Potential Problems And Expenses Down The Road With Your New Swimming Pool

Once you have decided that you want a pool and have come up with some sort of justification for needing one, you should be aware of what you may run into down the road.

In the above picture, you can see that the tile is popping off. The pool was several years old but the problems they were having with it were premature and preventable. The pavers were installed incorrectly, shifted and starting causing problems with the pool.

This was a classic case of having different contractors working "against" each other on the project. The pool builder just built the pool. The landscaper was hungry to get more money out of the job. He figured that since he had done some paver patios that he could install coping and do a swimming pool deck. Tile is normally covered under warranty (typically for 3 years). The pool builder claimed that the pavers and coping were installed incorrectly (and they were right). The landscaper was long gone. So, the homeowner was stuck forking out just as much money to repair the deck and pool as he had originally paid for the pool. Ouch!

This is not to say that landscapers don't know what they are doing with pools. As a matter of fact, there are landscapers out there that actually do nicer work than the pool guys. Some of them even branch out into building pools on their own.

The moral of the story is that you should probably take some interest in your project and not let the contractors run wild. You are the one ultimately responsible for what is going on in your yard and you cannot always trust someone that says "no problem, I can do that."

I got off on a tangent there, let me get back to the point of this posting. At some point down the road, a swimming pool will need cosmetic work and repairs. That stuff is referred to as renovation work in the industry. If you have never had a pool renovated, you should be sitting down when you receive the quote. The most common response to that quote: "Holy C---, that's more than I paid for the pool."

The key is to make sure that you get a good builder, that those doing work outside of the pool know what they are doing and that you keep a close eye on things. So, a renovation is a potential expense down the road.

Potential problems and expenses down the road with your swimming pool:

Tile comes loose or off
Coping cracks
Plaster becomes ruff
Plumbing piping, pumps, filters need to be replaced
Price of heater operation increases significantly
Your taxes are reassessed
A new code is enacted and your pool is not up to date-problem if you want to sell the house
Your insurance provider decides to no longer ensure diving boards
and so on

Protect yourself and make sure you use a reputable builder.