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Topic:   Do You Own a Pool? - 881 visits (1 today, 3 this week)

Rick Hurst
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From:Rockwall, TX
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posted January 23, 2006 07:24 PM            

If so, what do enjoy about it the most and what is your gripes about it.

Would you consider a salt water pool?

How deep is your pool? Would you have a deeper pool or say a 5-6ft. to be able to play water volleyball type sports in it?

Spa? Do you use it or was it a waste of your money?

Joe Griffin
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From:Londonderry NH
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posted January 23, 2006 08:22 PM            

Rick, I have both. A 10 ft. deep diving pool, and a 6 person hot tub.

I wish I lived in a warmer climate as the pool is a LOT of work. My kids are grown and it hardly gets used. It was great when they were younger, but now I dread the opening and closing, and maintenance.

If you have young kids, a pool with an ample shallow end is more fun for them, and your insurance company will like it too, they really frown on diving boards and such.

Now the hot tub, different story. It is three steps away out the patio door, and it is one of the best returns on investment I have have ever realized.

We use it in the rain, (cantilevered umbrella) and in the snow. It is great with and without cocktails.

My advice: Get the hot tub first. It requires some maintenance, and it is good practice for the pool.

Keep L@@Kin

Jeff Pope
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From:Santa Clarita, CA
Registered: Feb 2005

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posted January 25, 2006 12:27 PM            

I use my pool on almost a daily basis in the Summer (8 ft with a spa).

I use the spa a couple times a month all year-round.

I'll be converting to a salt-water system this summer.

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Jeff Pope
JPI Home Inspection Service
Santa Clarita, CA

Rick Hurst
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From:Rockwall, TX
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posted January 25, 2006 12:41 PM            

Jeff,

We are checking into the saltwater equipment.

Its an additional 12-1500.

My contractor also says to expect about 5-7 hundred in 5 years on replacing parts on the saltwater equip.

Chemical cost savings may pay for those additional expenses though, plus its supposed to be better for your skin and eyes.

Rick

Jack Ahern
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From:Needham, Ma
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posted January 25, 2006 01:25 PM            

49 sf 6 passenger hot tub installed in Maine. All I need is 25 minutes, a Guinness, and the remote. Should have done it 10+ years ago. Any new house I live in will have a hot tub. Got a pool in the assoc.,pond waterfront, tennis courts,ski area,and marina. Six golf courses within 1/2 hour.
Jack Ahern Needham on the Charles
Bridgton,Maine

Rick Hurst
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From:Rockwall, TX
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posted January 25, 2006 01:30 PM            

Sounds like Jack is enjoying the good life .

Joe Nernberg
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From:Agoura Hills, CA
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posted January 25, 2006 04:10 PM            

Ted Turner (largest private land owner in North America) does NOT have a swimming pool at any of his homes. Doesn't see the point and doesn't care.

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Joe Nernberg

Jeff Pope
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From:Santa Clarita, CA
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posted January 26, 2006 06:09 PM            

My pool contractor gave me pretty much the same info Rick.

Replaster & tile, new equipment and landscape will be setting be back a pretty penny.

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Jeff Pope
JPI Home Inspection Service
Santa Clarita, CA

Kelly Lyles
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From:Flower Mound, Texas
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posted February 08, 2006 05:52 AM            

Just me but the best pool is your friends. I would not own a pool for the cost and upkeep. You do not get a very good return on the $$ you spend on repairs and so on or installing it. Again just me.

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Kelly Lyles

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BARRY ADAIR
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Posts: 343
From:Land of Gar, TX
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posted February 09, 2006 12:27 PM            

Rick,
TMI to discuss what I enjoy the most.
The best days for me were teaching both grandsons to swim and anytime the family and friends gather. It's the grand daughter's turn this year! Gripes are too expensive to keep heated year round.
Kids don't seem to enjoy lap depth pools as much. Grandboys have decided that shallow end is for girls. What a hoot and a pair ta boot.
My family has had a gunite or fiberglass pool and I used to build for Dolphin Pools, San Juan Pools, and worked service and maintenance for Dolphin Pool Supply, talk to Larry Collier 214-532-0434, he’s been in it for at least 30 years and knows the best contractors. After servicing all types I’d never do anything but gunite with pebble finish. Required maintenance depends on the equipment, surrounding landscaping, the number of users, types of sunscreen or lotions, and location. The one we have now is a Polaris cleaned DE filtered 37,500 gallons pebble finish 3’6”-10’ diving pool with swim out seat and the diving board has been removed to reduce insurance cost. 6'4" step son peeled his nose diving off the side the first year we bought. A board may have taken his head off. The pebble finish is much easier on the skin after a full day of horseplay with the kids and grandkids, fewer strawberries than plaster. 12-15 bodies almost every weekend during the swimming season. We play volleyball and other games adults in the deep end kids/grandkids in the shallow end. Kid/grandkids win almost every game.
“Papa Bear” only rules on the pool table. How long that lasts is anyone’s guess.
Average yearly chemical cost, with some minor toy replacement, is less than $200.00. Electricity adds about $50.00-$75.00 monthly average. Water usage varies upon temperature, wind, and the amount of roughhousing going on. I maybe spend 30 min. max a week, if that, on general maintenance. No, the wife and kids don’t pick up where I left off.
I looked into salt and said “aint broke don’t try to fix it”. Salt systems ARE easier on the skin, eyes, and hair. The best I’ve ever installed are essentially self-cleaning with Turbo-Heads mounted into the floor. Dolphin had the exclusive Texas franchise rights at one time.
As far as the hot tub goes, at your age and not getting any younger, YES.
I can’t imagine anyone regretting having a hot tub with or without the pool. Whether you incorporate the two is up to “her” personal taste. Design wise landscaped rock water feature cascading into the pool in view from the tub is pretty hard to beat. Lighting features also make a great deal of difference. Mrs. Adair told me last night the new craze is the walk-in beachfront design. Sundeck models are also “in” shallow slab sized for 1 or more 9”-12” below the water surface. I’ve seen these off to the side contoured like a chaise or out in the middle on a pedestal. Seems like a waste but someone’s buying them.
Give me a call and stop on over sometime when you’re in the neighborhood.

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Life, the random lottery of events, followed by numerous narrow escapes

Badair

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Kevin VanderWarf
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From:Aiken SC
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posted February 12, 2006 08:06 AM            

I got a good deal,
An previous client of mine called and asked if i wanted her 18'above ground pool.
It's a pretty good one, a few grand i would guess.
Said she couldn't figure out the pump and didn't want to buy a new one.
Got it all set up a couple of weeks ago, the pump needed to be primed. I told her I'd give a couple hundred since the problem was so simple.
I prefer the above ground, so I can easily change my mind when the kids get bored with it.

Rick Hurst
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From:Rockwall, TX
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posted February 12, 2006 09:34 AM            

Kevin,

We used to have a above ground pool and enjoyed it. A friend of ours own an above ground pool store. They sell only one brand of pool called a "Doughboy". It is supposed to be the top of the line above ground pool and passed the test of all the rough housing my 2 sons put it through.

We had our pool sunk down in the ground and a nice wooden deck around it. It was great.

Do you know that you can have a light kit put in a above ground pool? It gives you much more use of it. It comes with cutting tool which cuts a perfect circle in the pool wall and then you attach this lamp device. No a drip of water loss around the seals either. Cost around 125.

Rick

Bruce Lunsford
unregistered

posted February 24, 2006 09:11 PM           

I have a saltwater pool and love it. Skin feels great, no eye or nose irritation. You can swim underwater with your eyes open and it's like swimming in your own tears. In fact the salt content is almost identical to your tears.

Rick Hurst
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Posts: 4212
From:Rockwall, TX
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posted March 29, 2006 08:19 PM            

No one ever mentioned the mess we would have.
Click for photo (75469 Bytes)

Richard Stanley
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posted March 30, 2006 05:26 AM            

Rick, If your making omelets, you've got to break some eggs!

Eric Van De Ven
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From:Coconut Creek, Florida
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posted March 31, 2006 06:31 AM            

At least you didn't start out like this:

That is a big pond!

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Eric Van De Ven
Owner/Inspector
Magnum Inspections Inc.
(954) 340-6615
Magnum Inspections Website
"It is what it is" BB
I still get paid to be suspicious when I got nothing to be suspicious about!

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Ralph Stakely
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posted March 31, 2006 09:00 PM            

My backyard. Self installed/constructed 1978. Well worth the time and effort.

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Stay safe and play nice.
Ralph

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