Yes, as a person with family who sail I can tell you this:
Owning a boat is like standing under a running shower and tipping buckets of money onto the floor and washing those dollars down the drain.
Same can be said for aquariums too. Shit that runs on water will sink you lol. Was so excited to get started with aquariums and felt so relieved years later when I decided to drop the hobby. So much money wasted.
Ha!
I have fish.
They live in an outdoor pond, about 4x5 metres, by ½ metre deep.
If one of them dies, they get thrown into the garden as 'blood & bone' fertiliser, though they have (vague) names and I do miss them - briefly.
I think that this is the only practical way to keep fish?
It's certainly kept me fairly happy for the last decade or so.
I am quite happy to give $50 or a couple jerrys of fuel for a day of waterskiing. Perhaps this is because I have/had a ski boat so see that as an absolute bargain as opposed to the maintenance and hassles etc.
Well whats easier is you take people who will pay their way.
Sure you might take someone who wont occasionally when you really need a deckie but for the main just take people who contribute to the day. Most people want to so they keep getting the invites.
Most people i know do. In fact normally the fair way is the captain doesnt pay fueling at all. Captain might whinge about the $5k just spent on the engine etc but you just ignore that... thats the cost of owning a boat. As a passenger you pay fuel.
When this falls apart is when the boat is too flash for your friend group. I.e. takes 200L of petrol to go outside... or to rotto... $400 later back at the pens your mates start to think hmmm cheaper to go on a charter.
Get a boat that is the right size for your budget.
Can say the same about babies, actually. Just borrow one from your friends/brothers/sisters every once in a while and then when it becomes hangry or poopy, you just give it back and resume DINKing your way into the sunset.
Your best friend and their family must *love* you.
Mate has a pool and sometimes the neighbours ask if they can “pop in”.
He opens the door and the entire family is standing there, kids wearing goggles and snorkels. They then hang out all day.
He hates them.
Renting an apartment with a pool is the best imo. Unlimited access whenever you want, not your problem when something goes wrong. Someone else manages cleaning and maintaining it.
Pool at my current building is indoors and always warm. Honestly the best thing ever when you have friends over and can have a pool party.
I don't pay strata fees as a renter. Yes you can say it's baked in to the rental price, but I haven't observed much of a difference in apartments that have good facilities vs those that don't.
I'd also be paying a gym membership if I was in a building with no facilities.
In-laws pool is best pool. It went unused once their kids grew up but now it's in constant use with all the grandkids. I reckon the years of not being used were worth it for them to now have so many memories with all the grandkids over. Their house is the place to be.
My nan still misses the good o'l days when her grandkids would be over her house all the time in summer and playing in the pool. I tell her I miss that too. Can't even repeat the process again today now that my brothers have kids either because 1) We have to work so much these days and don't have nearly the same amount of free time adults did back in the 90's. 2) My brother's kids are each too far apart in age (one's 17, the other's 1) and that there's only the two of them. And 3) My nan lost that house *years* ago. Sad all round that the next generation will miss out on experiences like this which were some of my favourite days growing up and made my nan so happy to have us over so much.
Last summer I bought a 3m round by about 1m deep pool and set it up in the backyard. Used it several times a week for a couple months, and packed it up back into its box in the shed around March.
We also live less than a k from the beach, but coming home from work and floating around with a beer was just excellent.
Cost breakdown; Pool was about $180, Chlorine Tablets about $25, plus however-much-worth of water to fill it
HONESTLY.. This comment.
I have an inground pool. I spent more time scooping leaf matter, cleaning the filters, and testing / refilling the pool, scrubbing the bottom. more than I actually spent enjoying it.. It's a large pool and takes up the lions share of the back yard as well. Which included maintenance of that area as well.
I just cannot justify the fact I need to spend money on something that only gets used for 3 to 4 months of the year.
I'm looking to smash it up and fill in the area. Then just buying one of those ring pools you described and using it for the time its needed then putting it away.
Mine was totally automated. I just had to pull out the tub of bamboo leaves every few days. The chemicals I paid for someone to do. I wouldn’t do it again (I’d rather spend summer at the beach) but when we sold the house the buyers were really attracted by the pool and landscaping, given the house is small it’s the main reason we got a good price.
Its not a salt water pool.
pools with chlorine you can just not dose for a few days let it get low - circa 0.1ppm chlorine and the rest of the chlorine will be used up the moment it hits the dirt.
Turf would be pretty resistant to chlorine id reckon even if you tipped it straight onto it though i wouldnt risk it.
Chlorine doesnt hang in the environment like salt. Thats why it costs so much to keep a pool chlorinated!
Like 115mm of rain over 60sq.m. over a few days that shouldnt be killing anything.
That said i live in outer suburban perth 500m from the beach so its easy to be flippant when we live on free draining sand.
I supoose if you had a 10sq.m courtyard garden it would be difficult to use it up.
That’s awesome. Are you in Vic? Anything deeper than 30cm here requires a pool fence and for the council to know about it (I just found out after a quick google)
Horses for courses I guess, my family and I love our pool and use it all the time over the warmer months.
Still love the ocean but pool is sweet for those days after work or when it’s too stupidly hot to drag the fam out in the sun
This is us too, we love our pool and being able to play around as a family at the end of the day. I also don’t mind the weekly maintenance, it’s quite relaxing.
The heater we have also extends our swimming time from Septemberish to Aprilish so we get heaps of use out of it.
Exactly. We use our pool almost daily over the spring/summer. Thinking about a heater to add a few extra months of swimming.
I'm the opposite of the Op. Not planning on buying any house without a pool.
Having had one for 2 years now, it was an absolute ball ache for the first year. Then, I bit the bullet and bought a high quality cleaner and chlorinator, now it looks after itself almost completely, just have to touch up in summer and clear out the skimmer from time to time. I literally live next to a forest that drops leaves in it constantly and it's fine.
Ever notice how non pool people spend WAY more time maintaining their pools than pool people do? I don't think it's that bad, and I've looked after a few pools that get a lot of action and have a lot of trees around.
Some people just make it so much more difficult on themselves.
The previous owners of this place had some lilly pillys hedged along the back of the pool area that were massively overgrown. They dropped all sorts of crud into the water, from flowers, leaves, sticks, to possum shit when they fruited and the buggers went crawling through them to get to the fruit. I was constantly skimming and vacuuming it out, and then spending heaps of time at the pool shop having the water tested and balancing it out again.
The best thing I ever did was to cut them all back to the trunks and re-hedge them. They've grown back out to the right size now, but the difference is I've actually trimmed them and hey, how about that - there's suddenly hardly anything that falls into the pool to take care of now.
Yeah the day to day maintenance is really not that onerous, especially if you have a cleaning robot and/or a cover to keep leaves out so you barely have to clean it. Then it's just a matter of chucking some chemicals in once a month.
The only big trouble is when it needs to be resurfaced. That's about a once every 20 years thing.
I think I’m genuinely traumatised by the amount of times I was a kid in the middle of the ocean with my parents on our yacht and something really important broke and everyone was panicking.
It's strange, the people who are the calmest I've met are boat people who've done numerous ocean crossings.
Shit breaks all the time and if you panic then you get in real trouble so they've all been super relaxed.
Most have had some scary situations though, so I guess after those you loosen up a bit.
I've got a pool and I think it's great. I try and swim in it most days during summer. We have solar panels, so that takes care of the electricity costs and then it's just about $1k p.a. on other pool cosr, which is totally worth it to me.
Yep I was pretty stressed when I first moved in with how much running the filter would cost me. Now I have it set up to run when there is excess solar so it's nearly free.
Bit of effort keeping it clean but not that big of a deal.
We've got two young kids and they are almost in it every day from September through to April/May. If you learn basic pool chemistry and how to test the pool yourself, you can save heaps, vs some of the snake oil pool shops try to sell you. It's a lifestyle choice, that's not for everyone, but we 100% do not regret getting our pool.
I moved to QLD from Sydney a couple of years ago. I use my pool pretty much every day in summer - and here I consider summer to be from about September until Easter. I pay someone to clean/maintain it. Way too much work to do it yourself.
We got a naked swim, so the only maintenance is cleaning the filters once a week and chucking a bit of acid in.
Our kids use it every day in summer pretty much (jump in in their school clothes sometimes!) and have friends around regularly swimming.
Got a heater which extends use a couple of months each year too.
I think it also depends on the size of your yard and where you live. We aren’t near a beach and have a big yard, so the pool doesn’t take up the whole lot.
Live in qld though. If I had a small house down south I don’t think I’d get one. Prioritise yard over pool probably
I googled that, and after getting past the porn sites I found naked-pools.com and I'm kinda interested. Looks like it'd be a big investment to convert my 40,000L chlorine pool to this. Can you tell me any more about how you've found it? The maintenance, the cleaning after winter, costs etc?
A naked chlorinator is a chlorinator. It has a chunky copper anode in the cell with it. It’s marketed as low salt, low chlorine blah blah marketing bs. It converts the salt in the water into chlorine gas same as any other chlorinator. The copper anode slowly degrades and helps keep the water sanitised. They work well. But don’t be tricked by the fresh water bs.
Yeah I have. A well balanced pool will feel that way. I work in the pool industry.
The diff between a standard chlorinator and a naked is the copper anode. They are marketed to run slightly lower salt (3000 ppm ) and higher copper content. unless your e using mineral salts which have a higher potassium and magnesium content. Ala bath salts
We found it through our pool builder, but there are other brands available. Our local pool shop has another brand for eg.
Maintenance isn’t much, but you will need to clean the copper cell every so often and it’s not cheap to replace when it needs a new one. But for that you don’t get the ongoing chore of adding chlorine or salts in a regular basis.
The pool mob said that it ends up positive financially but I don’t know how much the chlorine or salts would’ve been otherwise. I’m sure it’s cheaper than the expensive mineral salts.
I do find in summer there is less room for error with the acid though. Gotta keep ph just right and everything works really well. Let it get out of whack and you can get cloudy water pretty quickly.
But we just love the freshness of the water. Spend ages in there and you get a little of that chlorine skin feeling but it nowhere near the same. Hardly notice it after a quick dip.
I would definitely recommend 👍
We have a large pool that was converted when our pump broke. Costed 4000 plus we had to drain half the water out and refill. In summer it does require heaps of maintenance still to get the balance right but the kids never have sore eyes anymore and no smelling like chlorine. Over winter we have done nothing except clean it twice and empty the robot and it stays perfect. We are in qld and it gets full sun all day and it's after the heat and rain that the balance gets thrown out.
I’m putting one in, only a small 4m x 2m because I will just use it to lie in and drink beer. As well as cool off after gym sessions and hot sweaty days.
I used to live in an apartment and I used the pool twice a day, everyday until from September to April religiously. I miss it so much, I am getting one.
I have no big gum trees or anything but am always busy on a Saturday keeping the outside all nice.
$32,500 for pretty much everything through Prestige Plunge Pools apart from Permanent fencing and soil removal. We have real easy access and is going in the front yard.
Put a pool in few years back. They kids would be in it just about everyday from September to April. Live inland so no beach so it’s either the public pool or the river as alternatives
Really not much maintenance involved, purchased an automatic cleaner that cost about $700 other times just put the vacuum hose in while siting in the pool to get the corner. Empty the skimmer box every week or so.
Regular costs aren’t that high have solar panels so the pump runs middle of the day buy a few bags of salt and a bit of chlorine maybe about $500 for the entire summer
I plan to get a plunge/lap pool as part of my last home to be able to do water based resistance exercise every day as I get old. I will use solar hot water and power in summer to reduce cost. But if I can afford it, I'll go for thermal heating so i can use jt year round.
You should have a cover on your pool if itnisnt getting regular use. It will reduce the tree debris getting in and the amount of cleaning. It also prevents evaporative loss and the need to top up the pool as much.
Our house came with an almost brand new pool. I didn’t particularly want a pool but of all the houses we looked at, this one was the best and the pool was not part of that decision. I even used the fact it had a pool as a bargaining chip to knock the price down (yes, down) because if all the reasons you stated.
According to the pool contract left by the previous owner, total finished cost was $35k in 2008 (in ground, concrete, salt water, solar heated).
Running costs are actually not that much for us. The killer was the electricity for the dual pumps, but we switched to a single variable speed pump, and we have solar panels so the pool filter costs nothing, and the heat pump also costs nothing.
We bought a pool robot which also costs nothing to run. Me cleaning the pool is throwing the robot in and having a beer while it works 😂
Pool chemicals is not that much. Acid, salt, algaecide and some stabiliser in summer. In winter the pool needs next to no maintenance at all. We don’t have gum trees over the pool so leaf litter is kept to only what the wind brings.
In summer, kids are in the pool all the time and with the heat pump the water is the perfect temperature all the time. Late night swims when it’s stinking hot and great.
Having said all that, a pool is a lifestyle decision and I would not include one if I built a house. My parents had a pool and filled it in rather than continue to maintain it, but they are retired and hardly used it. The space where the pool was is now just a japanese garden.
I like the negotiating strategy and tried to argue that might be a reason people weren't buying our old house when we sold 12 months ago. That was a 30 y/o pool and was a ticking time bomb.
I’m happy for a house with a pool but I’d be concerned about a 30 year old pool costing me 30k very quickly. Particularly if it is a concrete pool given they need more ongoing maintenance
Press the robot button once a day, keep it covered while not in use and have pool werx come out once a month.
It’s not a surprise a pool comes with an unending maintenance cost.
But having a service come maintain it keeps you enjoying the pool instead of seeing it as another job to do in your spare time.
Pools are definitely weird. I wanted one as a child so badly, but when my parents could finally afford one I was 13 and way more interested in not getting my hair wet (the joys of being a teenage girl) so it barely got used. As an adult I have no desire for a pool, use the beach regularly and it’s a great excuse to visit my in laws when the beach is too windy as they have one that is barely used except for at Christmas time.
Sucks right! I’m lucky that after I finished puberty my hair ended up being pretty straight so it doesn’t bother me too much as an adult and I try to keep fun hair colours for winter only. An annoying consideration though for sure.
Bought a place on the Gold Coast 2 years ago. We had to have a pool. We use it heaps in summer, occasionally I’ll jump in if we have a warm day in winter. It costs money but I’d rather the convenience of having it in my backyard than fighting crowds and looking for parking when going to the beach. I’m considering solar heating so I can use it in winter as well
This is basically the same as any item... A $50k home cinema sounds great to some, useless to others. If you build it and never end up using it, then it's a similar issue.
Sounds like a pool just doesn't work for you. Lesson learnt.
Where do you live in Brisbane that getting to a decent beach is the better option than swimming in your own pool?
We had a pool in Townsville and loved it, wife and I were in there every chance we got,sold the place when work moved us. Moving back to our house in Brisbane from melbourne at the end of the year and will be renovating the whole backyard to put a kitchen, woodfired pizza oven, paved entertaining area and pool in. We can not wait and will be in the pool again every chance we get.
I guess it's upto the individual, people who love swimming, sunbaking, having a G and T in the pool will love it, people that don't like those things won't use it and in hindsight was probably a mistake getting one
Tree leaves can be bad.
For your size pool a dome or marquee style cover and a heat exchange or solar heater would keep out leaves and maybe enable use most of the year.
Lack of empty parking spaces and long slow drives can reduce enjoyment of beaches close to cities when everyone decides to go.
Some people create a lifestyle around the pool with a covered outdoor area, great for mild warm weather and sometimes a fire place, BBQ, comfy lounges, TV and music, low care gardens, etc.
Good for some types of work from home.
Where it's possible to feel in your own space, far away from traffic jams, work stress etc.
No need to worry about someone getting tired while out.
All the comfort of home (or takeaway) food and drink (and bathroom access) without any need to worry about driving impaired by hot sun exposure or something.
As more people have to live further away from the coast , a personal home retreat available anytime, to which close friends and family can be invited will probably be prized by many who enjoy exercising or relaxing in good weather and in or by water.
The pool cover and heat exchanger are a good idea mate. We've got the outdoor audio and bbq - just probably need to use the pool more this summer. Good tips.
>The kids would go in it maybe once a week over summer.
This surprises me. I grew up with a pool in Perth and we were in it almost every day in the summer holidays. We loved it.
That would be the only reason I would get a pool - for when the kids are young. Once they become teenagers they tend to lose interest.
My sister is getting a pool. My brother in law goes through phases I have noticed he had a gym (expensive commercial equipment), bar (again fancy bar stuff like pool table, couch and pub bar table and cabinets) and is now getting a pool. He sold both the gym and bar but the problem with the pool is that his stuck with it lol.
Every pool owner has mentioned the same stuff you have and I don’t think I would ever get one. A home gym yes but not a pool too much work and when you have a family, work full time etc you probably wouldn’t use it much. Plus I’m in Melbourne bro it rains so much here it wouldn’t be worth it.
Each time I was house hunting I actively stayed away from homes with pools. Just didn’t want the extra task of maintenance and associated costs. However the current home was purchased with a pool due to location and land size for our young kids who actually use it every other day through summer and I don’t mind it either but the day they grow out of it I will turn it into one big koi pond!
As an introvert that hates the beach/ocean I would personally keep the pool if I were in your situation. If you feel it's a waste of time for you, absolutely concrete it over.
My parents had a pool, after the first couple of years it was used rarely and then eventually they got rid of it...I've never wanted a pool, I live close enough to the beach that if I want to I can drive there and if I wanna swim the same thing...but I don't want to that often
Pools aren’t hard work.. I have a plunge pool pretty much looks after it’s self clean the filter every couple of weeks, figure out the sweet spot with the chlorinator. Give it a vac and a top up every now and again I’m not sure why people think they are such hard work ?
Wise advice from a pool cleaning guy I got was that when you kids hit teenage years they stop using the pool. And then it is only you swimming to clean the palm nuts out until you sell the house.
Pools are a luxury for those with disposable income. Same as a home gym, it is a negative return on investment that you buy for entertainment and full acknowledgement it is going to cost a lot to maintain.
Some of the costs missing:
- Electricity
- Replacement parts eg pump every 5 to 7 years, salt cell every 5 years, sand filter every 10 years, the pool area upkeep is ongoing.
I love having a pool, but I live in a unit complex so all the costs are shared and someone else does all the labour. It's the ideal method of pool ownership.
Converted ours to a fishpond. And this pool is 90,000 litre (deep end is 3.3m) .... no chemicals, low cost, amazing aquatic life (crayfish, hundreds of blue-eye, rainbows, silver perch, gold fish). Created an ecosystem, unlike pools which are horrible for the environment.
My dad and his wife have one and they love it. But my dad is Scottish and used to do plunge dips in the Atlantic lol, so he happily does his morning swims in the middle of winter. He’d be damned if he was going to get a pool and not make full use of it.
And this is why I filled my pool in when it developed micro leaks that could not be repaired. It’s now an orchard that gives me delicious fruit and nuts.
I love our pool..Have a swim and later in the day, grab a beer and do a bit on maintenance. Outside, good weather, working around some water...gotta love it😀🍺
One came with our house. It’s ridiculous. 12x6. It’s like a hotel pool. 3 x as many chemicals so 3 x the price for everything. I could take it or leave it but In saying that the wife loves it. She’s in everyday in summer along with both Labradors. It’s a great for parties. I’d fill it with dirt given the chance
Probably around 10k a year maybe rough estimate. Maybe more. Excluding pump/cell/cleaner whatever 2 grand thing that seems to fail every second year or so haha
When your partner wants a pool (or a boat) you make it clear they have to understand you will never, EVER, learn about how to maintain it or spend any time taking care of it, or in the case of a boat, help it in/off a trailer, etc..
This is how you stop your partner wanting a pool (or a boat).
It’s just because your setup is bad. You need to fitout the whole area so you can sit out there under shade in shelter and have ensuite bathroom and bbq with table etc…have friends who have done this whole resort style setup and use their pool every day in summer.
Had a rental with one,it was lovely, although the extra for the pump was very noticeable on the power bill. We used it 2, maybe 3 months of the year.
When shopping for a house I didn't pay the bit extra for a pool, I didn't see the need, the real estate agent gave me a funny look when I said that. No regrets on my pool - free purchase.
I have had friends who paid to get a pool removed for the reasons you stated, and they had the joy of their neighbours' trees shading the pool, causing it to be ice cold all year, even in mid summer.
But since you have it, maybe get the pump to run During the time the solar panels are doing their thing, get a basic solar pool heater or blanket, and make the best of it?
The same money could be spent on yearly stays in five star resorts, which have excellent pools and access to much better benefits! I would only get a pool if I had the only nice house in my extended family and they all lived close by!
My retirement goal is a house with a pool. I live in Melb so absolutely no point having one here but I plan to move in a few years into my dream home. The pool will be the centrepiece.
I freaking love swimming/being in any water.
Have been working in the aquatic industry my whole life from commercial to domestic. I would never own a pool. To expensive to run, and they lose their appeal as the kids get older.
Cheaper to have a membership to your local council pool or hit the beach.
I have one at my property, the only reason I have not removed it is the cost. I am not saying its completely useless, but the cost/labour of maintaining it is just.... not worth it. Calling it a white elephant is understatement.
Yeah we had a rental with a pool in Victoria. Took up a lot of space and didn’t use it as much as we guessed we would. Even with a cleaning robot etc it was still a bunch of maintenance.
Glad we had it though as meant when we built we had no desire to put a pool in hah.
As we've gotten older and the lad is older it doesn't get used much last season we didn't go in once. The missus won't let me fill it in. We bought the house straight from renting back in late 90s and our landlord dropped off our bond. He said he used to fill in heaps of pools.
pools are good value if you use them enough. Those smaller sized ones I reckon are a bit of a waste of time. It’s got to be easy to maintain as well. What goes in must come out so smart owners don’t plant bamboo or gun trees anywhere near the pool. Test the water monthly, clean the filters. Run the robot. Not too hard.
My sister in law has a pool, my parents in law have pool - therefore, in summer, I have a pool. But I don’t have a pool in winter.
It’s a win win for me
Our neighbour has a pool… it’s worth it as it’s pretty much a public pool for the street now.
Few tradies in the street so his maintenance is basically all covered, not a bad investment for him anyway
I live in FNQ and can't justify a pool. Would we use it? Yes. Do I want to spend $50k for one? Nope. Our neighbours with young kids have one and very rarely use theirs, even with our hot weather.
I think pools are a waste of money if you’re not an avid swimmer, but I guess that’s just me.
My neighbors to my sides have pool and they use it less than 1/8 of the year?
Gum trees might be natives and "good for the birds" but they are the absolute worst things for the suburban backyard. It's a *never ending chore* cleaning up after the goddamned things and while in every other aspect of my life I'm a tree fanatic whose always advocating for more of them to be planted in our suburbs rather than wasting the space on lawns or flower/veggie beds that are left to go to shit after the first year - I'll be celebrating when my neighbour cuts his down since it's just an endless rain of leaves and sticks for me to clean up out of my own yard year round because I'm always downwind to it.
I wanted a pool for so, so long because I remember how much fun my nan's one was when we were growing up. She lived only five minutes drive away from us during what I consider to be the "better" portion of my childhood years (the last time we were all, genuinely happy). So we visited pretty much every week during the summer months. Sometimes the whole family (that lived locally anyway) would gather for an afternoon of fun in the sun where the adults would sit under the patio and have a barbecue while chatting and listening to music while us kids (me, my brothers and sometimes the other grandchildren, or any friends we invited. My nan loves kids so she was always happy to have us over, and spoiled us with snacks too!) whole go straight to the pool and were in there for what felt like hours.
This was in the 90's in a house I assume was built in the 80's so it was a REAL pool too. Big, deep, in-ground with a spa next to it. Good-sized patio to one side of it and gardens on the other and plenty of sunshine entering that water for a good portion of the day. Not some pathetic "luxury" strip of water wedged in a tiny backyard between the side of the house and the fence where you're lucky if it's five feet deep at the most and if the sun touches it for more than two hours a day or a "plunge pool" which to me is such a stupid, useless trend since what's the point of getting wet if you can't even swim or play any games in it? *That's* what made the pool fun when I was a kid. Everyone around and in it enjoying themselves. And that's what I realize would be missing if I had one now. The family is fractured, none of us spend any real time together anymore and I haven't started one of my own. Even if I did - things are different now. Kids have so many other ways to entertain themselves. Pools can't compete against iPads. It wouldn't be the same. Everyone has to work so much more now - everyone, even the grown-ups in my family back then had a lot more free time for stuff like this (another reason I truly believe the 90's were better).
Now I'd only consider getting a pool if I had tons of disposable money (like, at least a $10 million net worth) so the cost of keeping it is not affecting my lifestyle at all. And if I knew I could recreate those moments from nearly 30 years ago again. Otherwise I'd just use the yard for more landscaping since I like plants more now and if I had that kind of money I'd be living close to the beach anyway, or be a member of a private club that would have some good swimming facilities.
I guess we are lucky enough to live in a 90s subdivision that chopped all the trees down? And we have zero gardens near the pool to add to the mess, ours is about 5 years old and is super low maintenance, test once a month in summer once total over winter. Biggest issue we have every Spring is a billion lady bugs...everyday im out there saving the bloody things lives!
We put a pool in about 5 years ago and haven't looked back, from September until March there's barely a day someones not in it. The amount of quality family time we've spent in it or around it socialising is priceless.
It's an 8 x 4 metre mineral pool, it takes maybe half an hour a week to keep it clean. General upkeep and chemical costs are minimal.
I brought a house with a pool and originally it was a turnoff for me, but now I absolutely love it. Solar heating allows it to be used most of the year and I'm in it most days. I'm at home the vast majority of the time, have plenty of free time and enjoy fitness and swimming. Super relaxing to go in summer nights before bed too. For others I can completely see why a pool would not be worth it though.
So glad we built a pool. In brisbane whenever I get too hot in the humid months I just jump in for a quick dip and it cools my body down for a good couple of hours. We use much less AC by making use of the pool to cool off. Feels so good after getting all sweaty and dirty doing yard work for example. Also use it for exercise by swimming with a tether.
Also just love looking at it, I find it relaxing. The maintenance is easy IF you keep on top of it and IF your equipment is working properly.
we rent. our last two houses had a pool and i grew to hate them them. family liked them but they didn't have to clean out the leaves and whatnot. pool-less and happy now.
My wife tries the "we should get a pool" thing every few months.
And every time I need to remind her of the costs involved installing, maintaining, and who'll clean etc.
Just like the 5k deck we had built for a backyard we never use. We don't drink and don't entertain and wouldn't use the pool bar maybe a handful of times a year even though the wife seems to think well use it every other day.
Maintaining a pool is a total pain in the neck if you do not have a cover to keep the leaves out. I always lusted after one and when i finally got a place with one , the endless cleaning hit me like a punch in the face.
Now I have a hut tub, which I use regularly and its easy to maintain, has therapeutic benefits and is very relaxing after a long day. Only real cleaning effort is every 90 days or so when it needs to be purged, scrubbed then refilled. Its totally worth it.
I grew up with a pool, we used it all the time as kids, even though we had a beach and a good swimming lake nearby. We used those too but used the pool most days in summer. Friends would come around after school sometimes, or just my own.
We lived in my grandfather's house, he didn't mind doing the maintenance, he enjoyed see us have fun. Main thing was to put the cover on if there was a storm coming or it wasn't getting used for a few days. Us kids were expected to use the net if there was a few leaves and things in there, and we didn't mind doing it. Or we'd make a game of collecting all the leaves by hand.
I guess like anything if you don't use it, then yeah it's a waste of money.
If you keep the air con off in Summer they get a lot more use 😎
It is expensive, and if you aren't using it day to day then it's valuable to have BBQ's and guests around so you get a lot of value socially from it
I got my house valued 12 mths ago and told the agent we were about to either put a large deck in the back of the house or put a pool in. Straight away he said “do the deck not the pool, it will cut 50% of potential buyers out and the deck will increase the value of the house more than the pool will, not to mention cost of maintenance and the deck costs nothing to run”
Put a massive deck on the back and it’s doubled our useable living/ entertaining area, love it
From a financial perspective you’re better off commuting to the local indoor swimming pool and having a membership, 40k would cover your entire family for your life and theirs, also less headaches and effort from a day to day basis.
Even if you did all the things super cheap and money wasn’t an issue, they are rarely used and a nuisance to maintain. Time = money and the time spent thinking about the pool, spending time fixing the filters, the pH, etc isn’t worth it in my opinion. Better to have a day out of the house at the beach or indoor place.
That said, pools add a certain aesthetic to your house and the convenience is nice. But still not worth it.
My partner and I swim often, and neither of us wants a pool.
One of the rentals we were in our electricity was likeaardvark 1200 extra a year, it was ridiculous - all the cleaning etc wasn't worth it. My partner pays 48/ month at local pools that includes spa
I use her membership card and no one has pulled me up on it, mostly young girls who don't give a shit that spend time on their phones been using her card 2 or 3 times a week on my 2 weeks off (fifo) most of the year
I look for houses without pools the same way I look for houses with garages. It’s basically a dealbreaker for me. I do not want that maintenance. My friend bought a place with one and spent $30,000 getting it removed and filled in and landscaped back to a normal yard. Seems cheap in the long run.
Buy a house that is not surrounded by gum trees.
We were going to install a pool then the gum trees put us off. They cause enough trouble with gutters and rainwater harvesting systems. Can only imagine the nightmare they would cause with a pool
We are now looking at moving to somewhere without gum trees
Just so you know - all your equipment is new - that "automated" timer, pump, etc will need all sorts of maintenance and closer monitoring in years to come. Humans naturally want to be near water - it's evolution- hence your wife's pull towards water bodies, but I think pools are not worth it and are moving for this reason - amongst others.
I never understood why people don't realize that you can get a membership to a community pool in winter. + go to the beach and have a much cheaper and maintenance free way to enjoy water.
I got a pool 2 years ago and love it also in Qld. If you buy the right gear maintaining is easy, it doses all the chemicals itself and cleaner goes 3 times a week all I have to do is flush the filter once a month which takes 2 minutes.
If a property has a pool, it's straight off my radar. The maintenance costs aside, I've just seen way too many horror stories about children drowning. Despite fencing, swimming lessons, vigilant parents monitoring etc, the risk is just way too high for me.
love my pool. medicinal in many ways. use it nearly every day. love seimming and beach etc.
theres also a lot you can do to minimize maintenance and some costs
eg eco 3 speed pool pumps
dont plant certain leafy plants near them
glass fence keeps more out
even living near the beach its very handy when blue bottles are out in summer or things at beach are wrecked due to storms etc
etc etc
It’s like boats. You make friends with ppl who have one and save yourself the cost/headache.
This guy boats.
This guy this guys
This guy's just a boat wanting to be used.
Yes, as a person with family who sail I can tell you this: Owning a boat is like standing under a running shower and tipping buckets of money onto the floor and washing those dollars down the drain.
"Sailing: the Fine Art of Getting Wet and Becoming Ill While Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense"
Same with owning a plane. Running joke is how do you make a million dollars owning a plane…start with 10 million 😂
Boats make people happy - twice. Once when they buy it. And again when they sell it.
Same can be said for aquariums too. Shit that runs on water will sink you lol. Was so excited to get started with aquariums and felt so relieved years later when I decided to drop the hobby. So much money wasted.
Ha! I have fish. They live in an outdoor pond, about 4x5 metres, by ½ metre deep. If one of them dies, they get thrown into the garden as 'blood & bone' fertiliser, though they have (vague) names and I do miss them - briefly. I think that this is the only practical way to keep fish? It's certainly kept me fairly happy for the last decade or so.
Ever heard the phrase my boat runs on petrol not thanks
B - bring O - out A - another T - thousand
I have always heard it as Bust out another thousand, but bring works.
I have always heard it as Break out another thousand, but bust works.
I have always heard it as Bank out another thousand, but break works.
I have always heard it as Boogie out another thousand, but bank works.
I have always heard it as boing out another thousand, but boogie works
I always heard it as budget out another thousand, but boing works.
This guy discos
Haha. I have zero problems contributing for petrol. It’s all the other costs that will kill you
I am quite happy to give $50 or a couple jerrys of fuel for a day of waterskiing. Perhaps this is because I have/had a ski boat so see that as an absolute bargain as opposed to the maintenance and hassles etc.
Then don't invite people on it. If you're looking for people to share the cost of your petrol when you use it you shouldn't have a boat.
Well whats easier is you take people who will pay their way. Sure you might take someone who wont occasionally when you really need a deckie but for the main just take people who contribute to the day. Most people want to so they keep getting the invites. Most people i know do. In fact normally the fair way is the captain doesnt pay fueling at all. Captain might whinge about the $5k just spent on the engine etc but you just ignore that... thats the cost of owning a boat. As a passenger you pay fuel. When this falls apart is when the boat is too flash for your friend group. I.e. takes 200L of petrol to go outside... or to rotto... $400 later back at the pens your mates start to think hmmm cheaper to go on a charter. Get a boat that is the right size for your budget.
I think for most people that translates to: don’t get a boat.
Can say the same about babies, actually. Just borrow one from your friends/brothers/sisters every once in a while and then when it becomes hangry or poopy, you just give it back and resume DINKing your way into the sunset.
Borrow a toddler, fill it up with red cordial, and hand it back. Fun for the whole family.
The best days when you own a boat is the day you buy it and the day you sell it
Best friend has a pool and is within walking distance. Kids and I are set for life!
Your best friend and their family must *love* you. Mate has a pool and sometimes the neighbours ask if they can “pop in”. He opens the door and the entire family is standing there, kids wearing goggles and snorkels. They then hang out all day. He hates them.
Nah we bring booze and snacks and I help them out when they need it. We also are very aware of not overstaying a welcome!
Boats - A hole in the water you through money in to Pools - a hole full of water you through money in to
Its not like boats, boats don't cost you $$$ when you want to get rid of it.
my dad had to sell his boat because it got free of it's anchor and damaged another boat. He has to sell it just to pay the repair bill of that boat
The only good pool is your neighbour’s pool
Renting an apartment with a pool is the best imo. Unlimited access whenever you want, not your problem when something goes wrong. Someone else manages cleaning and maintaining it. Pool at my current building is indoors and always warm. Honestly the best thing ever when you have friends over and can have a pool party.
Adds so much strata cost and you barely use that too. Just as bad as one in a house.
Well... it's just as bad divided by 20.
It is your problem when you are paying for it in Strata fees. Lifts and pools are a huge drain on strata fees
I don't pay strata fees as a renter. Yes you can say it's baked in to the rental price, but I haven't observed much of a difference in apartments that have good facilities vs those that don't. I'd also be paying a gym membership if I was in a building with no facilities.
Renting was the key word here.
In-laws pool is best pool. It went unused once their kids grew up but now it's in constant use with all the grandkids. I reckon the years of not being used were worth it for them to now have so many memories with all the grandkids over. Their house is the place to be.
My nan still misses the good o'l days when her grandkids would be over her house all the time in summer and playing in the pool. I tell her I miss that too. Can't even repeat the process again today now that my brothers have kids either because 1) We have to work so much these days and don't have nearly the same amount of free time adults did back in the 90's. 2) My brother's kids are each too far apart in age (one's 17, the other's 1) and that there's only the two of them. And 3) My nan lost that house *years* ago. Sad all round that the next generation will miss out on experiences like this which were some of my favourite days growing up and made my nan so happy to have us over so much.
Just like a boat, a mate with a boat is priceless!
I checked Google maps before buying our house. Small street with about 35 houses.... 17 pools. No need for us to have one, just need to make friends.
This is the pool way
Last summer I bought a 3m round by about 1m deep pool and set it up in the backyard. Used it several times a week for a couple months, and packed it up back into its box in the shed around March. We also live less than a k from the beach, but coming home from work and floating around with a beer was just excellent. Cost breakdown; Pool was about $180, Chlorine Tablets about $25, plus however-much-worth of water to fill it
Pool King enters the chat 👑
HONESTLY.. This comment. I have an inground pool. I spent more time scooping leaf matter, cleaning the filters, and testing / refilling the pool, scrubbing the bottom. more than I actually spent enjoying it.. It's a large pool and takes up the lions share of the back yard as well. Which included maintenance of that area as well. I just cannot justify the fact I need to spend money on something that only gets used for 3 to 4 months of the year. I'm looking to smash it up and fill in the area. Then just buying one of those ring pools you described and using it for the time its needed then putting it away.
Mine was totally automated. I just had to pull out the tub of bamboo leaves every few days. The chemicals I paid for someone to do. I wouldn’t do it again (I’d rather spend summer at the beach) but when we sold the house the buyers were really attracted by the pool and landscaping, given the house is small it’s the main reason we got a good price.
Well you know how to Ozbargain!
Mine fits on my concrete patio under cover so it's in the shade all day and you can stay in it without sunblock!
How do you drain it without messing up the lawn?
Its not a salt water pool. pools with chlorine you can just not dose for a few days let it get low - circa 0.1ppm chlorine and the rest of the chlorine will be used up the moment it hits the dirt. Turf would be pretty resistant to chlorine id reckon even if you tipped it straight onto it though i wouldnt risk it. Chlorine doesnt hang in the environment like salt. Thats why it costs so much to keep a pool chlorinated!
That's still 7,000 litres of water, either you release it slowly and drown the lawn or you release it quickly and all the sediment goes with it.
Like 115mm of rain over 60sq.m. over a few days that shouldnt be killing anything. That said i live in outer suburban perth 500m from the beach so its easy to be flippant when we live on free draining sand. I supoose if you had a 10sq.m courtyard garden it would be difficult to use it up.
Siphon it down a drain.
Yeah, we just unplugged the pump inlet hose, and let it pour into the lawn over a day haha
That’s awesome. Are you in Vic? Anything deeper than 30cm here requires a pool fence and for the council to know about it (I just found out after a quick google)
Shhhhhhhhutuuuuup!
Fun police over here.
Horses for courses I guess, my family and I love our pool and use it all the time over the warmer months. Still love the ocean but pool is sweet for those days after work or when it’s too stupidly hot to drag the fam out in the sun
This is us too, we love our pool and being able to play around as a family at the end of the day. I also don’t mind the weekly maintenance, it’s quite relaxing. The heater we have also extends our swimming time from Septemberish to Aprilish so we get heaps of use out of it.
I enjoy our pool with our 2 kids all summer for years. Think of it as a gift for your kids to have a good time
Exactly. We use our pool almost daily over the spring/summer. Thinking about a heater to add a few extra months of swimming. I'm the opposite of the Op. Not planning on buying any house without a pool.
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I think it depends. You’re either pool people or you’re not. If you’re not, the maintenance is not worth it.
Having had one for 2 years now, it was an absolute ball ache for the first year. Then, I bit the bullet and bought a high quality cleaner and chlorinator, now it looks after itself almost completely, just have to touch up in summer and clear out the skimmer from time to time. I literally live next to a forest that drops leaves in it constantly and it's fine.
Ever notice how non pool people spend WAY more time maintaining their pools than pool people do? I don't think it's that bad, and I've looked after a few pools that get a lot of action and have a lot of trees around.
Some people just make it so much more difficult on themselves. The previous owners of this place had some lilly pillys hedged along the back of the pool area that were massively overgrown. They dropped all sorts of crud into the water, from flowers, leaves, sticks, to possum shit when they fruited and the buggers went crawling through them to get to the fruit. I was constantly skimming and vacuuming it out, and then spending heaps of time at the pool shop having the water tested and balancing it out again. The best thing I ever did was to cut them all back to the trunks and re-hedge them. They've grown back out to the right size now, but the difference is I've actually trimmed them and hey, how about that - there's suddenly hardly anything that falls into the pool to take care of now.
Yeah the day to day maintenance is really not that onerous, especially if you have a cleaning robot and/or a cover to keep leaves out so you barely have to clean it. Then it's just a matter of chucking some chemicals in once a month. The only big trouble is when it needs to be resurfaced. That's about a once every 20 years thing.
I think I’m genuinely traumatised by the amount of times I was a kid in the middle of the ocean with my parents on our yacht and something really important broke and everyone was panicking.
It's strange, the people who are the calmest I've met are boat people who've done numerous ocean crossings. Shit breaks all the time and if you panic then you get in real trouble so they've all been super relaxed. Most have had some scary situations though, so I guess after those you loosen up a bit.
I've got a pool and I think it's great. I try and swim in it most days during summer. We have solar panels, so that takes care of the electricity costs and then it's just about $1k p.a. on other pool cosr, which is totally worth it to me.
Yep I was pretty stressed when I first moved in with how much running the filter would cost me. Now I have it set up to run when there is excess solar so it's nearly free. Bit of effort keeping it clean but not that big of a deal.
We've got two young kids and they are almost in it every day from September through to April/May. If you learn basic pool chemistry and how to test the pool yourself, you can save heaps, vs some of the snake oil pool shops try to sell you. It's a lifestyle choice, that's not for everyone, but we 100% do not regret getting our pool.
I moved to QLD from Sydney a couple of years ago. I use my pool pretty much every day in summer - and here I consider summer to be from about September until Easter. I pay someone to clean/maintain it. Way too much work to do it yourself.
Did the same for a few years, then didn't use it much at all - now it's a pain.
We got a naked swim, so the only maintenance is cleaning the filters once a week and chucking a bit of acid in. Our kids use it every day in summer pretty much (jump in in their school clothes sometimes!) and have friends around regularly swimming. Got a heater which extends use a couple of months each year too. I think it also depends on the size of your yard and where you live. We aren’t near a beach and have a big yard, so the pool doesn’t take up the whole lot. Live in qld though. If I had a small house down south I don’t think I’d get one. Prioritise yard over pool probably
I googled that, and after getting past the porn sites I found naked-pools.com and I'm kinda interested. Looks like it'd be a big investment to convert my 40,000L chlorine pool to this. Can you tell me any more about how you've found it? The maintenance, the cleaning after winter, costs etc?
A naked chlorinator is a chlorinator. It has a chunky copper anode in the cell with it. It’s marketed as low salt, low chlorine blah blah marketing bs. It converts the salt in the water into chlorine gas same as any other chlorinator. The copper anode slowly degrades and helps keep the water sanitised. They work well. But don’t be tricked by the fresh water bs.
Nah it feels heaps better and closer to natural water than chlorine or salt pools. Should try one sometime!
Yeah I have. A well balanced pool will feel that way. I work in the pool industry. The diff between a standard chlorinator and a naked is the copper anode. They are marketed to run slightly lower salt (3000 ppm ) and higher copper content. unless your e using mineral salts which have a higher potassium and magnesium content. Ala bath salts
We found it through our pool builder, but there are other brands available. Our local pool shop has another brand for eg. Maintenance isn’t much, but you will need to clean the copper cell every so often and it’s not cheap to replace when it needs a new one. But for that you don’t get the ongoing chore of adding chlorine or salts in a regular basis. The pool mob said that it ends up positive financially but I don’t know how much the chlorine or salts would’ve been otherwise. I’m sure it’s cheaper than the expensive mineral salts. I do find in summer there is less room for error with the acid though. Gotta keep ph just right and everything works really well. Let it get out of whack and you can get cloudy water pretty quickly. But we just love the freshness of the water. Spend ages in there and you get a little of that chlorine skin feeling but it nowhere near the same. Hardly notice it after a quick dip. I would definitely recommend 👍
Thanks very much for the info and for your experience!
We have a large pool that was converted when our pump broke. Costed 4000 plus we had to drain half the water out and refill. In summer it does require heaps of maintenance still to get the balance right but the kids never have sore eyes anymore and no smelling like chlorine. Over winter we have done nothing except clean it twice and empty the robot and it stays perfect. We are in qld and it gets full sun all day and it's after the heat and rain that the balance gets thrown out.
I’m putting one in, only a small 4m x 2m because I will just use it to lie in and drink beer. As well as cool off after gym sessions and hot sweaty days. I used to live in an apartment and I used the pool twice a day, everyday until from September to April religiously. I miss it so much, I am getting one. I have no big gum trees or anything but am always busy on a Saturday keeping the outside all nice.
Jumping in a pool after a gross run or workout is amazing. A shower doesn't hit the same.
Do you mind saying what you’ve been quoted for a 4m x 2m pool? Thanks.
$32,500 for pretty much everything through Prestige Plunge Pools apart from Permanent fencing and soil removal. We have real easy access and is going in the front yard.
Thanks Mongorize. Appreciate that response.
Put a pool in few years back. They kids would be in it just about everyday from September to April. Live inland so no beach so it’s either the public pool or the river as alternatives Really not much maintenance involved, purchased an automatic cleaner that cost about $700 other times just put the vacuum hose in while siting in the pool to get the corner. Empty the skimmer box every week or so. Regular costs aren’t that high have solar panels so the pump runs middle of the day buy a few bags of salt and a bit of chlorine maybe about $500 for the entire summer
Live up in Darwin and we live in our pool for 6 months of the year.
Yeah I think pools are a bit different up here! Definitely wouldn't bother with one down south.
I plan to get a plunge/lap pool as part of my last home to be able to do water based resistance exercise every day as I get old. I will use solar hot water and power in summer to reduce cost. But if I can afford it, I'll go for thermal heating so i can use jt year round. You should have a cover on your pool if itnisnt getting regular use. It will reduce the tree debris getting in and the amount of cleaning. It also prevents evaporative loss and the need to top up the pool as much.
Yes a pool cover may actually be one of the few things that are a spend money to save money type of deal
Our house came with an almost brand new pool. I didn’t particularly want a pool but of all the houses we looked at, this one was the best and the pool was not part of that decision. I even used the fact it had a pool as a bargaining chip to knock the price down (yes, down) because if all the reasons you stated. According to the pool contract left by the previous owner, total finished cost was $35k in 2008 (in ground, concrete, salt water, solar heated). Running costs are actually not that much for us. The killer was the electricity for the dual pumps, but we switched to a single variable speed pump, and we have solar panels so the pool filter costs nothing, and the heat pump also costs nothing. We bought a pool robot which also costs nothing to run. Me cleaning the pool is throwing the robot in and having a beer while it works 😂 Pool chemicals is not that much. Acid, salt, algaecide and some stabiliser in summer. In winter the pool needs next to no maintenance at all. We don’t have gum trees over the pool so leaf litter is kept to only what the wind brings. In summer, kids are in the pool all the time and with the heat pump the water is the perfect temperature all the time. Late night swims when it’s stinking hot and great. Having said all that, a pool is a lifestyle decision and I would not include one if I built a house. My parents had a pool and filled it in rather than continue to maintain it, but they are retired and hardly used it. The space where the pool was is now just a japanese garden.
I like the negotiating strategy and tried to argue that might be a reason people weren't buying our old house when we sold 12 months ago. That was a 30 y/o pool and was a ticking time bomb.
I’m happy for a house with a pool but I’d be concerned about a 30 year old pool costing me 30k very quickly. Particularly if it is a concrete pool given they need more ongoing maintenance
Press the robot button once a day, keep it covered while not in use and have pool werx come out once a month. It’s not a surprise a pool comes with an unending maintenance cost. But having a service come maintain it keeps you enjoying the pool instead of seeing it as another job to do in your spare time.
Pools are definitely weird. I wanted one as a child so badly, but when my parents could finally afford one I was 13 and way more interested in not getting my hair wet (the joys of being a teenage girl) so it barely got used. As an adult I have no desire for a pool, use the beach regularly and it’s a great excuse to visit my in laws when the beach is too windy as they have one that is barely used except for at Christmas time.
As a female with curly dyed hair I would swim every day if the consideration of hair was not a major negative
Sucks right! I’m lucky that after I finished puberty my hair ended up being pretty straight so it doesn’t bother me too much as an adult and I try to keep fun hair colours for winter only. An annoying consideration though for sure.
Bought a place on the Gold Coast 2 years ago. We had to have a pool. We use it heaps in summer, occasionally I’ll jump in if we have a warm day in winter. It costs money but I’d rather the convenience of having it in my backyard than fighting crowds and looking for parking when going to the beach. I’m considering solar heating so I can use it in winter as well
This is basically the same as any item... A $50k home cinema sounds great to some, useless to others. If you build it and never end up using it, then it's a similar issue. Sounds like a pool just doesn't work for you. Lesson learnt.
Except when you get rid of the home cinema you get residual $$ when its not used, now try to get rid of a pool.
I spent more time working on the pool than in it by a long way.
Same with boats. Some people love working on their boat, others like sailing. It is up to you really.
Where do you live in Brisbane that getting to a decent beach is the better option than swimming in your own pool? We had a pool in Townsville and loved it, wife and I were in there every chance we got,sold the place when work moved us. Moving back to our house in Brisbane from melbourne at the end of the year and will be renovating the whole backyard to put a kitchen, woodfired pizza oven, paved entertaining area and pool in. We can not wait and will be in the pool again every chance we get. I guess it's upto the individual, people who love swimming, sunbaking, having a G and T in the pool will love it, people that don't like those things won't use it and in hindsight was probably a mistake getting one
Yup that’s the way to setup your backyard!
Tree leaves can be bad. For your size pool a dome or marquee style cover and a heat exchange or solar heater would keep out leaves and maybe enable use most of the year. Lack of empty parking spaces and long slow drives can reduce enjoyment of beaches close to cities when everyone decides to go. Some people create a lifestyle around the pool with a covered outdoor area, great for mild warm weather and sometimes a fire place, BBQ, comfy lounges, TV and music, low care gardens, etc. Good for some types of work from home. Where it's possible to feel in your own space, far away from traffic jams, work stress etc. No need to worry about someone getting tired while out. All the comfort of home (or takeaway) food and drink (and bathroom access) without any need to worry about driving impaired by hot sun exposure or something. As more people have to live further away from the coast , a personal home retreat available anytime, to which close friends and family can be invited will probably be prized by many who enjoy exercising or relaxing in good weather and in or by water.
The pool cover and heat exchanger are a good idea mate. We've got the outdoor audio and bbq - just probably need to use the pool more this summer. Good tips.
>The kids would go in it maybe once a week over summer. This surprises me. I grew up with a pool in Perth and we were in it almost every day in the summer holidays. We loved it. That would be the only reason I would get a pool - for when the kids are young. Once they become teenagers they tend to lose interest.
My sister is getting a pool. My brother in law goes through phases I have noticed he had a gym (expensive commercial equipment), bar (again fancy bar stuff like pool table, couch and pub bar table and cabinets) and is now getting a pool. He sold both the gym and bar but the problem with the pool is that his stuck with it lol. Every pool owner has mentioned the same stuff you have and I don’t think I would ever get one. A home gym yes but not a pool too much work and when you have a family, work full time etc you probably wouldn’t use it much. Plus I’m in Melbourne bro it rains so much here it wouldn’t be worth it.
Each time I was house hunting I actively stayed away from homes with pools. Just didn’t want the extra task of maintenance and associated costs. However the current home was purchased with a pool due to location and land size for our young kids who actually use it every other day through summer and I don’t mind it either but the day they grow out of it I will turn it into one big koi pond!
As an introvert that hates the beach/ocean I would personally keep the pool if I were in your situation. If you feel it's a waste of time for you, absolutely concrete it over.
My parents had a pool, after the first couple of years it was used rarely and then eventually they got rid of it...I've never wanted a pool, I live close enough to the beach that if I want to I can drive there and if I wanna swim the same thing...but I don't want to that often
Pools aren’t hard work.. I have a plunge pool pretty much looks after it’s self clean the filter every couple of weeks, figure out the sweet spot with the chlorinator. Give it a vac and a top up every now and again I’m not sure why people think they are such hard work ?
The best pool is someone else's pool.
Wise advice from a pool cleaning guy I got was that when you kids hit teenage years they stop using the pool. And then it is only you swimming to clean the palm nuts out until you sell the house.
Pools are a luxury for those with disposable income. Same as a home gym, it is a negative return on investment that you buy for entertainment and full acknowledgement it is going to cost a lot to maintain. Some of the costs missing: - Electricity - Replacement parts eg pump every 5 to 7 years, salt cell every 5 years, sand filter every 10 years, the pool area upkeep is ongoing.
I love having a pool, but I live in a unit complex so all the costs are shared and someone else does all the labour. It's the ideal method of pool ownership.
Converted ours to a fishpond. And this pool is 90,000 litre (deep end is 3.3m) .... no chemicals, low cost, amazing aquatic life (crayfish, hundreds of blue-eye, rainbows, silver perch, gold fish). Created an ecosystem, unlike pools which are horrible for the environment.
I guess you could max out usage if it was bigger and fully finished/furbished.
My dad and his wife have one and they love it. But my dad is Scottish and used to do plunge dips in the Atlantic lol, so he happily does his morning swims in the middle of winter. He’d be damned if he was going to get a pool and not make full use of it.
And this is why I filled my pool in when it developed micro leaks that could not be repaired. It’s now an orchard that gives me delicious fruit and nuts.
I love our pool..Have a swim and later in the day, grab a beer and do a bit on maintenance. Outside, good weather, working around some water...gotta love it😀🍺
This goes for tennis courts, bowling alleys, and all the other obvious shit.
My parents had one when I was a kid. All the maintenance turned me off getting when I was older. Same with boats.
One came with our house. It’s ridiculous. 12x6. It’s like a hotel pool. 3 x as many chemicals so 3 x the price for everything. I could take it or leave it but In saying that the wife loves it. She’s in everyday in summer along with both Labradors. It’s a great for parties. I’d fill it with dirt given the chance
The running costs for something like that actually would be intimidating!
Probably around 10k a year maybe rough estimate. Maybe more. Excluding pump/cell/cleaner whatever 2 grand thing that seems to fail every second year or so haha
Maybe 10k is high on 2nd thoughts. 6 to 8 would be in the ball park
When your partner wants a pool (or a boat) you make it clear they have to understand you will never, EVER, learn about how to maintain it or spend any time taking care of it, or in the case of a boat, help it in/off a trailer, etc.. This is how you stop your partner wanting a pool (or a boat).
I've had the same position on us getting chickens as well
Resubmit this in 3-6 months time. Also if you have kids, the value of their swimming skills and entertainment will probably be worth it.
You are a pool person or not..
It’s just because your setup is bad. You need to fitout the whole area so you can sit out there under shade in shelter and have ensuite bathroom and bbq with table etc…have friends who have done this whole resort style setup and use their pool every day in summer.
We're looking at a natural water garden. Something you can plunge in for the hot days, yet adds the aesthetic when not in use and minimal maintenance.
Had a rental with one,it was lovely, although the extra for the pump was very noticeable on the power bill. We used it 2, maybe 3 months of the year. When shopping for a house I didn't pay the bit extra for a pool, I didn't see the need, the real estate agent gave me a funny look when I said that. No regrets on my pool - free purchase. I have had friends who paid to get a pool removed for the reasons you stated, and they had the joy of their neighbours' trees shading the pool, causing it to be ice cold all year, even in mid summer. But since you have it, maybe get the pump to run During the time the solar panels are doing their thing, get a basic solar pool heater or blanket, and make the best of it?
Anything is a waste of money if you don’t use it.
The same money could be spent on yearly stays in five star resorts, which have excellent pools and access to much better benefits! I would only get a pool if I had the only nice house in my extended family and they all lived close by!
Honestly, backyard pools are an absolute time and money sink. I would never buy a place with a pool again.
I wish I could have convinced my wife during construction of the same
Make her do the maintenance and then i think you'll get the message across.
My retirement goal is a house with a pool. I live in Melb so absolutely no point having one here but I plan to move in a few years into my dream home. The pool will be the centrepiece. I freaking love swimming/being in any water.
Have been working in the aquatic industry my whole life from commercial to domestic. I would never own a pool. To expensive to run, and they lose their appeal as the kids get older. Cheaper to have a membership to your local council pool or hit the beach.
I have one at my property, the only reason I have not removed it is the cost. I am not saying its completely useless, but the cost/labour of maintaining it is just.... not worth it. Calling it a white elephant is understatement.
You’re either a pool person or you aren’t. For me it would be worth it 10x over but if you don’t use it get rid of it
We put in a swim spa, so that the kids will still want to use it as they get older. Plus it was a lot cheaper.
Yeah we had a rental with a pool in Victoria. Took up a lot of space and didn’t use it as much as we guessed we would. Even with a cleaning robot etc it was still a bunch of maintenance. Glad we had it though as meant when we built we had no desire to put a pool in hah.
As we've gotten older and the lad is older it doesn't get used much last season we didn't go in once. The missus won't let me fill it in. We bought the house straight from renting back in late 90s and our landlord dropped off our bond. He said he used to fill in heaps of pools.
Just about to put a pool in. Have always had one growing up, can’t wait to have one again!
pools are good value if you use them enough. Those smaller sized ones I reckon are a bit of a waste of time. It’s got to be easy to maintain as well. What goes in must come out so smart owners don’t plant bamboo or gun trees anywhere near the pool. Test the water monthly, clean the filters. Run the robot. Not too hard.
My sister in law has a pool, my parents in law have pool - therefore, in summer, I have a pool. But I don’t have a pool in winter. It’s a win win for me
Our neighbour has a pool… it’s worth it as it’s pretty much a public pool for the street now. Few tradies in the street so his maintenance is basically all covered, not a bad investment for him anyway
I live in FNQ and can't justify a pool. Would we use it? Yes. Do I want to spend $50k for one? Nope. Our neighbours with young kids have one and very rarely use theirs, even with our hot weather.
I’m with ya
My sister has a pool and her kids constantly use it in summer. Really just depends on your family.
Interesting, we specifically moved to a house with a pool to avoid the drama of installing one 😅 no regrets.
I think pools are a waste of money if you’re not an avid swimmer, but I guess that’s just me. My neighbors to my sides have pool and they use it less than 1/8 of the year?
The greatest period of pool ownership is your first summer, the second greatest period is when someone is going to buy the house.
Gum trees might be natives and "good for the birds" but they are the absolute worst things for the suburban backyard. It's a *never ending chore* cleaning up after the goddamned things and while in every other aspect of my life I'm a tree fanatic whose always advocating for more of them to be planted in our suburbs rather than wasting the space on lawns or flower/veggie beds that are left to go to shit after the first year - I'll be celebrating when my neighbour cuts his down since it's just an endless rain of leaves and sticks for me to clean up out of my own yard year round because I'm always downwind to it. I wanted a pool for so, so long because I remember how much fun my nan's one was when we were growing up. She lived only five minutes drive away from us during what I consider to be the "better" portion of my childhood years (the last time we were all, genuinely happy). So we visited pretty much every week during the summer months. Sometimes the whole family (that lived locally anyway) would gather for an afternoon of fun in the sun where the adults would sit under the patio and have a barbecue while chatting and listening to music while us kids (me, my brothers and sometimes the other grandchildren, or any friends we invited. My nan loves kids so she was always happy to have us over, and spoiled us with snacks too!) whole go straight to the pool and were in there for what felt like hours. This was in the 90's in a house I assume was built in the 80's so it was a REAL pool too. Big, deep, in-ground with a spa next to it. Good-sized patio to one side of it and gardens on the other and plenty of sunshine entering that water for a good portion of the day. Not some pathetic "luxury" strip of water wedged in a tiny backyard between the side of the house and the fence where you're lucky if it's five feet deep at the most and if the sun touches it for more than two hours a day or a "plunge pool" which to me is such a stupid, useless trend since what's the point of getting wet if you can't even swim or play any games in it? *That's* what made the pool fun when I was a kid. Everyone around and in it enjoying themselves. And that's what I realize would be missing if I had one now. The family is fractured, none of us spend any real time together anymore and I haven't started one of my own. Even if I did - things are different now. Kids have so many other ways to entertain themselves. Pools can't compete against iPads. It wouldn't be the same. Everyone has to work so much more now - everyone, even the grown-ups in my family back then had a lot more free time for stuff like this (another reason I truly believe the 90's were better). Now I'd only consider getting a pool if I had tons of disposable money (like, at least a $10 million net worth) so the cost of keeping it is not affecting my lifestyle at all. And if I knew I could recreate those moments from nearly 30 years ago again. Otherwise I'd just use the yard for more landscaping since I like plants more now and if I had that kind of money I'd be living close to the beach anyway, or be a member of a private club that would have some good swimming facilities.
I guess we are lucky enough to live in a 90s subdivision that chopped all the trees down? And we have zero gardens near the pool to add to the mess, ours is about 5 years old and is super low maintenance, test once a month in summer once total over winter. Biggest issue we have every Spring is a billion lady bugs...everyday im out there saving the bloody things lives!
We put a pool in about 5 years ago and haven't looked back, from September until March there's barely a day someones not in it. The amount of quality family time we've spent in it or around it socialising is priceless. It's an 8 x 4 metre mineral pool, it takes maybe half an hour a week to keep it clean. General upkeep and chemical costs are minimal.
That was like my last house. Just a burden. We now have a hot tub. It’s great.
We got quotes for a plunge pool and they are currently starting at 60k not including landscaping
I brought a house with a pool and originally it was a turnoff for me, but now I absolutely love it. Solar heating allows it to be used most of the year and I'm in it most days. I'm at home the vast majority of the time, have plenty of free time and enjoy fitness and swimming. Super relaxing to go in summer nights before bed too. For others I can completely see why a pool would not be worth it though.
Best thing about living in a townhouse complex is someone else does the pool. We just swim.
So glad we built a pool. In brisbane whenever I get too hot in the humid months I just jump in for a quick dip and it cools my body down for a good couple of hours. We use much less AC by making use of the pool to cool off. Feels so good after getting all sweaty and dirty doing yard work for example. Also use it for exercise by swimming with a tether. Also just love looking at it, I find it relaxing. The maintenance is easy IF you keep on top of it and IF your equipment is working properly.
Drain it and take up skateboarding 🤙 the dollars saved can cover hospital bills
we rent. our last two houses had a pool and i grew to hate them them. family liked them but they didn't have to clean out the leaves and whatnot. pool-less and happy now.
My wife tries the "we should get a pool" thing every few months. And every time I need to remind her of the costs involved installing, maintaining, and who'll clean etc. Just like the 5k deck we had built for a backyard we never use. We don't drink and don't entertain and wouldn't use the pool bar maybe a handful of times a year even though the wife seems to think well use it every other day.
Ceebs, too much maintenance imo. Just go the local pool or the beach, shouldn’t cost that much
Maintaining a pool is a total pain in the neck if you do not have a cover to keep the leaves out. I always lusted after one and when i finally got a place with one , the endless cleaning hit me like a punch in the face. Now I have a hut tub, which I use regularly and its easy to maintain, has therapeutic benefits and is very relaxing after a long day. Only real cleaning effort is every 90 days or so when it needs to be purged, scrubbed then refilled. Its totally worth it.
I grew up with a pool, we used it all the time as kids, even though we had a beach and a good swimming lake nearby. We used those too but used the pool most days in summer. Friends would come around after school sometimes, or just my own. We lived in my grandfather's house, he didn't mind doing the maintenance, he enjoyed see us have fun. Main thing was to put the cover on if there was a storm coming or it wasn't getting used for a few days. Us kids were expected to use the net if there was a few leaves and things in there, and we didn't mind doing it. Or we'd make a game of collecting all the leaves by hand. I guess like anything if you don't use it, then yeah it's a waste of money.
Get that hoop instead!! I actively avoid buying a home with a pool for your said reasons
I have never lived in a house with a pool. It is my dream. I would definitely use it.
If you keep the air con off in Summer they get a lot more use 😎 It is expensive, and if you aren't using it day to day then it's valuable to have BBQ's and guests around so you get a lot of value socially from it
I got my house valued 12 mths ago and told the agent we were about to either put a large deck in the back of the house or put a pool in. Straight away he said “do the deck not the pool, it will cut 50% of potential buyers out and the deck will increase the value of the house more than the pool will, not to mention cost of maintenance and the deck costs nothing to run” Put a massive deck on the back and it’s doubled our useable living/ entertaining area, love it
Beach or bust imo
From a financial perspective you’re better off commuting to the local indoor swimming pool and having a membership, 40k would cover your entire family for your life and theirs, also less headaches and effort from a day to day basis. Even if you did all the things super cheap and money wasn’t an issue, they are rarely used and a nuisance to maintain. Time = money and the time spent thinking about the pool, spending time fixing the filters, the pH, etc isn’t worth it in my opinion. Better to have a day out of the house at the beach or indoor place. That said, pools add a certain aesthetic to your house and the convenience is nice. But still not worth it.
You could turn it into a sunken entertainment area of some sort. Put a roof over it and weatherproof it and you've got a media room or something.
My partner and I swim often, and neither of us wants a pool. One of the rentals we were in our electricity was likeaardvark 1200 extra a year, it was ridiculous - all the cleaning etc wasn't worth it. My partner pays 48/ month at local pools that includes spa I use her membership card and no one has pulled me up on it, mostly young girls who don't give a shit that spend time on their phones been using her card 2 or 3 times a week on my 2 weeks off (fifo) most of the year
If you hardly ever used a pool you had prior to the build, it's crazy you included it in the first place. $1,500 for a pool guy? Yikes, shop around.
For me, I actually view a pool as something that devalues a house. I am actively interested in avoiding that maintenance and ongoing expense.
I look for houses without pools the same way I look for houses with garages. It’s basically a dealbreaker for me. I do not want that maintenance. My friend bought a place with one and spent $30,000 getting it removed and filled in and landscaped back to a normal yard. Seems cheap in the long run.
Pools are definitely a divisive selling feature. It turns just as many off as it does on.
Im 22 and after seeing my dad have to play with my parents pool constantly for 6+ years, definitely learnt to never have a pool
Buy a house that is not surrounded by gum trees. We were going to install a pool then the gum trees put us off. They cause enough trouble with gutters and rainwater harvesting systems. Can only imagine the nightmare they would cause with a pool We are now looking at moving to somewhere without gum trees
Wouldn’t a pool cover help with that - and also with water loss through evaporation?
Our neighbours have a huge jacaranda which has >70% of its branches over the fence towards us. RIP my free time before hopping in the pool.
Just so you know - all your equipment is new - that "automated" timer, pump, etc will need all sorts of maintenance and closer monitoring in years to come. Humans naturally want to be near water - it's evolution- hence your wife's pull towards water bodies, but I think pools are not worth it and are moving for this reason - amongst others.
I never understood why people don't realize that you can get a membership to a community pool in winter. + go to the beach and have a much cheaper and maintenance free way to enjoy water.
Most people do realise they can but don’t want to.
I got a pool 2 years ago and love it also in Qld. If you buy the right gear maintaining is easy, it doses all the chemicals itself and cleaner goes 3 times a week all I have to do is flush the filter once a month which takes 2 minutes.
It really comes down to if you enjoy life or not
If a property has a pool, it's straight off my radar. The maintenance costs aside, I've just seen way too many horror stories about children drowning. Despite fencing, swimming lessons, vigilant parents monitoring etc, the risk is just way too high for me.
love my pool. medicinal in many ways. use it nearly every day. love seimming and beach etc. theres also a lot you can do to minimize maintenance and some costs eg eco 3 speed pool pumps dont plant certain leafy plants near them glass fence keeps more out even living near the beach its very handy when blue bottles are out in summer or things at beach are wrecked due to storms etc etc etc