistent with our use of the pool for recreation and exercise. If you're not of that mindset and/or just a toe-dipper, then your enthusiasm for a pool won't be nearly as great as ours. Heck, we've had swims with light snow falling.

Does a pool cost a lot to maintain? Absolutely. Sure, our out-of-pocket costs are minimal (I open and close it myself and salt/chems cost maybe $200/year and elec for the pump gas for the heater maybe $300-$400) but amortization costs must be considered (liners, heaters, pumps, and filters only last so long). Does it take maintenance time? Absolutely - probably 45 minutes/week (I clean my manually). Would we do it all over again if we could? Absolutely.

Here's our backyard:

[IMG]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/483 ... 3b40_b.jpg[/IMG]

nice backyard. doesn't it require a fence? I noticed in my subdivision all polls have extra fence. I would definitely have a pool if I had a big size lot as yours and total privacy
Deal Guru
Jun 7, 2005
10358 posts
1482 upvotes
Toronto
stealth wrote: Former pool owner here.
We bought a house with one about 7 yrs ago, thought it was really cool, but the amount of work/expense started to add up.
When we bought a cottage, the pool never got used. It became like a fancy car in your driveway that you have to wash every week, insure, maintain etc...but you never have time to drive. Addtionally, I liek a real warm pool...80deg +, but couldnt justify the expense of a gas heater (solar blanket is a joke from my experience...did little other than heat the top 3 inches and contribute to algae growth), so didnt really enjoy it that much.
every f-ing thing went wrong with it in the 5 yrs we owned it...liner, pump, filter, one of the buried pipes cracked,, etc.

So when we started looking for a new house, we insisted on one WITHOUT a pool.
That said, lots of ppl like homes with pools, so cant say it affected our resale more than any other personal preference in a house.

I think they can be great for ppl of a certain lifestyle...homebodies that like to constantly putter around the house, and already do tons of entertaining. we didnt find it attracted a lot of ppl over to our house at all...not nearly as much as a new big kitchen and home theater did.
Agree. kitchen and home theater can be used the entire year, so worth spending money on upgrading it.
Deal Guru
Jun 7, 2005
10358 posts
1482 upvotes
Toronto
CaptSmethwick wrote: We had a pool installed in 2004 and our backyard is essentially our cottage. We practically live outdoors in the summer (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) and we entertain a lot - and the pool is unquestionably the focal point. We also use the pool for exercise - ours is 20x40 and I'll do 40+ laps before I come to work. Last year, our first swim was April 5th and our last was November 15th - that's consistent with our use of the pool for recreation and exercise. If you're not of that mindset and/or just a toe-dipper, then your enthusiasm for a pool won't be nearly as great as ours. Heck, we've had swims with light snow falling.

Does a pool cost a lot to maintain? Absolutely. Sure, our out-of-pocket costs are minimal (I open and close it myself and salt/chems cost maybe $200/year and elec for the pump gas for the heater maybe $300-$400) but amortization costs must be considered (liners, heaters, pumps, and filters only last so long). Does it take maintenance time? Absolutely - probably 45 minutes/week (I clean my manually). Would we do it all over again if we could? Absolutely.

Here's our backyard:

[IMG]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/483 ... 3b40_b.jpg[/IMG]
Very nice ravine backyard. I am wondering how many people in GTA/GVA can have a house with backyard like this.
Deal Addict
Mar 5, 2011
1161 posts
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Kitchener
Great thread .
We have done the cottage thing . Boating from small to larger Cruisers . But the stressfull drives up north hardly make the short weekend worth it . Now with gas prices what they are a pool is looking like a great idea .
Interesting points thanks .
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Oct 12, 2007
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Winchester
vero95 wrote: nice backyard. doesn't it require a fence? I noticed in my subdivision all polls have extra fence. I would definitely have a pool if I had a big size lot as yours and total privacy

What you see is about 1/5 of an acre out of a 2.5 acre lot - the fence is obscured by the forest which itself makes up about 1.5 acres of our lot. We do indeed have total privacy - and fantastic neighbours!
Deal Guru
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Nov 21, 2009
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CaptSmethwick wrote: What you see is about 1/5 of an acre out of a 2.5 acre lot - the fence is obscured by the forest which itself makes up about 1.5 acres of our lot. We do indeed have total privacy - and fantastic neighbours!

I was talking about an additional fence around the pool that I think is mandatory in Mississauga
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Oct 12, 2007
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vero95 wrote: I was talking about an additional fence around the pool that I think is mandatory in Mississauga

Right. Well, the code in Ottawa hadn't required that when we got our permit in 2004 and my understanding is that, although a bylaw amendment to that effect was being considered around that time, the fencing requirements still haven't changed. We may yet have a bylaw change and, if we do, I hope that it won't be retroactive. :eek:
Deal Fanatic
Jan 16, 2003
6507 posts
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CaptSmethwick wrote: Oh baby. ;) Heck, I did a good 30 laps just this afternoon (13C and raining but the pool was 79F)

As for gas pipe, we had to lay 100' of it and our heater is 400k BTUs - that requires one serious (and fairly expensive) pipe but there's truly nothing like it. :)
And you're saying that it costs you only $400 in gas? How is that even possible? a 250k btu heater is about $2-3 in gas every hour and in my case it raises the pool temp by ~1 - 1.5C every hour. You can easily rack up a $1000+ gas bill for the summer if you're not careful. That said, I'm firing up my heater this Friday no matter what..
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Oct 12, 2007
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mart242 wrote: And you're saying that it costs you only $400 in gas? How is that even possible? a 250k btu heater is about $2-3 in gas every hour and in my case it raises the pool temp by ~1 - 1.5C every hour. You can easily rack up a $1000+ gas bill for the summer if you're not careful. That said, I'm firing up my heater this Friday no matter what..

a) I use the gas supply rate (without all the other assorted Enbridge charges) - it's currently $.12/m3. I concede that this doesn't give a full picture but it works for me... :confused:
b) I'm convinced that larger heaters are more efficient because they don't need a lot of lead time to heat up - a period during which the cool air/ground is sucking the heat out of the pool - ours is 400k BTU and uses approx. 10-11 m3/hr when it's on (or roughly $1.50/hr.)
c) We like to swim at temps in the high 70s and our heater is barely used from early June to early September while we use our solar blanket religiously throughout the season. In the early spring and late fall, we need to plan our swims (because of the need to heat the water), so we are not in there absolutely every day. Our practice, though, is to turn it on and swim from Friday to Monday during those months. During these times, the heater is on for maybe 3-6 hours/week on average - or roughly about $10/week. When we let it fall back too far, it can indeed be double that rate - but even so, we're not talking hundreds.

Or is my math messed up?
Deal Fanatic
Jan 16, 2003
6507 posts
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CaptSmethwick wrote: a) I use the gas supply rate (without all the other assorted Enbridge charges) - it's currently $.12/m3. I concede that this doesn't give a full picture but it works for me... :confused:
b) I'm convinced that larger heaters are more efficient because they don't need a lot of lead time to heat up - a period during which the cool air/ground is sucking the heat out of the pool - ours is 400k BTU and uses approx. 10-11 m3/hr when it's on (or roughly $1.50/hr.)
c) We like to swim at temps in the high 70s and our heater is barely used from early June to early September while we use our solar blanket religiously throughout the season. In the early spring and late fall, we need to plan our swims (because of the need to heat the water), so we are not in there absolutely every day. Our practice, though, is to turn it on and swim from Friday to Monday during those months. During these times, the heater is on for maybe 3-6 hours/week on average - or roughly about $10/week. When we let it fall back too far, it can indeed be double that rate - but even so, we're not talking hundreds.

Or is my math messed up?

:lol: Not sure if your math is messed up but let's see, we'll go with a 25c/m3 for gas due to delivery charges and all (it's the rate according to energyshop.com):

1 m^3 of gas = ~36k btu. For a 400k btu heater, it's ~11 m^3 / hr. Good so far.

Heater efficiency is what, around 80% ? 85%? Your pool is what, 24k gallons?

8.3 btu are needed to raise 1 gallon of water by 1F, so for 24k gallons * 10 degrees, it's a 2M btus needed and the heater is 85% efficient, so 2.35M btu are needed. 2.35M btu = 65m^3 of gas.. so ~16$. You use a blanket so we'll negate the thermal loss factor. The other assumption was that the pool temperature needs only 10 degrees increase and if it gets chilly for a week, it drops a lot more than this.

that's not too bad.. unless you get 4 days of rain like we're now getting.


For those who care, let's assume a 500sq ft with no solar blanket at night:
Thermal loss for low wind: ~7 btu / sq ft per hr per degrees F difference between water & air.. at night, let's assume 20 degrees (water at 85F, night = 18C). So for a 500 sq ft pool, it's 7 * 20 * 500 * 12 (12 hours) = 840k BTU every chilly night that you lose.. so $6 per day just to compensate for the loss. ouch. if it gets windy, it's even worse.

disclaimer: taxes were not included.. so bump that up by 12% or whatever it is where you live.
Deal Addict
Sep 3, 2013
1066 posts
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Toronto
Bumping an old thread instead of starting a new one. Any updates on the cost of maintaining both salt water and otherwise? Thinking of putting in an offer for a house with a pool. We do have an infant so having second thoughts.
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Sep 20, 2005
1330 posts
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Toronto
What type of pump?
How is it heated?
Does it have a liner, if so how old.
Are you going to maintain it or get a service?

I'm guessing it costs me around $1500-$1800 a year.

If you really like the house, it only costs 5-10 thousand to fill in a pool. When we sell our house, I'm going to offer that option to potential buyers.
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Feb 25, 2015
789 posts
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KW
Kayceern wrote: Bumping an old thread instead of starting a new one. Any updates on the cost of maintaining both salt water and otherwise? Thinking of putting in an offer for a house with a pool. We do have an infant so having second thoughts.
Your child will love growing up with a pool!

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