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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why on earth people in the UK have outdoor swimming pools?

80 replies

KenAdams · 30/04/2013 20:22

We're looking at houses at the moment and are coming across some that have outdoor pools. Why?! In the UK you'd hardly ever get to use them! And it's usually houses that could have had the money better spent in other ways.

OP posts:
VonHerrBurton · 30/04/2013 22:18

A friend of ds's has one in his garden. Its big, has a springboard and a little slide and when I say the boys play in it for hours - I mean HOURS, from 10am til teatime with a 30 second break for a sandwich at lunchtime!

I have loads of happy memories of when they were all much younger and us mums would sit around in the garden eating cake. Now theyre all 10/11 we're not really needed but I do miss it!

I am thrilled they have the opportunity to spend any half decent days there, the parents are uber laid back and happy to have a few dc around. So in answer to your question, I guess in my experience yabu, but I totally get that in a high % of cases they must be a total waste of space!

quoteunquote · 30/04/2013 22:18

I love swimming outside, do so most day all year round, mostly in the sea, river, but I do use several outdoor pools, some belonging to friends and a community one,

the only two are heated, both on ground heat exchange, so very cheap to run.

probably the only thing that would make me move from this house would be to move somewhere I could put in one of these, I really want one

naturalswimmingpools.com/livingpools/

VonHerrBurton · 30/04/2013 22:21

quoteubquote - that is gorgeous!

TiggyD · 30/04/2013 22:22

The outdoor pool of my smaller yacht is heated, but I use the indoor pool and let the staff use the outside one. Too much noise from the helipad.

valiumredhead · 30/04/2013 22:23

If it was heated I would swim every day in the UK, it would have to be arctic to stop me.

usualsuspect · 30/04/2013 22:23

I hate it when all the houses you want to buy have swimming pools.

plim · 30/04/2013 22:27

We rented a house with an outdoor heated pool and used it less than a dozen times in a year. It's so expensive to run - like 4k a year just to heat it then there's the cleaning, the chemicals etc etc. I thought we would use it loads but it was more trouble than it's worth.

Wickedgirl · 30/04/2013 22:29

We have an outdoor pool and every summer our garden is full of children wanting to swim in it. Pool parties are great fun and although we do close it down for winter, it is lovely to swim for as long as we like in the nice weather. In summer, we all spend the whole day in the garden and pool.

I know several people with pools too......they are quite popular in my area

valiumredhead · 30/04/2013 22:29

Such a drag isn't it usual?

Bowlersarm · 30/04/2013 22:32

We have a fair amount of friends with pools. A few years ago we must have had several consecutive hot summers because I remember we and our DS's spent many a happy weekend with various friends in their various pools. Last few summers the weather has been bad so it's a bit difficult to envisage.

Beehatch · 30/04/2013 22:34

Whenever we fly in to Gatwick or Heathrow I'm always flabbergasted at the number of outdoor swimming pools you can spot littering the home counties. Yet I know precisely zero people with one - clearly don't mix in the right circles!

Original poster
KenAdams · 30/04/2013 22:41

unchartered that's just it, our budget isn't big AT ALL! I understand if you had a house worth millions and had everything else, but these aren't the most expensive houses in the world by a long shot!

OP posts:
squoosh · 30/04/2013 22:45

The idea of swimming in lakes makes me feel a bit wibbly. Aren't you frightened of slithery eels and creepy unknowns. I just know that the arm of a corpse would grab a hold of me.

I like the idea of Lidos though, they have a kind of 1930s glamour (in my mind).

OhThePlacesYoullGo · 30/04/2013 22:46

DP's parents have an amazing indoor swimming pool. It's huge, so you can swim proper laps and one wall is glass and opens to the gardens. Think an outdoor pool would hardly ever be in use, so massive waste of space and money.

Original poster
KenAdams · 30/04/2013 22:50

quote I think I'd be worried about creepy things, but its very pretty!

An indoor pool I could do not that we can afford a house that has one but I wouldn't want to be in a heated outdoor pool in most of the weather we have because they really aren't that warm.

OP posts:
whois · 30/04/2013 23:18

My old gym had an outdoor pool. Was magical swimming in it in the dark with the steam rising up. A little earie too.

If I had wads of cash is have one of those ones who've are firmly inside, but where one whole wall is glass that folds back so kinda outside in summer. Much more practical. And if have a swing fitted that you could swing on and launch off into the pool. And a slide.

whois · 30/04/2013 23:29

quoteunquote noooo I've been terribly put off those natural pools. Stayed in a boutique hotel in morocco once which boasted a natural chemical free pool - both me and my friend came out in a terrible rash and it stripped the colour out of her dyed hair!

Talkinpeace · 30/04/2013 23:42

whois
the best bit of my gym is the frosty mornings when the sun is shining and the steam on the pool only moves as you swim!

'chemical free' pools are only good if you know the owner and know how well its cleaned between swimmers ....
NOT ideal in a hotel!

sweetestcup · 30/04/2013 23:49

Im taking a really wild guess here ken but I would think you dont live in Scotland? Grin I do and as much as I love outdoor swimming pools (we hire a cottage in France with one every year) I dont fancy being hospitalised with hypothermia, as much as I would adore an outdoor pool!

Callofthefishwife · 30/04/2013 23:50

I would love one but its just a fantasy for us as we will never afford a home with one. I admit the reality of running and maintaining a pool must be pretty grim.

That said I think its for people in denial that they live in the UK. I am also baffled at the recent craze in recent years for people to furnish their gardens with suites like this

Dont get me wrong. I love them. Think they look great and if I lived some where hot and sunny I would be the first person wanting something like this - but this is the UK. How do these things look after a typical wet summer on the patio or decking??? Do you need to keep rushing out to bring the cushions in every time it rains??? Do you leave the cushions off when not in use - so it looks nothing like the picture but hollow empty furniture???? I just dont get it - the idea and image in theory is lovely but are we being sold a lifestyle that really is not fit for the typical wet UK summer???

Still18atheart · 30/04/2013 23:53

YABU because about 1 - 5 days a year it's really sunny and the temperature goes above -3

Still18atheart · 30/04/2013 23:56
Grin
Cherriesarelovely · 01/05/2013 00:00

I REALLY want to know more about the "swimming lake"!

Talkinpeace · 01/05/2013 00:05

cherries
its similar to the basingstoke one
www.gartenart.co.uk/Gallery.aspx

SlumberingDormouse · 01/05/2013 00:13

That's not to say that indoor pools are a piece of cake, either. I lived in a house with one briefly (my mum's partner) and we had such a problem with damp that all the doors within two rooms of the pool expanded and wouldn't close any more! It also leaked and needed a huge amount of upkeep. And the cat drank from the pool and was sick all over a cream carpet... Grin