A pool is an impressive feature of a home, but it can also be the most difficult and expensive to maintain. When it comes time to decide between DIY pool care and using a professional pool cleaning service, consider such tasks as maintaining the filter, surface skimming and chemical testing.
Resale Value
A pool can increase not only your social worth but also the value of your home. However, the increase is probably not as much as you think. According to HouseLogic, there's no real guarantee that you'll make your money back. In fact, adding a swimming pool may only increase your home's value by 7%.
The annual cost to maintain your pool
In addition to pool maintenance costs, you should plan to spend an average of $3,000 to $5,000 per year for repairs and utilities. Many homeowners initially underestimate how much electricity a swimming pool uses.
Regular pool/spa maintenance tasks. The following tasks need to be done regularly to maintain your swimming pool or spa. HomeAdvisor estimates that these tasks require four to eight hours per week. You can hire a pool company to help, which typically costs between $75 and $100 per hour, or you can do it all yourself.
At California Pool Care this includes removing debris on the bottom of the pool, complete a chemical balance analysis which may require adding chlorine or other sanitizer to satisfy the pool requirements, test and adjust the chemical sanitizer levels, check the water level to be sure the pump is able to operate ...
In general, it's a good idea to vacuum your pool once a week. You should also vacuum your swimming pool any time you notice large amounts of debris, dirt, or leaves on the floor of the pool (for example, your pool may need vacuuming after a heavy storm).
Chemicals that you add to your pool while the water is circulating don't need to be recirculated; they will stay mixed even if you don't pump the water continually. Although it's generally recommended that all the pool water undergo filtration every 24 hours, the pump does not need to run all the time.
How much does a pool cost to run? The average swimming pool will cost between $660 and $1,000 to run annually – consuming between 2,000 and 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. That's about $23 each week!
You may be paying for weekly service but the guy is coming every other week, or even every three weeks. Since pool guys usually come when you're at work, you have very little way of verifying if and when they're there. 7. Saltwater pools don't take care of themselves.
The cost to install an inground pool is $35,000 on average and can range from $28,000 to $55,000 and sometimes upwards of $65,000 for special customizations and extra features. An added hot tub, for example, will cost $6,000 to $15,000 and pool lighting will be another $700 to $1,800.
Another sweet benefit to owning a pool is that it has an almost magical ability to make physical activity fun. If you struggle to get the kids away from a TV or computer screen, watch what happens when you have a gleaming, blue expanse of delicious swimming goodness waiting just outside!
The average pool contains about 20,000 gallons of water, roughly 5,000 gallons more than the typical human will drink in a lifetime, and pool pumps use up to 2,500 KWh per year to circulate and filter it.
Daily as needed and indicated by measurement. One caveat, however: if your total alkalinity and pH are not where they should be, you will find it difficult to keep enough free chlorine in your pool water. Adjust your alkalinity first, then correct your chlorine.
It may be cheaper to run the pump at night, but honestly you should run it 1 hour a day per 10 degrees of temperature at least, and it should be during the day. Running the pump at night should only be when you are doing a major chemical treatment such as algae clean-up.
Shocking your pool isn't necessary, although, it's not a bad idea either. If you get an extremely heavy rain fall, you could shock your pool for good measure. This will help fight off any contaminants that the rain may have brought to your pool.
Pool water turns green because of algae in the water. Algae can grow rapidly, particularly when it's warm like Summer, which is why it can surprise you overnight. This generally comes down to an imbalance or lack of chlorine in the water.
Should the green be due to pollen, there may be little to do in the way of minimizing the discoloration short of erecting a building around the pool. Fortunately, assuming there are no allergies to the pollen, it is safe to swim in a pool with that as the cause for green water.
People often vomit in pools from accidentally swallowing pool water while swimming. If a person swallows pool water and throws it up, it is unlikely to spread illness. However, if they throw up more than just pool water—like previously eaten food—into the pool, aquatic staff should act immediately to clean it up.
Pool services come in lots of different packages, but for the right price, you can hire someone to do everything required to keep your pool up and running. That includes skimming, cleaning, applying chemicals, and routine maintenance of pool pumps and other equipment.