The True Costs of Building and Maintaining
a New In-ground Swimming Pool - Part III

What you have been waiting for - Swimming Pool Pricing !!!!

Pricing
Listed below are prices of basic swimming pools and some of the associated pool options. As you can see, for some options the prices are the same - no matter what size pool you have.

Please keep in mind that these are "ball park" prices from the year 2003. To get costs for today, just assume a 3-4% increase for each year since then. For example, for the year 2006 add 9-12% of the price. This extra amount would cover inflation and other costs associated with the higher energy costs and so forth.

Pool Pricing and Options (2003 Prices)

You can see by looking at the numbers, that you can easily add another $10,000 to the base price just by getting options which will help you simplify pool maintenance or make it look prettier.

Under the extras there was Concrete and line finder. Most pools will come with a certain amount of concrete included. For example, they may give you 4 foot of concrete on each side and 8 foot on the pool ends. If you want more than this they will gladly accommodate you - you just need to pay for it at $3 a sq ft.

The line finder is needed before you do any digging. Most of the utility companies will come out and mark off their lines, whether they gas or electric, for free. In some cases, you might have other things which are buried - like a septic system. You obviously need to know where the drainage field is before you start digging. So, in those cases you will have to hire someone to come out and mark off all these things. Hence, the line finder.

Pool Installation Summary
This pretty much sums up the pricing on pool installation. A common, slightly better than average pool, will probably run in the low to mid $20,000 range (2003 year pricing).

One more thing to watch out for is special deals. If you book an pool installation in the off-season (January to, say, April) you may get a discount. Pool builders are trying to get business during this time when things are slow, so if you book a pool early in the year, you can usually get a discount (maybe $700 or so).

Additionally, by booking early in the year, you may also be put near the top of the installation list such that they will start digging the pool as soon as is practical. What defines practical? This is solely up to the weather in your area. The important point is most pool builders' business picks up in late Spring and Summer, so they are more than happy to get started on the installation as early as possible so they have more time when the busy season starts.

In the last part of this article, we will describe the costs of starting up and maintaining your in-ground pool. Click Pool Costs - Part IV to continue.

© M. Dinger LoMist Publishing 2006