Costs and tips in building and maintain your own swimming pool

The attraction of having your own pool can be great, the icing on the cake to complete that landed home. But do beware of the costs.

Firstly to construct a pool it can cost upwards of 100-200k, the more custom or irregular it is, the more it costs. Access to the land, the effort in digging also costs.

If you really want a long lasting pool, use rebar and concrete, with many layers of waterproofing. It may cost more, but it will last.

Think of how to site the equipment, eg the pumps, the piping, the outlets, the sump etc, and work with an experienced contractor to fulfil your dreams. 

Understand how much noise it generates, so you can see how close you wish to site it to your home. 

Remember to account for some landscaping around it, be it decking, granite or even trees. But remember trees can dump a lot of leaves into the pool giving you more work. 

Use reliable parts, and good piping, valves etc so you don't end up with repairs sooner than you think.

Having a nice counter current system is good, so even if you do not have a large pool, you can do real exercise. Factoring that into the build helps.

Power is another consideration. Does your home have enough current to support a pool? A three phase 63A system should be fine, but if you have other high current items, do consider a 100A three phase power supply.

As for maintenance, if hire someone, factor in about $70-100 a week to clean and help maintain the pH of your pool. 

If you want to DIY, make sure you have the time so it does not become a murky fungus filled cesspool. You need commitment to clean the pump, learn how to balance the pH, shop for chemicals and spend elbow grease to clean the pool itself. It is definitely not something you can delegate to the domestic help, especially if they are not familiar or don't know how to swim.

A month's worth of chemicals like chlorine can cost you 50-100$ depending on the size of the pool. Add a tube of pH strip and testing equipment that will cost $30-50.

Expect to flush the pump two or three times a month, and clean the pool at the same time. 

You need to know the parts of the pump, how to turn the valves, scrub the tiles, suck the dirt from the bottom, sweep the leaves, and clear the scum. 

Every few years, the pump, the pool lights and even the valves will fail and require replacement, so add these costs in, which can run into the thousands. 

When you have all these costs accounted for, plus the hassle of cleaning, then you can embark on this journey.

I enjoy the swim, the exercise and just having a body of water which can cool down the home tremendously, and I take the cleaning as a form of exercise, but you must be diligent to do it all the time. 

** I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.