To think an indoor pool is going to cost a fortune?

[Mercial]

DH all in favour of buying a house with an indoor pool. I'm more skeptical of the running costs. I'm not even sure where to begin with who is right. We would use it but at what cost!?

If you cant afford the running costs, you cant afford the house.

If you can afford a house large enough to have a pool in the basement, I'm pretty sure the considerable cost of maintaining it is within your reach.

I always worry about mould and damp. Yuk.

God I’d sell an arm to have a year round pool. Imagine what you’ll save on kids parties!

Can you ask the vendors if you can see bills for running costs?

I know three people/families who had pools in their houses (bought houses with pools already there rather than having them put in themselves). All three have have them covered over and they use the room as a garden-type room. They couldn't justify the costs, ultimately. The kids would occasionally use it and have their friends round sometimes but really they didn't think it was worth it in the end.

Is this in Northants? There’s an extended 1930s semi up for sale just up the road, and it has a pool.

Looks lovely, but at the end of the day it’s a semi on a road with lots of others, and it’s priced for the pool, not for the 4 bed semi it is.

Up the road to me, I meant!

Two words, running costs

Following as we are planning on building one this year

Some of my family have an outdoor pool. They almost never heat it because it costs a fortune but even so maintenance is huge. You have to run the pump/filters, get the system serviced, covers eventually need replacing, liners/tiles need redoing etc.
It's a lovely thing to have but it's not cheap.

When I was a child, a friend's family had their house built with a room for a pool (her dad was an architect!).

The pool was dug two years later and then recovered about a year after having never been tiled or filled with water Apparently, the running costs would have been very high so they decided not to go ahead (and they were not short of money).

They used the room as a sort of function room for when they had parties. It was a huge room as it was built for a 25m pool

A friend reckons that hers costs an extra £600-800 (electricity bill) over the summer for her outdoor one for electricity costs for the heat and pump. Then there is the cleaning and chemical costs. They have just had to pay for a new liner too at ££££.

@Thehop

God I’d sell an arm to have a year round pool. Imagine what you’ll save on kids parties!

Can you ask the vendors if you can see bills for running costs?

how many kids parties do you have that would mean the costs of running a pool would make savings?

Maybe you could rent it out for private swimming lessons or scuba diving lessons?

My friends have a pool. They say they might as well just throw cash in the fire to heat it! It's a complete money pit.

Yes, it will cost a fortune to run.

Daft to say you can’t afford the house if you can’t heat the pool. I’ve seen some quite ordinary houses with pools.

OP, DH’s aunt & uncle built a pool which they then don’t heat because of the costs, but if you’re hardy you can use it all year round unheated - we’ve swam in it in Feb!

Also you will struggle to find house insurance....

There was a similar question about pool costs posed in a newspaper where people where invited to reply. I remember one reply in particular because they said it would be cheaper to have a limo pick you up and take you to the local pool and back every day of your life.

We looked at a house with a pool last year and worked out it would be around £14,000 per year to heat, maintain and clean it.

There were other houses without pools on the street that were actually dearer, I guess because a pool is so off putting to lots of people.

Right now I can only dream of owning a pool but a family member has an outdoor heated pool which costs around £10000 per year in water heating and maintenance.

What’s it like? Modern or old? Deep or shallow. FIL had a deep indoor pool and it never got to a good temp. He had to hear it for at least a week in advance of anyone using it. The kids loved it though.

My parents have an indoor pool. I don't think the costs are insane. It's heated via solar heating, which is free once installed. But it's too cold to use in winter. Things break sometimes - it's just another "thing" to go wrong. They bought a new pool cover a few years ago, for example.

The biggest "cost" is the time they spend fannying about with it. Checking the chemicals, putting the cover on and off every day. But they've had the house now for over 10 years. They are looking at moving, and would most likely put in a pool wherever they buy (even though it's mostly used by friend's grandkids ...).

The safety is something to consider, too.

If it helps, OP, I went to see a house with an indoor pool.
Running costs were £20/month plus annual servicing apparently

My son went to a pool party and was told by the owners its costs were £1000 a month to maintain heat etc.

He also learned how to swim in someone else's pool, they rented it out to his swimming teacher. It was a really lovely pool, house, road, area..... sigh.

I'd love a pool, I couldn't afford those costs but would happily wear a wetsuit for each dip.