Getting an In-Ground Pool. Any Advice??
starting a new thread - to ask for any recommendations on in-ground pool companies. I think I convinced my DH to 'jump in' and get an in-ground instead of an above the ground. ( no pun intended).
SOOooooo, I'm again asking for advice, but this time with regard to in-ground. Anyone care to share their experience?
Thanks!!
buzymom 
Get it heated or put it indoors with a roof that opens so you can use more than June thru August. If you are going big, go REAlly big
Just Asking Yup.... don't! Not worth the money, now OR later, in maintenance and/or repair. Above-ground make life sooooo much esier. Okay, maybe not the same "look", maybe doesn't make one appear "wealthy", but, it provided the same, costs thousands less, and when you don't want it anymore, or you want to move, it isn't a liability.
Just my opinion - I've experienced both.
You Know Who
Sandy One thing to think about is how long you intend to live in the house after installing the pool. 1.) Is it worth the investment 2.) People either love or hate pools, so if you intend to move in the next 5-7 years, it may be best to stick with the above ground so it can be removed if the potential buyers aren't keen on the maintenance/safety of an in-ground. If you go with it, I agree with the post about putting in a heater or retractable cover so it can be used most of the year!! Lol, sorry I don't have any advice on pool companies!
I agree with Happy Homemaker on the resale thing. I'm not a fan of pools at all. That being said, I would never buy a house with one. Too much maintenance, liability etc. On the other hand, sometimes a pool might be a good selling point.
Calico696 Agreed Happy From a re-sale point of view you will eliminate a whole group of potential buyers with an ingrown pool. Think carefully. I had an above ground pool that was oval with a wrap around deck. It more than satisfied our families needs. You really do not want people diving in your pool regardless and this is the only thing you lose out on. You may want to check your home owners ins to find out the insurance cost for both inground and above ground. Certainly the cost of the pool itself will be much more for inground. Consider the cost of fencing and landscaping also. Good Luck. You will get many hours of fun and entertainment from it. I know we did.
Firefly Recently paid a fortune to have our in ground pool filled in. It actually cost as much to fill it in as it did to have it built 15 years ago! We had not even uncovered it the last 3 years as the kids are all grown and out of the house. The amount of work and expense involved in maintaining a pool is unbelievable and something that you should be aware of before you jump in, so to speak.
Barb 
Reggie Voter 
Gordy 
BrownEyesGuy We've always had an above-ground pool and all I can say is "LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT"!
Above ground is way cheaper, and we've even put the pools up ourselves (12 x 24). I find that maintenance is a SNAP although of course there is an expense with chemicals.
It's Me I have an inground pool. I get 2 good months a year out of it. For those 2 months, I'm a slave to it. Don't do it. Its a waste of money. (alot of money)
redneck 
cbgb . Thank you all for the excellent points. You all brought up so many issues that I hadn't even considered. I must say, you've scared me a bit - what am I getting myself into here? No one here really told me that they liked their in ground pool!!! ( YIKES)
brown eyes guy - you wouldn't want my dirt. Its all shale. Horrible. we acutally had to remove dirt and bring new dirt in when we put our garden in because of how rocky the soil was.
We put in our pool 4 years ago. WE LOVE IT. Used Olympic pools in Mt. Olive they did a great job, very satisfied. We were actually swimming in it within 3/4 days. I feel and inground pool is much more inviting than and above ground. Whenever someone comes over our house for the first time, you always hear, Wow, you have a great back yard, the pool looks great. I cannot compare to above ground regarding upkeep but I can tell you that we spend about $300 per season on all chemicals, we have a heater which we use in June and Sept only. As far as a pool being alot of work, if you keep up with it from the beginning it is easy (the more use the pool gets the less cleaning it will need) I see my neighbors on ladders trying to clean their above ground pool, we just have to walk around the pool/or sit on edge/or clean it while we are in it. We love our pool, I can't wait to open it now.
Maybe the look of an inground pool is more inviting, but just the cost of one makes me shutter. Doesn't it raise your taxes as well? Above ground works for me and no one has ever turned it down because it wasn't aesthetically (sp?) pleasing, LOL
Lori...since '73 I had one built 5 years ago and have not used it very much in the last 2 but I'd still say it was worth it. I used Monarch Pools in Parsippany with subcontracting for heating/electrical.
Overall, if you keep up with the work it it is manageable (about as much as maintaining your lawn/garden). Good luck.
Hated ours and I'm in Arizona!!!! Never swam in it, husband hated cleaning it, every monsoon would be a couple hours of work cleaning it out.
Lived here 3 years and buried it, and built a great patio over it with pavers, bbq, firepit, and benches. Never regretted it. Have two grandkids and one on the way, and couldn't stand it with the drowning hazard.
Peggy C. Depending on your location would sway me above or inground we put our inground in over 10 years ago, but we have a large private backyard over 1 1/2 acres. If you have a small lot the above ground is all you would need as not to suck up your entire yard. We LOVE our pool & now that our kids are older it is a great place for them to gather & lots of fun for them and us alike. You must so that you don't spend alot of time maintaining get all the right stuff up front like: a bottom drain, automatic chlorinator, Polaris 380 vacuum with it's own pump, the better grade vinyl liner& a mesh UV blocking safety cover is the only way to go. the The impact on what happens with your taxes depends on your town ours went up about 200 not that big a deal for the enjoyment we get from it .
We also have solar heating collectors so no heating bills and we open 2 weeks before memorial day & most times don't close it up before late september & the water runs from a brisk 72 when we open it to in the summer 86 (like a bath!)We used J&K Pools Phillipsburg, NJ 08865-1751 Phone: (908) 213-3274 John is great and very nice to work with. Go for it !
GM mom i grew up with an in ground pool and when i bought my house that was something i had to have. I think if you have small children you will get your money worths. I mean for me I am a stay at home mom and have 3 very small children so i will use the pool to it's fullest. I would recommend getting heating so you can using longing. I plan to open my pool in 2 weeks and keep it open till october.
As for keep up of a pool...if you buy one of those robot vacuums and keep up with chemicals it isn't so bad to mantain!
Mommyof2 I have an inground pool and although when I had a young family, we got a lot of use and had some wonderful times. But an inground pool is forever, unless you want to spend a lot of money to get it filled in and continue over several years because of ground settleing. Each year you will have to top it off with more dirt and re-seed the grass. A friend filled in her pool and had to do this for 7 years.
Last year the summer was rather cool and the water temp. didn't get high enough to really enjoy it. I don't have a heater and the pool was used three times. But the chemicals had to be put in the filter had to be run daily.
I really don't recommend it. But it is of course your choice.
As for re-sale value, many of my friends will not even look at a house with a pool. You have to find the right person willing to take on that responsibility.
Tanya 
shoebie My sister just bought a house last June in LV that had an in ground heated pool. For her it was a big buying point. It was used every possible day this past summer. With that said, I do have to tell you that it is a lot of work, but she had help in that area. I was there everyday with my son and her daughter, so I kept it clean. She also has a teenage son, with friends, that always lent a hand when they were around.
Really think about how much it will be used and enjoyed. For her, it was well worth it because of the amount of time it was used.
Jenn Tanya brings up a very good point about how often the pool will be used. As she said whether you are in it or not sunny, cloudy, rainy etc the chemicals have to be maintained, the cleaning has to be done and the filter needs to be run. Thc chemicals and electric add up to a ton of money for the 3 months of use. It makes more sense to join a pool actually.
Bottom line here is - if you have not been at all affected by the economy, buzymom, and you aren't too "buzy" to keep up with its maintenance every single day, have at it and enjoy it!! 8D
Don't get the inground pool heater until you read the propane price gouging thread. If you don't buy enough propane, the propane company will stick it to you. If it is a hot summer and you don't need the heater, they charge you monthly rent on their tank.
Personally, my favorite friends growing up were the ones with pools! (just a coincidence!) We had just as much fun in an above ground as an in ground. Inground looks nicer when the adults have friends over for a bbq or drinks! My sister has one, but she lives in Texas and they use it about 9 months out of the year vs 3 months here. Mine was above ground. Not much work, but once the teens started working, it was me and my martini. Had it removed when the liner needed replacement.
Good luck!
maja Looking at this thread, it looks like there are 3 companies listed as recommendations - Monarch Pools, Olympic Pools and J&K Pools.
Just bumping this up to see if there are any other recommended companies.
Coralie I just love that someone with the ID buzymom was even contemplating a pool!! If I were possessed enough (which I doubt, I belong to a swim club with an enormous pool), I would have to go with above-ground with a big deck!
trekster3 I recall another thread on this - we went with Olympic Pools - Gold Mine Rd Mount Olive behind Lowes in ITC. Could not be happier with them and they used us for referrals in the area. E mail if you need more info.
tigerfan I think in-ground pools are great but they are alot of work and alot of money....i have one and want to fill it in because no one uses it and it is so much money to care for...good luck though
I agree with others who said if you have young children, you will get a lot of use and happy memories out of it, not to mention, great pictures!! We had a heater so we could have May birthday pool parties....
That said, the biggest hit I've seen on every deck with or without a pool is a Hot Tub. My kids loved going over to their friends hot tubs more than staying home and going in the pool. They especially loved the hot tubs in the snow. If you could have both, I'd do that.
If I had to choose one over the other today, it would be a huge hot tub.
Great - so there are 2 votes for Olympic Pools. - I have spoken with them and would just like to shop around a little bit - it is a huge purchase and we want to make sure we are getting the best deal we can.
I know this is a huge commitment in both time and cost. But we know that we will be using the pool daily and plan to have friends over much the time to help us enjoy it. (At least we have been told to expect them... :-) ) We have come from where we had a pool to use daily from the end of June - Labor day and we were there at least 5 of 7 days each week.
LV Resident - we may consider the hot tub as well it is something to think about.
I love, I hate, depends on the algae level.
I would skip the heater and try to get temp up other ways --- location, build in-doors, etc. Heaters are just bad technology running clorine across copper while you flame broil it. They break pretty quick Unless you can afford solar. They make really nice enclosures now that open and can be taken down. One looks like a green house, only 4ft or so tall but you life on side and put poles under it to open it like a lean-to. If I did it over again, I would bite the bullet and get one of those.
We also poured the concrete walks so that 2 or 3 sides we as narrow as possible, just sidewalks. Then we spent all our concrete budget on one side making it really wide. That has worked out well. Diving board seems to be a must but is useless except for kids to jump from. Put a double gate in the fence to bring trailers, etc. in so I can haul covers, etc. out. That worked well too.
The rest of it is just plumbing and chemistry. Can be hard to take care of when it gets out of wack but ez enough when within spec. And the parts are mostly just pumps and pipes. Make sure everything is "bolt on" so you can replace pumps, filters, clorinators, etc. yourself going forward. Saves a lot of money.
Good luck with installers; they are bandits and its a gypsy market. Worst project I have ever managed for residential building.
mistergoogle Mistergoogle - Thanks for all the additional advice - that is great information to know and to keep in consideration.
I especially appreciate the comment about the double gate and making one side wide while making the other just walk arounds. Those are both something to really consider.. thank you.
Coralie - last year we had a lot of work done to our pool and we had a few companies come out. We ended up going with Holland Pools and I do not regret it at all.
We had Paul,the owner, do a lot of work for us.
They opened and closed our pool for the year, installed a new liner, and installed our loop lock pool cover. If you are putting in ground pool I would highly recommend getting a loop lock cover. Much easier to tell with and it keeps debris out of the pool.
Mommyof3 I'm not sure it was worth the investment but it is nice to have on extremely hot days. I would say the heater is essential, I couldn't imagine not having it heated.
I used Monarch and they were fine BUT you should be prepared to very actively manage the project. I did not manage it nearly enough and lived with a couple of annoyances as a result.
Good luck.
ERM We put an inground pool in around 11 years ago when our kids were younger, but not so young that I had to worry too much about their safety! I have NEVER regretted that decision! Two of our three no longer live at home, having graduated college and now live out of state, but we still really enjoy our pool ! It is SO relaxing to have on the weekends and for hot summer nights. We do have an automatic creepy crawly cleaner and so it doesn't require much cleaning at all. I skim it everyday, but really it doesn't require everyday care. The chemicals aren't too much money, which we purchase at Sams CLub. We used Monarach Pools, and I was very satisfied with their workmanship! I think it's a great investment in your families enjoyment!
oceanmmi Wow busymom still didn't take the "plunge"? Just do it and J & K is awesome must have done about 10-12 pools out here in Great Meadows that I know of. Lots of my friends who got pools recently opted for a new salt type chlorinator, I know John likes them very much. You HAVE to give them a shot really awesome guys & does old world quality work.
GMmom - I don't know if busymom took the plunge or not. I brought this thread back to life instead of starting another thread and have HLifers tell me about the old thread.
I am not busymom (although I am a busy mom).
Appreciate your comments about the salt type chlorinator. I can see that in addition to the research to pick a company, I need to do a bit more research as to the various options that may be available.
Will start doing that research now.
Appreciate all the feedback, everyone. It is very helpful to understand the potential pitfalls and issues that need to be carefully watched.
put the money in a new kitchen and bathroom, it will make the house worth more the pool will not. When I bought my house I had the seller fill in the pool.
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