Pool or no Pool

Forgot to mention in my post – make sure the pool builder is a member of SPASA. If something goes wrong you have someone looking out for you. Our pool builder was not a member and he had (told to us by one of his subcontractors) 30 shells to finish in the weeks prior to Christmas. We had many grey hair moments getting our pool done before he went broke. We also found out we didn’t have a finish date in our contract, so we couldn’t jump up and down too much about how long it took.

We got a great looking pool but lots of grey hair on the way. We also learned about what to ask next time. We went up a notch in the filter size rather than have it struggle. We used green tinged pebblecrete (we didn’t want a blue pool) and salt. Make sure you use someone who is recommended, or one of the big companies. Our pool could easily have been a disaster, but we were lucky it worked out, because we really didn’t know much about it before we started and though we did our homework, it is the finer points that can trip you up.

Good luck, Wylie.

We moved into our PPoR last November after kicking the useless student tenants out. They’d promised to rectify the pool for certain rental favours, but as usual with tenants, took the good side from the Landlord and dumped the responsibility….another story for another time.

Pool experts said it’d cost 15K to refurbish, or 5K to pull out and another 25K to put another one in. As usual, we ignored their inflated advice.

We mucked in and gave the area a birthday. Hauled 6 tonnes of skanky swampy water out with a bucket…fantastic leg and bum workout.

Gave it a scrub and pure chlorine wash and she came up trumps…it’s a 45 yr old concrete saltwater pool. 109 cubic metres of volume. An army could get in there without bumping shoulders. Cost to this stage was $ 300.

Got rid of the rusty old pump and filter and put in brand new ones. Got jipped again by experts, they sold us a pump that has the capacity to turn over the pool’s capacity 4 times per day (the recommended minimum) but it takes 22 hours to do it. Big tip…if in doubt, go the bigger pump. Costs about $ 1-10 per day in electricity to keep it running.

All up refurbishment cost was $ 2.5K great value for money. It’s added about 20K to the value of our place. We don’t think they are an imposition cost wise at all.

We have 3 young girls and they absolutely love it. Swimming lessons are a joke now…they learn more in one day out in the pool than in a whole season prancing around singing songs and carrying on like pork chops with instructors.

Best thing is that they are getting great exercise, and at the end of the day they are absolutely knackered, which means early to bed and no carrying on when they get in there. There appetite improves as well. It’s all good.

In the winter, the ducks use it as a pond. Duck poo is not so great, so we fully encourage our crabby ol’ Jack Russell to get after them…great entertainment for the whole family.

There’s an old springboard that came with the pool, and the challenge before summer arrives is to fix up the old 20″ casing that has rusted off 30 years ago and sheared in the ground that acts as the base of the springboard. Apparently I’ll be the best Dad in the whole wide world when that gets rectified. Welding and me don’t mix though…need someone who’s not such a great big Nancy. That’s firmly in the ‘to learn’ pile…must add that to the skill set.

And another thing – what is it with kids in pools and screaming their heads off ?? Why is it, that when water touches their body, they have this primeval urge to scream their lungs out…constantly…for hours on end….every time ?? Why can’t kids play in pools without shouting ??

Cheers,

Dazzling

“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”

Hahahahahahaha, just dragged the kids out of our spa! They were screaming the neighborhood to pieces……[biggrin]

Hahahahahaha – still can’t believe that that is what I was thinking off, not two minutes ago!

To be young again……[cap]

Cheers
C@34

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try something one more time.
– Thomas Edison

Robbo

Just my experience;

On maintenance – find a chemical supply company rather than using the local pool shop. It cuts the cost & maintenance time by about 80%. You can go from needing 12 expensive products to only about 4 basics. I have a salt water pool too.

Also, consider the shape of the pool to get. Mine has a built in spa which has corners and steps so the pool cleaner gets stuck there & doesn’t do as good a cleaning job as it could.

Tracee