Outdoor swimming pools - cost considerations. Upkeep vs infill!

andthethreebears

A bit premature maybe, but hoping for some advice on cost considerations that come with an outdoor / in ground pool.

Can anyone give me any advice on how much the following options are likely to cost - or any alternatives I might have forgotten...

- Draining / refilling an old 30ft pool (full of dirty water)
- Maintenance / running costs of pool (hot and cold)
- Draining and boarding over (so we could possibly use it in future)
- Draining and in filling pool permenently

Thanks in advance!

CrazyRed

Draining and refilling : Dependent on depth, you could have up to 60,000L of water in there. If you're on a water meter, then refilling that pool could work out expensive!

Emptying it is easy - drill-driven pump, or submersible pump and a hosepipe leading to a drain. Just the cost of electricity for the draining pump and kettle (for you - you'll be drinking a lot of tea whilst it drains)....

Maintenance costs : Cold. You'll have the running costs of the pump (probably 0.75-1.0HP for that size of pool) which will be around 375-550W per hour. My MIL's costs about £20 a month on average to run the pump. You'll then have chemical costs to take into account (chlorine, shock and algaecide as a minimum - try https://www.swimmingpoolchemicals.co.uk as a supplier - we found them one of the cheapest and very quick delivery). Say £50-60 a season. If you've got a sand filter, that's pretty much the end of your costs (assuming pipework is OK and you don't take into account your time taken backwashing and dosing) but if you've got the type of filter that has replacement cartridges, then factor in a couple of those per season.

Maintenance costs : Hot . Depends on the heating system. Electricity? Hope and pray you're on E7 and be prepared for some scary-sized bills. The last electrical heater I had dealings with was a 19Kw unit which cost a small fortune to run and took an absolute age to heat the pool (4-5 days). We then changed to oil and cut our costs dramatically - it's still not "cheap" don't get me wrong, but it's a lot, lot cheaper than electricity! Obviously, you'll have servicing costs for anything that isn't an electrical heater but the boilers are the same as a domestic heating boiler, and costs similar.

Drain and board over - if the pool structure is strong enough to allow that, then that's a good possibility BUT the seals in the pump and all around the pipework (especially the spider gasket on the sand filter) will dry out and may well leak/need replacement when you come to recommission everything. Cost to drain and board over? Drain - as above - won't cost much but will be time-consuming. Board over? Depends on what boards you want and whether you need to add additional structural support inside the pool so the board (decking boards?) doesn't flax alarmingly when you're standing on it!

Fill in permanently? This won't cost much if you can get hold of one of your local "muck away" guys and offer them the opportunity to dump a couple of full loads of building site waste in there! For a pool that size, and assuming 4ft depth, I'd say you'll want 2-3 full 30-ton loads to fill that in. All you'll then have to pay for is compacting the rubble down, some weed control fabric and a skim of topsoil or your chosen topping for the former pool. If you do this, don't forget that the pump and filters have some value on the secondhand market and you may well raise a few beer vouchers..

HTH

andthethreebears

Thanks so much!

I had completely neglected to consider the cost of the water - yes I think it's metered! What an expense! :eek:

CrazyRed

It doesn't necessarily need to be drained and refilled. Even if the algae is pretty significant, it will respond to shock treatment and the filter will then filter it out of the water.

That, and a decent, long-life algaecide, plus the occasional dose of water clarifier for good measure, plus regular use of the Multifunction Chlorine tablets will keep the water spotless. Just before winter shutdown, dump 10L of shock, 5L of long life algaecide into the pool and let it circulate for 24 hours (don't use the pool in this time) then shut down the pumps, close the valves and drain the filter/pump system, leaving the pool water in the pool.

Babbawah

Surely, if one is considering ones own outdoor pool, then the running costs are irrelevant.

It's like asking "how much to run a Bentley Mulsanne".

If Sir needs to ask !!!

tired_dad

A good cover is essential. Keeps heat in (lowers bills). A pump to remove rainwater from the cover. Some sort of cleaning device.

Once you have a pool with the sundries, it is not that bad. Easy to use from say May to Sept. If you run the pool all year then costs will be much higher as heating cold water needs more energy than water that is already warm.

The pump and gas don't need to be on all the time. 8 hrs a day in season should be enough.

VoucherMan

Babbawah wrote: »

Surely, if one is considering ones own outdoor pool, then the running costs are irrelevant.

It depends on how you read it.

andthethreebears wrote: »

A bit premature maybe


an old pool

Suggests to me

An existing pool which the op does not own, so possibly a house the op is considering buying already has a pool and the op is trying to decide what to do with it.

andthethreebears

Babbawah if you're going to buy a Bentley, surely you don't want it just sat on your drive? Considering running costs is essential to the initial purchase!

But yes, Voucherman is correct. We're househunting and in our part of the country a lot of houses seem to have pools. And the one in particular we're interested in hasn't been used in well over a year - I don't want a house with an oversized mucky puddle in the garden if I can't afford to maintain it!

CrazyRed - that's interesting, but honestly the thought of swimming in water that's been stagnant for 12m+ makes my skin crawl! I'd have to have it emptied and refilled before I could use it!!

lstar337

andthethreebears wrote: »

CrazyRed - that's interesting, but honestly the thought of swimming in water that's been stagnant for 12m+ makes my skin crawl! I'd have to have it emptied and refilled before I could use it!!

Water is water surely?

Once it has been treated and filtered it'll be the same old H2O, unless I am missing something. Or are you just talking from a psychological perspective?

Do you ever swim in sea water? Chances are after you are done treating the water it'll be cleaner than that.

curiosity101

andthethreebears wrote: »

CrazyRed - that's interesting, but honestly the thought of swimming in water that's been stagnant for 12m+ makes my skin crawl! I'd have to have it emptied and refilled before I could use it!!

I'd stop drinking / eating all products that contain water then.
Every manner of creatures poop / pee / any other bodily fluid you can think of has probably been in there are one point or another... then filtered out over time.

Now we have water treatment plants so you can add chemicals and mechanical filtration to that.

Admittedly water dissipates into hydrogen and oxygen then reforms, so technically it's not the same water. But if the water body has existed for the whole length of time then I think my points above are valid.

Eitherways, you really aren't gaining anything with the extra costs of emptying and refilling. The water just needs treating / filtering.

JimmyTheWig

All very interesting, CrazyRed. Very knowledgable post.

Just to jump on the OP's thread...

CrazyRed wrote: »

Maintenance costs : Cold. You'll have the running costs of the pump (probably 0.75-1.0HP for that size of pool) which will be around 375-550W per hour. My MIL's costs about £20 a month on average to run the pump. You'll then have chemical costs to take into account (chlorine, shock and algaecide as a minimum - try www.swimmingpoolchemicals.co.uk as a supplier - we found them one of the cheapest and very quick delivery). Say £50-60 a season. If you've got a sand filter, that's pretty much the end of your costs (assuming pipework is OK and you don't take into account your time taken backwashing and dosing) but if you've got the type of filter that has replacement cartridges, then factor in a couple of those per season.

So £20 a month for 5 months a year = £100, plus £50-£60 chemicals a year plus a bit extra for cartridges and anything else. But are you saying it should cost within £200 a year? Sounds cheaper than I was expecting.

Maintenance costs : Hot . Depends on the heating system. Electricity? Hope and pray you're on E7 and be prepared for some scary-sized bills. The last electrical heater I had dealings with was a 19Kw unit which cost a small fortune to run and took an absolute age to heat the pool (4-5 days). We then changed to oil and cut our costs dramatically - it's still not "cheap" don't get me wrong, but it's a lot, lot cheaper than electricity!

Any chance of giving ball-park figures for the electricity cost vs oil cost? I.e. how much would it cost to run from May to September?