By Gene Ayres

Having been a homeowner, and pool owner, in California, Florida, New Jersey, and North Carolina, and even built my own swimming pool on one foolish impulse a while back in Florida, let me once again attempt to dissuade those of you contemplating such an acquisition in a word: don’t! You may know the old saying about boat ownership. How the owner of a boat (another topic for another day) has two happy days: the day he buys, and the day he sells. The same goes for swimming pools. And by the way, at least in those sunshine states of California and Florida, swimming pools add almost nothing to the value of the property! But they sure as heck add a pile to the cost of maintenance.

I have written about the new idea of car sharing. This is an old idea when it comes to swimming pools, and it still makes sense. Too much chlorine in that public pool, you say? Well you will need just as much in your own private pool, even one that bathes nobody’s private parts but yours. Ozone better? Well, not for the atmosphere. But that aside, an ozone generator is going to cost a decade’s worth of chlorine, or more. Is that worth it to you? The thing you have to bear in mind, as with a car, is how much time do you actually spend per day in that big bucket of water? Ten minutes? (Ooh, it’s a bit chilly in there, is it?) Twenty minutes? An hour? If so, you must be on the swim team, or have a kid who is. But unless you plan on an Olympics career, is that really worth the cost?

Then of course, how many weeks out of the year will you really be using that pretty little decorative piss puddle (pardon the term, but if you have small children, and they have friends, that’s what it will be!). If you have money to burn, and such a fragile ego that you really, really feel the need to show off, then ok. Knock yourself silly. Put in a spa while you’re at it. And a nice spring board, which means a deeper deep end and another 10,000 gallons of water to treat and that much deeper a hole to dig, but hey, you’ve got money to burn. Right?

Let’s look at some figures. These are general, and from my own experience, and thus slightly dated, but should give you a general idea. The minimum cost for building a 12X25 foot swimming pool is going to be about $16,000, if you’re lucky. If you don’t have to detonate rock formations or remove forests, and can get a serious hole digger in there. Then, once that hole is dug, you’ll need to be even luckier, that there isn’t a spring, or an old well, or somebody’s old sump, dump, cesspool, or sewer pipe down there (or some conduits belonging to a now very angry utility company!). No problem? So far so good. Then the concrete gets poured, the pipes get laid for your skimmer, vacuum, and filtration system, the wiring for your lights, and so on.

Then comes the chemical treatments. Figure about $20 a month, for do-it-yourself. Add on the same amount for electricity, unless, of course, clever green-minded you prefers to spend an extra $10K for a solar system, for those two sunny days a year. Starts to add up, doesn’t it? So for that first year you’ll be spending about $45 a day to use that pool. After that, assuming the hole is paid for, maybe $2 or so.

Now, how much does that local swimming hole cost you? If it’s on one of the public lakes, pretty much nothing, aside from whatever pennies are wheedled out of your property taxes (which you’ll be paying anyway). If it’s a community pool, such as Kirkland or Shoreline, you may have to shell out a few bucks a month. Or even per use. But compare that with that daily drain, day in day out, month after month.

Which brings us back to that usage thing again. You have to maintain a swimming pool all year round. Even in Florida, we only used ours from April to October. In Seattle, it’ll be more like June to September. But you still need algaecide, vacuuming, leaf removal, filter cleaning and replacement ($50 a pop for a replacement filter?) and so on, year round. Do it yourself? Plan on at least an hour a week. How much is your time worth? Or pay the pool guy $200 a month (including winters, although it might be a bit less then).

Then there’s the cost of the water itself. Can we really spare between 15,000 and 35,000 gallons for the initial fill, plus thousands more replacement water per year for somebody’s vanity dip? Can you? That could add another $20 to $50 a month. Then, there’s repainting, repair of the finish, and so on, which over time will run thousands more.

In short, swimming pools are a money pit, which is why you see so many that have been abandoned (there’s a great liability hazard for you), filled with algae, muck, dead leaves, or dirt, even at condos, motels and apartment houses. If you ask me, you could join a pretty nice country club for a fraction of the cost of pool ownership, and use it just as much, or more. At my condo, our $246 a month membership dues pays for the pool, the spa, the gardener, and a lot more, and I use it is much as I want to, and it’s still a heckuva lot cheaper than having my own.

Of course, if you have money to burn, no problem. Enjoy your swim. If you don’t mind all that chlorine, that is. I didn’t even mention the health hazards...!