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

Lastly -
Swimming Pool maintenance costs!!!!

Starting up a new pool
Now that we know the pool installation costs, what are the costs for starting up a new pool.

First, as was listed in the table on the other page, if you have a pool heater, the gas company will run the line to the heater (for free) but then you have to pay to have the meter installed and the gas line connected.

Next, you need to fill it with water. A 16 x 32 pool holds approximately 23,000 gals of water. In 2003, the cost of filling this pool was about $75 which was about 0.0033 cents a gallon.

Lastly you need to fence it in. If you use a wood fence (which is probably the cheapest and gives you the most privacy) to surround a 16 x 32 pool (which is surrounded bya cement walkway), your costs will be

Need	Qty	Cost Each	Total Cost
Privacy fence (3 sides)         6 ft high x 8 ft long	15	$30	$450
Picket fence (for 4th side)	7	$15	$105
4 x 4 Post	approx. 20	$8	$160
Bags cement	20	$3	$60
Misc - screws			$25
Sweat Equity			FREE
TOTAL			$800

On going costs to maintain pool
Gas
Heating the pool is very expensive. Your gas costs are probably about $10 an hour for every hour you run the heater. The pool water temperature will only rise a few degrees an hour. A guesstimate then would be to raise the pool temperature 10 deg would cost you about $75 to $85 dollars.

Most gas companies also require that you 'rent' their gas meter since they will probably put a separate one on your pool. This will be a recurring monthly rental fee of at least $7.50 for the life of your pool - even if you never run the heater.

Electric
If you let the pool circulation system run around 10 to 12 hrs per day, average, you can figure on paying an extra $50 to $60 more for your electric than you are paying now.

Water
Occasionally you will have to add some water to your pool to bring the level up so it filters properly. You can assume $10 to $15 more for every time you have to bring the water level up 2 or 3 inches.

Chemicals
A 5 gal pail of chlorine sticks should last you about a year. These run about $70 to $80.

Depending on what other chemicals you need, you may buy another $50 to $100 worth of chemicals in a year.

Pool Covers
These are discussed elsewhere on this site, but you might invest in a solar cover, which is simply a big sheet of bubble wrap. This will probably cost about $75.

Summary
The above article describes most of the costs of owning a pool. But, what is the bottom line, actual cost per month, assuming you finance the pool with a home equity loan for 10 years at 6% interest.

Loan Amount	$20,000	$25,000	$30,000
Loan Cost per month	$222	$277	$333
Utility Costs per month	$80	$80	$80
Total Monthly Cost	$302	$357	$413

We hope you found this article informative. Just remember, all prices (listed above) are as accurate as possible, but should only be used as a guideline. You obviously have to do your homework and find out the details for your particular part of the country.

© M. Dinger LoMist Publishing 2006