# Forum Home Renovation Pools, Spa & Water Features  Looking for Advice on a new Inground Pool

## HandyDaddy

He there 
I'm planning on putting in an Inground Pool in the summer. It will be about 9m x 4.5m mainly for my kids. 
My first thoughts were for a kidney shape plastic pool, so I spoke with a pool company who of course said their pools were wonderful, beware of poor quality etc and give me a ball park figure of about $28,000. They told me concrete pools were very expensive and not worth the money unless I particularly wanted concrete. 
I then spoke to a concrete pool company. They told me that plastic pools were poor quality and would not last. He told me that most people (80%) have concrete pools. He estimated $34,000 for my pool. 
Can you guys give me some unbiased feedback on your experience with plastic / concrete pools and some advice on what to go for. 
Thanks 
Mike

----------


## rod1949

Having been there and done that twice (one concrete and one fibreglass) I would strongly suggest saving your money as they become a liability, they add very little towards the resale value of your house and can become a deterant.  But don't let me stop you in your endevour.

----------


## piscean

we put a salt water fibreglass in about 8 years ago and we've been very happy with it. A concrete pool would have cost us a lot more than the fibreglass. Over here in Perth though we use it for 6 months every day over the warmer months so we get good value out of it.When we went looking at pools there were some really cheap priced and cheap looking ones at some companies but we ended up going with Aqua Technics because there pools just seemed better quality than some other places and they had a design we liked and they do seem to make a good pool. It's very low maintenance, we have a barracuda and a pool blanket so about all we do is check the water from time to time and add some salt.

----------


## rrobor

Give your kids a voucher for the local pool. Its you who wants a pool. The kids dont want to be in a back yard pool seen by mum and dad, They dont want mum in the pool or you, Man thats gross. The shapes you think are sexy, your kids cringe at. So do yourself a favour, dont tell yourself lies. Ask what you want, and when you have that answer, you may find your solution.

----------


## ger

We had a concrete pool installed a couple of years ago
You will NOT have it completed by Xmas
we ordered the pool in july was told by saleman that the .
pool would be ready 1st week Nov
it got delayed delayed.................and AFTER a lot 
of screaming matches was completed 3rd week January.
Company was (they advertise they are the biggest in Melbourne)
I would never use again
The $34000 will end up to a more likely $45k+
once all the extras are added
BEFORE choosing a pool go to a pool shop
on a Saturday morning and talk to some of the customers there.
The things I learned after I talked to the customers there
(sadly AFTER pool was finished) I would have chosen another installed
BACK TO SUBJECT
The kids though love the pool
not as much work if you correctly choose equipment
the fist 8 weeks you will need to brush it daily though

----------


## HandyDaddy

Hi guys 
Thansk for the advice. 
Anybody out ther had problems with fibreglass pools? 
Mike

----------


## GeoffW1

> Hi guys 
> Thansk for the advice. 
> Anybody out ther had problems with fibreglass pools? 
> Mike

  Hi, 
We have had one for 18 years. It has been generally trouble free. You must make sure that the ph is always kept to recommended limits though or they can suffer osmosis, which appears as obvious bubbles or bulges in the walls of the pool. A saltwater pool is the way to go, as the cost of chemicals is quite low. The pool pump life will be shorter in this case, we are on the 3rd pump.  
Cheers

----------


## chipps

My experience  
Swimming Pool = Money Pit 
Have a free form concrete/pebblecrete kidney shaped thing, 9m x 4m.
Salt water chlorinator cell, sand filter etc 
The earth works and backhoe access virtually destroyed my driveway, side gardens and most of the back garden. You'd be suprised how much fill accumulates  :Shock:  
Trenching for electrical cable from house to pump shed cost a fortune, as they found a heap of bedrock. 
And then the hidden costs, a sloping block meant a huge arc shaped block retaining wall 25m long x 2m high was needed behind the cut, yet the sales rep said they'd put a nice gradual batter along that side, but clearly it was too steep to work. 
Sometimes it rained for days and work was impossible, the poor bloody tradies were going frantic rushing from one site to another, these blokes worked their butts off. 
Landscaping inside and outside the pool, Pebblecrete / paved surrounds for sunbaking, buying 2million blow up pool toys at Christmas, they generally last half an hour  :Doh:   
Yes it does serve its purpose, kids live in it during summer and that is great, but during the cooler months, it sits idle, while I still have to regularly maintain it. Waste of pump power, water, chemicals salt etc and nobody goes near it for months. 
Ok, I feel better now. 
Do as Robbr says, use the local public pool.

----------


## Gooner

> My experience  
> Swimming Pool = Money Pit 
> <snip> 
> Yes it does serve its purpose, kids live in it during summer and that is great, but during the cooler months, it sits idle, while I still have to regularly maintain it. Waste of pump power, water, chemicals salt etc and nobody goes near it for months. 
> Ok, I feel better now. 
> Do as Robbr says, use the local public pool.

  We have a chlorine pool. Yes it is a bit of a money pit especially when it turns green and you spend $200 on chemicals trying to fix it up. (This can happen with chlorine pools if you put too much stabalised chlorine in it. Chlorine become ineffective and algae starts to grow. Only way to fix it is to drain pool.). 
We have a large block, so a pool sitting idle isn't so much of a problem. The problem is that the pool is on our deck and you have to pass through it to get to the backyard. Therefore, safety hazard for kids. 
If it were me, I would not have put it in. We bought the house with it because my wife wanted it. It has cost us a fair bit to run, not only for chemicals but the pump running for 8 hours a day during summer and 3-6 hours during the colder months.

----------


## Compleat Amateu

We have a pool.  A marblesheen concrete one about 55,000L, a fairly standard inground pool, it was here when we bought the house.  I knew nothing about them when I moved in, and wish that was true today.  They are a monumental and expensive pain in the ar*e for the HMM (home maintenance manager = you).  Chemicals, power, water pumps, filters etc etc etc etc.  Salt changes this conversation, but only a bit. 
The only reason I can think of for having a pool is my daughters (I have 2).  I'd rather have them and their future male friends here in the pool than in someone else's where I can't use one of my fishing knives, if you follow me. 
So unless you have daughters, drive to the beach and save yourself the money and time.

----------


## PaulHo

Hi mate 
I thought I would try and balance out some of the negativity. We put in a concrete pool two years ago.  We have three kids - best money we ever spent. In terms of how much it should cost you - there is a great website called www.diyquotes.com.au that will give you a very good estimate of cost and it should keep the pool builder honest. We also looked at fibreglass - just not the same for me!

----------


## piscean

> Hi guys 
> Thansk for the advice. 
> Anybody out ther had problems with fibreglass pools? 
> Mike

  ours has been pretty trouble free too. after 8 years we still have the original sand filter and pump and chloromatic. the manual switch on the chloromatic broke after a few years. it was one of those slide switches so we replaced it with a on/off switch button instead for when we want to turn the pump on manually. we've replaced the cell in it once.  
this year was the first year we let ours go green to save on power but after we went over it with previous power bills for the same period we didnt see much difference and the cost of the chemicals to clean it up seemed to way cancel out any gain from the power savings, so we'll just go back to running the pump a few hours a day in the off months, plus I dont have to worry that someone will fall into the pea soup and catch some exotic disease.   :Blush7:    we dont do anything to ours over winter apart from take the pool blanket off and let the pump and barracuda take care of it, we usually throw a bag of salt in by midwinter but pool salt is so cheap.

----------


## haun

Firstly I have to say that I grew up with a concrete pool and it was the best thing EVER!!  
We are currently putting in a 8 x 4 kidney shape concrete pool, my husband and I say it's for the kids but it's also definately for us.  The pool, not including the fence or the surroundings but does include the coping,  has cost us just short of  $35,000.  
As someone mentioned you need to brush the pool for the first 8 weeks, thats only using Quartz, there is now a better product that has been produced called Quartzon and it does not need to be scrubbed.  The reason alot of companies use Quartz instead of Quartzon is because it's cheaper. 
All I can say is do your homework before you sign a contract.  Alot of companies said they could do what we wanted for about 35K but when we got down to the nitty gritty there was alot of add ons!! 
We were told the pool would take 8 - 10 weeks from excavation, but you have to realise that's 8 - 10 weeks for them.  We are at the stage where all that has to be done is the quartzon needs to be put on and the pool needs to be filled, this is a 2 day process.  It has taken the company 6 weeks to get to this stage but now they are waiting for us to put the fence up as the pool cannot be filled until the fencing has been approved by the council.  So yes it will take way less than 8 - 10 weeks of work for them but because we are doing work around the pool before we put the fence up it will definately take longer than 10 weeks but that's by no means the pool companies fault but understood what they meant when they said what they need to do will take 8 - 10 weeks. 
In our experience, after doing alot of looking around, concrete was much cheaper as we would have had to pay alot for a crane to crane in the pool over our house.  I also feel concrete is the better option because you are putting into the ground and earth moves, concrete will not loose it's shape as I have seen fibreglass do.   
Well I've blabbed on enough, all I can say is really do your homework, go to LOTS of companies, get plenty of quotes and ask heaps of questions.

----------

