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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

House with swimpool. Is it pointless?

325 replies

SweetSally · 05/12/2019 20:20

Hi lovelies!
My husband and I are considering buying a house with an indoor swimpool. We don't know anything about swimpools and are not sure if it's a good investment...

The property is in the UK and the swimpool is indoors (extension added to the house) and it also has a conservatory added to it. It's large space and the swimpool is rather generous when it comes to the sheer size of it.

Please, could you share your experience? We actually want to use the swimpool and are not considering the house because of it. We do actually like the property.

OP posts:
tobedtoMNandfart · 07/12/2019 19:43

@TrixieMixie do you just read the OP then comment?!

Aridane · 07/12/2019 19:54

OP, it looks AMAZING!

And what's with everyone going on about swim pool? Did anyone actually think she was talking about giraffes or a hot air balloon?

Jack80 · 07/12/2019 19:58

I would love an indoor pool

BestOption · 07/12/2019 19:59

@ChaosTrulyReigns

I’m confused? Why are you saying ‘well played’??

Sorry if it’s glaringly obvious, but I just can’t work out what I’ve missed here🥴

nuxe1984 · 07/12/2019 21:57

My granddaughter has swimming lessons in a private pool that the house owners hire out to the company.

Hoppinggreen · 07/12/2019 22:04

I quite like the swim(Ming) pool but not the rest of the house

Rottnest · 07/12/2019 22:18

I am another one living in Australia, have a pool with swim jets, short, about 6metres, but swim against the jets, outside pool but with our climate use it for 6months or so. I find it easy to maintain, soon learned how to test for chemical levels etc.

All doors leading onto the pool must have automatic closures to prevent children accessing the pool unsupervised, they are inspected 4yearly.

The use of filter, pump etc, may increase your power bills, but if you can afford it OK. if I COULD AFFORD a house with an indoor pool, I would not hesitate, less time travelling to local pools, beach etc, and I would probably use it almost every day.
I realise that a pool in a warm Mediterranean climate is a little different to UK, but all things being equal I would go for it,
Best of luck

Rottnest · 07/12/2019 22:37

Quite a few nasty/silly comments here concerning terminology, pettiness, Maybe they would understand the words lap pool more easily, but swim and pool really suggests swimming does it not.

Oliversmumsarmy · 07/12/2019 22:43

I think the confusion is that a swim pool sounds like those small pools that you swim against the man made tide.

I must admit that is what I thought op was talking about when she wrote swim pool.

eyeaye · 08/12/2019 00:54

OP we're moving to a bigger place, some of the houses we've looked at do have pools. We're intentionally ruling them out. For the right house we might consider an outdoor pool and then fill it in but definitely not an indoor one.

This is even though:
• we do swim so we could/would potentially use it*
•* our youngest DC is at Secondary
• all our DCs swim well
• we can afford the upkeep

We're your future resale market and we'd rule it out without looking at it. That's something to factor in when you consider buying and selling any house with a pool.

busymomtoone · 08/12/2019 08:37

Omg, if I won the lottery this would be my dream come true!! ESP indoors! But... if you need to worry about the expense of maintaining/ heating do be wary. As others have said, it is not generally viewed as a plus in anything other than multi million i so you need to personally love it. If you will all use it, I’d say bargain with your house offer ( because it can put some buyers off). Definitely ring around for maintainance costs- unlike in Australia, we don’t have so many private pools - so if you are in an area where this is a rare minority it will cost you more. A friend of ours has a small outdoor pool which they have heartbreakingly NEVER used ( in 3 years!!) because the cleaning/ repairing/ maintenance costs are so prohibitive!! Good luck!

TatianaLarina · 08/12/2019 08:37

Indoor pool would be a plus for me. Outdoor pools are pointless in the U.K., they’re only nice when it’s really hot, which is rarely, and they’re not usable for much of the year.

In the U.K. I would buy a house with an indoor pool but not outdoor. (Not the Midlands though to be fair, I’m a Londoner).

sluj · 08/12/2019 08:51

OP
Ignore the silly comments, that house and Kingswinford are lovely. Get your viewing in quick. It's well priced even by West Midland measures.

AtillatheHun · 08/12/2019 09:06

Observations based on having an outdoor pool as a kid - you will find a lot of people befriending you for pool use! Even with proper changing facilities, if there’s no bathroom in the pool complex, your house will end up dripping wet as 10 kids troop in and out to pee, once they’ve reached an age that they don’t just do it in the pool.
This is especially important if you’re considering it for business use of some sort (& then NB business rates and massive insurance).
Do the doors fold back completely? Indoor pools are pretty unpleasant in very hot weather, just when you fancy a swim!

Ginseng1 · 08/12/2019 09:26

Friends of ours bought house with pool (because they loved the hs & location etc) it was actually a great price as it been on market for ages as pool was putting off most & owners needed to sell) they keep it locked most of the time. They've 3 young kids who all can swim now (essential!). They had one pool party for their 9 yr old & they said never again the stress of it!!! It costs a fortune to heat (indoor) and said it's such a waste of space they'd love to covert it to a large games /kids room but will cost them about £20/30k to do this..

RJnomore1 · 08/12/2019 09:40

Ok here’s my tuppence worth

Pool is lovely and it’s a very pretty house

Kitchen is not tiny but very bizarrely laid out.

There is only one bathroom

The decor is horrendous

The bedrooms are tiny

I don’t see much storage

The changing rooms had better have showers in them because that tiny one in the bathroom will drive you bonkers!

So overall a no from me but not because of the pool, unless you’re prepared to spend another £50k doing remodelling.

user1471478181 · 08/12/2019 09:56

A family friend had a swimming pool at one of their homes. My mum hated it because when visited them my brother or sister would pester to go in the pool Rather than going to see them. And another con don’t know if anyone mentioned this unwanted guests expecting to go in pool

TabbyMumz · 08/12/2019 09:57

What is a swim pool? Is that different to a swimming pool?

The80sweregreat · 08/12/2019 10:02

I would price up the costs of the chemicals and the cleaning and just general maintenance first as they can be pricey. Must be a pool place around or info online.

poppy54321 · 08/12/2019 10:05

Chlorine kills bugs. Is bad for people. This would be my dream to have naturally cleaned pool in my home. My daughters excema is awful after chlorine. I would use saline or something like they do in Guernsey. Lovely.

Notodontidae · 08/12/2019 10:40

@Illeana. Good point thank you. I wasn't really suggesting emptying the pool, unless it leaks. The overall thoughts on this thread is that it is not worth having a swimming pool unless it is bigger and comes with a mansion. But as you quite rightly said, once empty it will deteriorate very quickly, and will need some serous building work to stablize the structure.

Tvstar · 08/12/2019 13:39

Is there a right move link, I've looked all through and can't find it, only a pic of the pool

VanHelsingisAlive · 08/12/2019 15:17

We bought a house with an outdoor pool in 2006 (we still live there and it's in the UK).
Over the years I have grown to hate the pool. I know some people say they are easy to manage but that is not my experience. You really have to be on their case the whole time and I have found they can fairly easily go out of balance and are a pig to get back in balance. We don't heat ours although there is a functioning heat pump. It takes days to get up to a decent temperature and not long to cool off. Chemicals are not cheap and it's bad luck for any hapless creature that wanders in. I know yours is an indoor pool but frankly, in the UK at least, I consider a pool to be a fools choice. Don't pay any attention to anyone who has never owned or actually managed one - they don't know what they are talking about. If you can afford to have someone manage it for you then that is probably the way to go.
For goodess sake though, don't underestimate the cost of heating it. It's a large body of water and takes a large amount of energy. Check to see if it is a recent installation and try to understand whether it is well insulated below the ground.

The other thing I will add is that pools are like boats and weddings: if you have one it seems normal pricing doesn't apply. You will have to pay three times what you will pay for something in any other area of life - I think the assumption is that you must have pots of money.
Good luck if you do go ahead with it!

SynchroSwimmer · 08/12/2019 18:25

I prefer to pay a monthly subscription to use a gym with 25 metre pool....where I can do a “significant swim” ..they maintain it, I just turn up with my swimsuit, no hassles and no worries re ongoing maintenance.

I had space to install an outdoor pool at home - decided against - cost, maintenance, fishing out dead leaves and beer bottles, friends and villagers constantly ringing, assuming /wanting to use “the facility”, lack of my own space, privacy etc....

Apologies, this message coming to you after an excessive amount of wine, on a balcony, in Fuerteventura....not totally functional...

PavlovsDeafDog · 08/12/2019 22:44

So, are swimpool owners
called Swimpudlians, then?

(...I'll get me coat.)