Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Swimming pool vs basement

57 replies

Naturallyalmond23 · 12/10/2025 15:59

We are getting ready to renovate a period house. It is 1930s. It has a very large garden, enough to take a swimming pool and we would enclose it so it is not exposed. We also want a basement for games, etc. We are in a high water table area. Which would you prefer? The house has 5 rooms and plenty of space downstairs, it has been previously extended.

We cannot afford both a swimming pool and basement. I like the idea of an outdoor games room where we play outside rather than inside but UK weather is not great for half the year.

OP posts:

YourPeppyAmberTraybake · 12/10/2025 18:40

I like the basement and a jacuzzi suggestion.

borntobequiet · 12/10/2025 18:46

The weekly cost from my parent's experience is the cost of a bottle of brut a week.

Cheap as chips then.

I’d have a swimming pool in the basement, me.

Laboheme78 · 12/10/2025 18:49

We put a pool in recently. It is absolutely fabulous but cost about £120k. We have an air source heat pump but realistically it can only be open April to September as the nights get cold and the pump has to work ridiculously hard. We love it but probably I’d ask what will you get most use from?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Home improvement

DancingNotDrowning · 12/10/2025 18:54

I had a pool for years, if I left it only to be cleaned monthly it would be filthy.

a weekly vacuum and skim in summer followed by a backwash is essential and there was no way 30 mins topping up with the hose was enough to replace the lost water.

HarryVanderspeigle · 12/10/2025 19:07

Is there already a basement, but it is damp, or are you talking about digging one out? I can't understand why you would spend all that money on a room under the house when you can add a garden room a lot cheaper?

If you ever plan on selling, I wouldn't touch a house with a swimming pool. All I can see is heating and maintenance money pit! Also, solar will heat it best in the summer, when you least need it. It will cost a fortune in winter if you want to use it then.

FirstdatesFred · 12/10/2025 19:10

Pool is a nightmare and the novelty soon wears off in this country.

FirstdatesFred · 12/10/2025 19:11

(Speaking as an ex pool owner)

wishitwasntme123 · 12/10/2025 19:12

whirlyhead · 12/10/2025 16:03

Have you had a quote on the cost of a swimming pool? I’m in Spain and they are very expensive to install here (at least €50k) then you have the costs of water, maintenance etc. my pool guy doesn’t have a pool and would never have one - they are always springing leaks or needing something doing to them, and even in spain you only use them about 4 months of the year. I would have thought in the UK you’d get much more use out of a basement.

4 months?

wishitwasntme123 · 12/10/2025 19:12

Above ground pools are affordable and maintence is easier

Tiredofwhataboutery · 12/10/2025 19:13

I think you should skip the basement and go for a cabin type games room/ den in the garden.

SoftPillow · 12/10/2025 19:16

We have an air source heat pump pool

It was £120k to put in and £20 a day to run when the weather is reasonable (April to Sept)

EBearhug · 12/10/2025 19:22

I'd go for a pool, but I enjoy UK sea swimming and lidos, and not having to travel to an outdoor swim would be fab.

You're aware of the maintenance from your parents' experience.

I'd be concerned about a basement in a high water area.

Original poster

Naturallyalmond23 · 12/10/2025 19:37

@SoftPillow did you get the all year round air source heat pump for pools? If we go with the swimming pool option, that is what we would get.

I don't think the novelty will wear off for me. We would get an enclosure like my parents' one. The pool is not open to the elements and maybe that is why the cleaning is minimal. If you don't use the correct level of bromine, then it will turn green. We would build a proper pool long and wide enough to swim lengths. A jacuzzi means just sitting there so I suspect would get boring after a while for us.

For those who say it is costly to maintain, what is your experience of the weekly cost over summer and winter?

I take the warnings over the high water table and basements. It is an extremely valid point.

Absolutely love the idea of basement swimming pool but we could not afford it. There isn't a basement there and we would need to excavate.

OP posts:

MrsKateColumbo · 12/10/2025 19:51

Get the pool!! The basement will just get damp...

NB I am not a pool owner, but I do watch a lot of thepoolguy on YouTube hahs

HansHolbein · 12/10/2025 19:58

All I will say about a pool is that it is a lot of work to look after. It costs a lot to run and maintain; we keep it at a certain temperature, so we’re always spending money on it.

It’s a lot to be honest. We have a robot thing that cleans it which saves a lot of work but it’s a money pit.

Bonden · 12/10/2025 20:13

Have you looked at natural swimming pools? Abit £££ to build but way way lower £ to run than “normal” ones and look absolutely gorgeous

somanyspottydogs · 12/10/2025 20:14

Friend of mine has a pool in her garden, I think it was probably built around 1976 but hasn't needed much physical maintenance in that time so assume it was well built.
The pool is hardly used nowadays - her grandchildren have all grown up and the boiler broke about 4 years ago and she wisely decided not to replace it. She insists on opening the pool early summer every year even though only my grandchildren and a friend swim in it very occasionally. I think it costs about 2k a year for the chemicals and the pool man to come to check the ph levels and do whatever else is necessary. Plus the electricity costs of having the sweep and filters running. I think if it had a decent insulated cover ( currently has no cover) that with the summers we have been having lately it wouldn't need much heating to bring it up a more comfortable temperature. Obviously still wouldn't be usable all year - although isn't cold water swimming the in thing nowadays??
If I could afford it I would go for the pool every time.

Pices · 12/10/2025 20:18

We use an auto dose system for the chemicals but you still need to check the ph etc every few days. The high water table really needs thinking about if you’re going in ground. You’ll need sump pumps near it to stop the water ruining the pool. Our neighbors did a one piece fiberglass pool and during a heavy rain it popped out like a boat because of the high water table…

Octavia64 · 12/10/2025 20:33

I have lived in a house with a pool.

it was open to the elements.
(what do you mean by enclosure? I’ve seen pools in sheds and pools in glass enclosures and pools in their own buildings)

there is definitely a perception they are high maintenance.

if rain gets in (our was open) it can seriously fuck with the chemical balance and take quite a bit if messing around to sort out.

we tested for various aspects of water quality weekly while the pool was open and then used various chemicals to eg balance ph, add chlorine, etc.

we bought a robot cleaner to clean the pool as brushing it took a while. It needed weekly brushing.

it never leaked (thankfully!) but we did need to do some work on the plumbing out to the filtration unit which was a major hassle.

we winterised ours and effectively shut it down for winter as while technically you could heat it it would take so much power it wasn’t worth it. Winterising is quite complicated if you haven’t done it before.

if your pool is effectively going to be indoor then a lot of this won’t be an issue.

whirlyhead · 12/10/2025 20:46

When I had a pool man coming in that cost about £100 a month but I do it now myself. In summer I have to top it up every 2 days (it gets into the 40s here so the damn thing just evaporates!) backwashing, PH and chlorine levels checked every week. Pool robot in 3 times a week plus nets to filter out all the leaves etc that fall in. And then if we get Saharan rain even more bloody backwashing…

All Sorts of things can affect the water too - mine went green which took a while to sort out.

whoever queried only 4 months a year using it in Spain that’s about right unless you’re my partner who hauls on a wetsuit and goes in for about 7 months of the year. At the moment the sea is warmer than my pool!!

when I only had a basement that was much simpler…

champagnetrial · 12/10/2025 20:49

I would say pool, but then I'm a big fan of my pool. It's such a lovely thing to have.
It's 30 years old and proper old school with a diving board. We have just invested in an automatic all-weather pool cover which seals the water, so no evaporation, minimal water maintenance and no need to winterize the pool.

We've stuck a sauna next to it (we don't heat the pool in the winter, but I need some encouragement to get into cold water, so hoping the sauna will prompt this!) Otherwise we used to just not swim from November to April and the pool just sits there not costing anything.

However... I can easily afford my pool, so I don't worry about it. I also have an excellent pool guy who is reliable and can-do. So yeah, I think you need to have the ongoing infrastructure around you, whereas I guess when a basement is built, that's kind of it?

Ineffable23 · 12/10/2025 20:57

I would love a pool.

But I do think they can be expensive to run.

What about a properly insulated outbuilding with a shaded roofed extension for an "outdoor kitchen"? The ones I've been to abroad have maybe had a built in BBQ and a sink plus some workspace for prepping but you could have a pizza oven etc if you wanted, and the space would also enable outdoor game playing in the summer, especially if you had big patio doors opening to under the roofed part.

SoftPillow · 12/10/2025 21:24

@Naturallyalmond23

I don’t know the specific type of air source heat pump, sorry. I know the cost is around £20 a day when the temp is decent, when it’s on warm up phase or it’s colder (eg late September) it’s much more, £30 a day late Sept and £40 a day on max heat up. We do like it warm and it is an outdoor pool, but we have it with a decent (£££) cover to maintain heat and for safety.

Chemicals haven’t been much and it is hardly any work to clean and maintain. But the heating costs have been much higher than the pool salespeople indicated.

We use it all the time when it’s ‘open’. I don’t begrudge the cost, it’s wonderful.

We also have a cellar in a high water table area. There is a permanent pump installed….if we didn’t have a pump it would just be a grotty knee deep swimming pool 😄

Dutchhouse14 · 12/10/2025 21:25

I would love a pool, so if I could afford it, particularly if it was enclosed so could use all year that's what I'd go for.
However I think not everyone is keen on a pool in the garden due to maintenance costs so depends on if this house is your long term home, if it is then go for it.

Philipthecat · 12/10/2025 21:30

thisishowloween · 12/10/2025 16:09

Can you afford to run a swimming pool if you can’t afford to install a basement as well? They’re really expensive.

This.

And if you get a pool, you'll never have money for the basement!

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread