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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

IneedAsockamnesty · 01/05/2013 00:13

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.

OI GERRRRR ORF MY LAND

OhThePlacesYoullGo · 01/05/2013 00:20

Talkinpeace that looks amazing!!! I would love that.

FairPhyllis · 01/05/2013 00:27

Startail · 01/05/2013 00:34

You simply need my DDs who happily swim in freezing water.

I used to happily swim in the river and DH in the sea.

I'm just getting soft in my old age, DMIL would not approve she swam in the sea or her local river every new years day, the last time she'd have been 77

thezebrawearspurple · 01/05/2013 00:42

It's silly, much better to have an indoor pool, then you can use it every day. Maybe they're trying to delude themselves that they live in California, everytime they look out the window....

scurryfunge · 01/05/2013 00:54

If the outdoor pool is heated you can still swim on cooler days. The southeast has better weather, so there is more use. Children don't seem to mind and it's great for a BBQ and party (teen magnet).

YellowTulips · 01/05/2013 01:12

Why wouldn't you if you could afford it?

Personally I am loving the pictures of the swimming lakes from TalkinPeace - beautiful!

ComposHat · 01/05/2013 01:15

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

I am having a similar problem, all the houses I want to buy have gold plated champagne fountains in the garden.

chrome100 · 01/05/2013 07:41

I had a brief fling with triathlon a few years ago which involved open water swimming. Now I LOVE swimming and go everyday to my local leisure centre but this was a whole other kettle of fish. I spent the entirety of the hours lake swim pretty much hyperventilating from the cold, trying to catch my breath, my feet "burning" from the freezing water. Never Again. Why anyone would want to swim outdoors in this country is beyond me. I gave up after one season as I really thought I would die.

LadyLech · 01/05/2013 07:55

We have a few friends with swimming pools. They're great and my children like going to pool parties at their various friends houses. Although I never go in any of them, and neither do the adults. However, if the pool is heated it is amazing how lone children can stay in them / how the children want to go on them on even really cold days. When you have children, they do get used.

However, my minuscule house will never be big enough for a pool, so I pay the £40 a year to join the private village pool that is owned by the village next to ours and then spend the rest of the year regretting buying it, as the pool is not heated and we only ever make it once or twice all year! So maybe not worth it...

pinkr · 01/05/2013 08:17

In Scotland there is a local outdoor salt water pool near my df house...used to love going as a kid!

PatPig · 01/05/2013 08:30

A sauna/jacuzzi shed seems more practical to me.

GemmaTeller · 01/05/2013 08:33

Where I live in the UK, on the same road, there's a four bed detached with indoor pool for sale for £360k, another house about six doors added an indoor pool extension last year. Yet another house, on the other side of the field has an outdoor pool.

We're by no means posh or wealthy, I guess its a lifestyle choice but to me its too much faff and maintenance unless you pay someone to maintain it (but then I have a complete aversion to paying anybody for something I can do myself).

Salbertina · 01/05/2013 08:37

We have a (small) outdoor pool.. But don't live in UK £4k on maintenance? We don't spend anywhere near that, maybe a few hundred pounds a yr max.

LondonMan · 01/05/2013 08:47

YANBU. I used to assume that outdoor pools were virtually non-existent in the UK, because, given the climate, they are an insane idea. Then one day I flew out of London City Airport and as the plane banked over north-east London, I saw street after street where nearly every house had a pool. Could not believe it.

lljkk · 01/05/2013 09:03

Do they have to be fenced (like in California)? Seems weird for the British to miss a safety regulation.

I am putting this on my "Reasons to move to California" list.

lljkk · 01/05/2013 09:04

And how do you keep out nasty poisonous algae? Can't do much open water swimming near here due to those.

D0GWithAYoni · 01/05/2013 09:08

My parents have a pool but its indoor and it really is such z lot of work effort and money if I inherit it ill turn it into stables

woopsidaisy · 01/05/2013 09:10

My in laws have an out door heated pool. They have it lovely and hot when we go to visit and the DCs spend half of every day in it.
FIL is extremely fit, he uses it daily-but doesn't bother with the heating for himself. He breaks the ice off in Winter.
The have an out door sauna too, so he does that and then does freezing pool!
My FIL is amazing.

Salbertina · 01/05/2013 09:14

Pool maintenance is really not that much hassle- have a permanent crawly thing to catch bugs etc, regularly check ph levels, chlorine not much else to do! Think its just because British people don't know about pools in the main, v easy tho once you've got used to it.

melika · 01/05/2013 09:18

Yabu. Even in hot countries, they need to be heated.

So let's not do us down yet again.

bran · 01/05/2013 09:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SconeInSixtySeconds · 01/05/2013 09:40

I agree with melika when we were in Australia the unheated pool was only warm enough to swim in for 4 months a year - it would never be warm enough here! I cannot do cold water at all.

Jenijena · 01/05/2013 09:58

Live in Cheaper Suburban Village, near Nicer Little Town, and am surprised that when stalking on rightmove looking around how there are always a couple of normal (3 bed semi) houses with the whole tiny garden converted into a pool.

Saves on cutting the grass I guess.

quoteunquote · 01/05/2013 10:41

I hate heated pools, grim.

I love swimming in the sea, rivers , lakes, locks all the year round, I get grumpy, if I don't get in at least once a day,

I only use a wet suit if I'm surfing/water sport in the winter, not for swimming.

it's just what you are use to, I had a childhood in Scotland, Himalayas, any place with mountains (my parents climbed a lot) , I grew up washing and jumping in and out of melt water,

we also lived in the tropics, but I never lost the ability to enjoy cold water, it also to me having lived in both climates, always think of cold water as some how safer, possible as swimming in tropical places there were always a lot of predators and venomous things to deal with,

When I surf here there are no sharks, well none to worry about.

we as humans went through a stage when we lost our hair, this is attributed to us taking to the water, we laid down fat layers instead, we walked upright in the water, cockle picking, shell fish are the easiest most reliable source of protein,

As part of evolution ,we came out of the water, went up the trees, came back down and into the water, lost our hair and learnt to walk up right, we are equipped to deal with cold water, you just have to decide to enjoy it.

once you enjoy it, you need it, very addictive.

I know quite a few people with natural pools, people have the water storage for agriculture anyway, if they are planted correctly, with the right balance of plants they stay crystal clear, and require almost no maintenance.

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