House with a pool

[MrsMummaButterfly]

Hi ladies

Just wanting some advice from anyone who has a pool at home?

We are looking to hopefully buy our first home this year and we have been talking pros and cons of wanting to have a pool.

One con is that we are worried that it wont get used as much as we are thinking.

Would love advice, pros and cons from people

[BigRedV]

We have a pool. We got it installed after we built our house. The kids do definitely use it. Especially when their friends are over. We had a heat pump installed a few months ago as well which has been great as summer hasn’t been as hot this year plus it will extend the swimming season to the April and September school holidays. I don’t regret it one bit but I wouldn’t have wanted to get one before my kids could fall in and get themselves out. I can confidently leave my kids in the pool if I need to rush to the toilet etc.

[bezzy]

DS (age 5) goes in the pool multiple times per day and has done for years. My biggest piece of advice would be to get the solar heating. As previous poster mentioned it does extend the time you can use it.

ETA DD (age 11) uses it maybe once or twice a fortnight.

[babybeeno1]

I have one and I’ll never buy another house with one again. It’s older and I’ve spent probably $20k on it at least fixing and replacing pumps, sand filters and chlorinater etc. look at the age of the pool and the equipment as it may be coming near the end of its life span aswell adding extra costs

[GirlsRock]

We have a swim spa that we had installed 3 years ago. We thought the kids would love it but they really don’t use it as much as we thought they would. If they have friends over they will get in. If DH or I get in they might get in. That said it is used daily if the weather is great but that’s usually by DH or myself.

It is also quite a bit of effort in terms of testing the water, cleaning the filters, adding chemicals etc. I don’t do any of that though, spa maintenance is DHs job.

We turn it down over winter as we didn’t use it at all the one winter we left it turned up as it’s too cold when you get out.

[BigRedV]

DS (age 5) goes in the pool multiple times per day and has done for years. My biggest piece of advice would be to get the solar heating. As previous poster mentioned it does extend the time you can use it.

ETA DD (age 11) uses it maybe once or twice a fortnight.

Just on this, I think the kind of heater you get depends on your location. Where I am, solar would be no good. I live in the mountains in a national park which means the nights are cold even in spring and autumn. Even summer nights cool down a bit with all the trees and we back onto bush. We put in an inverter heat pump. Solar would only warm up the pool by 2 degrees max and that wouldn’t help in April or September.

[BigRedV]

We pay someone to come and service our pool as we are time poor. But now that we know how to do everything, it’s quite easy. You can also take a sample of water to the pool shop and they test it for free and tell you what you need to add.

[Green Cheese]

We pulled ours out this year, it was an above ground that had been half sunk with a deck all around. We’ve lived here for 13 years and it was here when we bought the house. It needed a new liner and a new pump, plus new council regulations of registering and inspecting fences at a cost as well. In the time we lived here we’ve had 4 kids and my hubby works long hours(like 8-6 so not home early enough to swim with small kids) so it barely got utilised and was so much work to keep clean. I am loving all the extra yard space we have created by taking it out.

[babyno1onboard]

We use our pool nearly every day (often twice a day) in summer (SEQ). We were going to get heating to extend our swimming to spring and autumn but are now likely moving so won’t.

The only con is that things can be quite costly to fix if (when) they break.

Edit: it’s great for tiring kids out late in the afternoon so they go to bed on time. My 5 yo goes completely nuts in the pool and is exhausted when she gets out.

[SJ565]

Hi ladies

Just wanting some advice from anyone who has a pool at home?

We are looking to hopefully buy our first home this year and we have been talking pros and cons of wanting to have a pool.

One con is that we are worried that it wont get used as much as we are thinking.

Would love advice, pros and cons from people

Which region are you looking in?