how much did you pay for your in-ground swimming pool? Need tips and advice for a new pool install - updated again

From my experience chlorine is a lot harder on the eyes than salt water.

And, just in case you don't know, a salt water pool uses a chlorine generator that makes low levels of chlorine from the salt added into the pool.
So, in reality, a salt water pool IS a chlorine pool, just with lower levels of chlorine.
It feels like saline.

They are also a lot easier to maintain.

Lastly, my dog and tons of others swim in actual salt water with no ill effects.

I'm no help on the cost, but 50-60k should be the ballpark unless you go crazy like my buddy and spend 165k on one.

Beautiful pool! Love the water feature and marble!

We took ownership of an in-ground pool when we bought our home 4 years ago. I've been repairing it ever since! It's a 55,000 gallon pool that is Chlorine based. (It's a Monster!)

At that time, the individual that built our pool said it would cost between $250-$300k to build it if we were starting from scratch which of course, is due to it's size. I would never have invested that much in a pool myself but it came with the property basically for free. We've had 30-40 people in that thing and it's still roomy...

I do not have pets at the moment, so I can't speak to the affect salt water has on them, however, If I had to do it over, I would definitely invest in salt water. The cost and maintenance of chemicals is staggering. I go through 100 lbs of chlorine a month. Not to mention Sodium Bicarb, Muriatic Acid, Cyanuric Acid, etc. Of course, if someone is not cost constrained and has a knowledge of how to balance chemicals, that would also be something to consider.

Or you could go a lot cheaper and do it the redneck way.

Assuming access with a 320 size excavator and tandem trucks, you're looking at around $18,000 to fill that in. That'll get you ready for your concrete crew and landscaper to put the finishing touch on it.

the main difference in pool filter styles is "kill time"

the higher the bathing load/increased viruses/fecal matter/urine

the faster the kill time should be

example:

community pool...high bathing load...very dirty...high chlorine

backyard...family...heavy on weekends and light use during the week...less dirty...low chlorine

the one benefit of chlorine is that it not only breaks down/kills the bacteria but it also breaks up/dissolves the cell structure

if the material in the pool is in question , little kid from the ghetto has the flu
you need those cells and viruses to immediately be killed when they touch the water

the salt systems like said above are still chlorine based for simple terminology but have less of it
if properly run the salt level is the same as saline/human tears

copper/ion systems, these are used in homeowners indoor Jacuzzis
no chlorine smell because there is no chlorine
they put copper in the pool water which acts as the antibacterial portion of chlorine
then you add a ozone generator (shoe box sized) to break down the cellular structure
like swimming in a fresh water lake, the eco system has it figured out

ive had all three, which is why i know this crap

chlorine:
water feels crisp
burns eyes as we all know
issues with dyed colored hair
chlorine absorption through skin, not the best for children if it can be avoided
typical liner lasts 8-12 years, main issue is that it looses elasticity and little crack develop
hardest on mechanicals and floats
highest cost of chems
can swim about 3 days after opening

salt water:
water feels soft not that cold hard crisp feel you get in chlorine
safer for hair
most people are able to open their eyes (not all)
slight salt taste on your lip at times
liner last 15 years
easier on mechanicals
if you keep the pool very warm like i do you you will need to toss a chlorine tab in one of the skimmers once in a while
chlorine generators will not keep up no matter what they say
can swim about 7-10 days after opening

copper:
water is like a bathtub
no taste smell etc
feels like water out of the sink
liner will last 15-20+ years
since switching to my copper you will notice that when you turn the waterfall off in the winter there will be a green/copper wash to some spots
virtually zero chems added weekly, cheapest for weekly maint
can swim 12-14 days after opening

since switching to copper a few years ago, i would not change back to the other styles for a family residence (wife 2 kids 8 and 11)

brian

I paid $100 grand for ours, but we live in $Cali$ and pay the premium. It is a saltwater pool, and I highly recommend saltwater over normal chlorine water as it is much easier on the eyes and skin.

Some dogs have an affinity for drinking saltwater and then get the hershey squirts.

I suppose if you got a tight cover for it when not in use that wouldnt be to much of a concern.. that or train the dogs not to drink from the pool.

I grew up in a chlorine pool, dogs drank from it for years without issue. Later my folks got a salt pool, I could never get used to the feel of the water, almost slimy to me.

Hi,

When you loose power in Houston due to Hurricane you will like the maintenance of the "saltwater" pool

Sincerely,
Theis

The salt water from Tampa Bay was an issue 3 or 4 times. Now my stupid mutt drinks it without issue. I have no idea how she doesn't end up with the squirts now.

ive had a saltwater pool for years and no problems with animals

We were looking at 60k on ours. That was a fairly basic kidney shaped pool with deck all the way around it, easy access to get to it and power close. All three contractors were 10k+ more for salt water as they would only stand behind it if they used coated rebar and some other special items for the salt. said salt would have no warranty on the equipment. We didn't pull the trigger on it this year. Plus the salt is going to corrode all metal near it. I prefer the easier on the eyes and skin of the salt, my in-laws had to replace all the fence around there pool after a year with the salt, we replaced it with an aluminum fence that was fine the rest of the time they were there.

A bit over $100k here, including 1500sqft of Bluestone on the patio, gas lanterns, landscape lighting, etc... We went fiberglass, Jandy equipment with full automation, 3 water fountains, 5 spa jets, heat pump/chiller, SWCG.

My kids swim with their eyes open underwater with no issues. I check the chemicals on Saturday morning while drinking coffee and adjust a bit if needed. If you halfway keep an eye on it you’ll have no trouble.

Go to Trouble Free Pool . com to learn how easy taking care of a pool can be.

Don’t get a Polaris either! Get a robot cleaner. You’ll thank me later.

Talk to your contractor about the clay soil in and around Houston. Lot's (thousands!!) of home foundations have to be repaired due to shifting clay soil in the dry/wet/dry seasons. It has to effect pool concrete and it's not as thick and maybe not as strong as house foundations. This also causes problems with underground water pipes. Several of my neighbors have had water line repairs due to soil moving. It is NOT a cheap repair.
What is his warranty on the concrete?

arios2 said:

Thanks for the info, ill have to do more research on the saltwater now, I would much prefer a saltwater system because of its maintenance advantages but kept hearing there tougher on the pups eyes, and the dogs are gunna be in it every chance they get so it's the main factor in deciding which water type to go with. 50-60k is definitely in the ballpark, trying to stay under 50 for the pool and 10 for the scenery/patio extension with some nice gardening

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I would go with a salt system. I am changing mine over to salt system this winter. The salinity level is about that of a human tear. Very very low not at all like the ocean. Friend has a salt system and barely has to do anything to the pool at all.

arios2 said:

Thats what I'm looking for! Im looking for a setup very similar, in Houston that would probably run me $60k. thanks for the pics, looks great.

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Thanks. The price I paid included the retaining wall and patio concrete, but I think the pool was going to be around $70k by itself. $60k sounds like a reasonable cost in this day and age.

Enjoy!

Salt vs chlorine for corrosion?

Salt doesn't do shit to metal compared to chlorine.

Coated metals to build the saltwater pool is a farce and just one more way to fuck the customer. 99% chance they use standard rebar and charge 500% more because of their outright lies.

I worked for a desalination plant for 2.5 years. The highest concentration of corrosion was in the acid system rooms.
Chlorine was a close second if it was undiluted.
It was third diluted.

The plant was 50 yards from open sea water and all production water coming in was warm sea water. We even had concentrated water flowing back out.
The corrosion in the plant was minimal considering everything was wet and warm.
The areas where bleach was introduced corroded like hell.

Salt water from the sea vs pool saline don't even compare to each other as far as corrosion is concerned.

Find a different pool builder.

Mike Casselton said:

Salt vs chlorine for corrosion?

Salt doesn't do shit to metal compared to chlorine.

Coated metals to build the saltwater pool is a farce and just one more way to fuck the customer. 99% chance they use standard rebar and charge 500% more because of their outright lies.

I worked for a desalination plant for 2.5 years. The highest concentration of corrosion was in the acid system rooms.
Chlorine was a close second if it was undiluted.
It was third diluted.

The plant was 50 yards from open sea water and all production water coming in was warm sea water. We even had concentrated water flowing back out.
The corrosion in the plant was minimal considering everything was wet and warm.
The areas where bleach was introduced corroded like hell.

Salt water from the sea vs pool saline don't even compare to each other as far as corrosion is concerned.

Find a different pool builder.

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Part of the reason we didn't pull the trigger, I had my doubts. It did eat the hell out of my in-laws steel fence. Our water plant at work has the largest corrosion issues at the chlorination areas 18% sodium hypochloride eats everything.

arios2 said:

Thanks for the info, ill have to do more research on the saltwater now, I would much prefer a saltwater system because of its maintenance advantages but kept hearing there tougher on the pups eyes, and the dogs are gunna be in it every chance they get so it's the main factor in deciding which water type to go with. 50-60k is definitely in the ballpark, trying to stay under 50 for the pool and 10 for the scenery/patio extension with some nice gardening

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Don’t do a salt system on a gunnite pool. They are for vinyl lined or above ground pools. It will destroy the plaster on your gunnite pool.

ccasanova said:

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A bit over $100k here, including 1500sqft of Bluestone on the patio, gas lanterns, landscape lighting, etc... We went fiberglass, Jandy equipment with full automation, 3 water fountains, 5 spa jets, heat pump/chiller, SWCG.

My kids swim with their eyes open underwater with no issues. I check the chemicals on Saturday morning while drinking coffee and adjust a bit if needed. If you halfway keep an eye on it you’ll have no trouble.

Go to Trouble Free Pool . com to learn how easy taking care of a pool can be.

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Good choice with the bluestone. I installed a lot of it as a Stonemason. Beautiful and durable

jrhtx said:

Talk to your contractor about the clay soil in and around Houston. Lot's (thousands!!) of home foundations have to be repaired due to shifting clay soil in the dry/wet/dry seasons. It has to effect pool concrete and it's not as thick and maybe not as strong as house foundations. This also causes problems with underground water pipes. Several of my neighbors have had water line repairs due to soil moving. It is NOT a cheap repair.
What is his warranty on the concrete?

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THIS^^^ Its a problem all over Texas. The long, hot droughts wreak havoc with concrete.

TacticalDillhole said:

Don’t do a salt system on a gunnite pool. They are for vinyl lined or above ground pools. It will destroy the plaster on your gunnite pool.

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Not sure where this guy got this info from. Completely wrong.

Spent 6 years in the pool industry. Would 10/10 get a saltwater pool with a pebble tech type finish. Really durable and hits dirt/debris better also.

The salt water isn't going to hurt anybody eyes. In fact it's probably better for them. It's typically only 2500-3000ppm of salt in the water. Regular tap water is usallly around 300-500. Seawater is around 35k ppm.

Robot cleaner wins over a pressure driven cleaner every time.

Don't get a DE filter. They are a PITA to clean and maintain, and if one of the filters rips you now have 8lbs of DE powder on the bottom of your pool. Cartridge filter all the way. Super easy to take apart, hose off, and put back together.

One of the most important things imo is to get a variable speed pump. Something like a pentair intelliflo vs. They allow you to turn the pump speed down and save a ton on electricity. For example, a typical non variable speed 2hp pump is going to use around 2-3000 watts to run and pool pump around 60-70 gallons per minute. Your pool only needs to be turned over once per day usually. Anymore is a waste. So at 70gpm you are turning over the pool in around 7 hours and you used 18 kilowatt hours of power to do it. But, in the summer the pool needs to run minimum 9 hours/day so it doesn't sit stagnant in the hottest party of the day. Now you have to run it 2 addional hours.

Variable speed let's you turn that pumps gpm down and energy use way down. On my intelliflo @30 gpm I'm only using 90 watts of electricity. That's what a 1/30 of what a regular pump uses? Now with a lower gpm you need to run the pump longer to turn the pool over once. Even running the pump for 14 hours you have only used 1.2 kilowatt hours to run the pool all day.

That equates to around $2.50/day in electricity to run the pool vs 20 cents.

TxWelder35 said:

Not sure where this guy got this info from. Completely wrong.

Spent 6 years in the pool industry. Would 10/10 get a saltwater pool with a pebble tech type finish. Really durable and hits dirt/debris better also.

The salt water isn't going to hurt anybody eyes. In fact it's probably better for them. It's typically only 2500-3000ppm of salt in the water. Regular tap water is usallly around 300-500. Seawater is around 35k ppm.

Robot cleaner wins over a pressure driven cleaner every time.

Don't get a DE filter. They are a PITA to clean and maintain, and if one of the filters rips you now have 8lbs of DE powder on the bottom of your pool. Cartridge filter all the way. Super easy to take apart, hose off, and put back together.

One of the most important things imo is to get a variable speed pump. Something like a pentair intelliflo vs. They allow you to turn the pump speed down and save a ton on electricity. For example, a typical non variable speed 2hp pump is going to use around 2-3000 watts to run and pool pump around 60-70 gallons per minute. Your pool only needs to be turned over once per day usually. Anymore is a waste. So at 70gpm you are turning over the pool in around 7 hours and you used 18 kilowatt hours of power to do it. But, in the summer the pool needs to run minimum 9 hours/day so it doesn't sit stagnant in the hottest party of the day. Now you have to run it 2 addional hours.

Variable speed let's you turn that pumps gpm down and energy use way down. On my intelliflo @30 gpm I'm only using 90 watts of electricity. That's what a 1/30 of what a regular pump uses? Now with a lower gpm you need to run the pump longer to turn the pool over once. Even running the pump for 14 hours you have only used 1.2 kilowatt hours to run the pool all day.

That equates to around $2.50/day in electricity to run the pool vs 20 cents.

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I got my info from the saltwater pool I’ve owned for 10 years and replaced. No biggie.

TxWelder35 said:

Not sure where this guy got this info from. Completely wrong.

Spent 6 years in the pool industry. Would 10/10 get a saltwater pool with a pebble tech type finish. Really durable and hits dirt/debris better also.

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Agreed. My pool is gunite with pebble tech. So is my first pool at our rental house, which I had built in 2004. Plaster and pebble tech are still perfect after 15 years.

arios2 said:

That’s really good info, I didn’t know about a pebble tech coating

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Also, pebble tech is not plaster so I don’t have any opinion on how salt affects it so they could be correct.

Here is my current pool in the house I just bought. I just replumbed the filtration system and put a new filter in as well on Monday.






The last pic is the salt cell. It’s a Hayward T-Cell 15.

TacticalDillhole said:

I got my info from the saltwater pool I’ve owned for 10 years and replaced. No biggie.

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2500ppm of salt is in no way damaging to gunite. Not keeping your pH balanced and running a high pH all the time could. Or just a shitty install job. Salt had nothing to do with it.

TacticalDillhole said:

Here is my current pool in the house I just bought. I just replumbed the filtration system and put a new filter in as well on Monday.

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The last pic is the salt cell. It’s a Hayward T-Cell 15.

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Is that a sand filter?

TxWelder35 said:

Is that a sand filter?

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Yeah. I plan on digging this one up in a few years for something more elaborate but this was here when I moved into this house. Had to do a little work on it but it’s running good now.

We just had one put in (dig started April 30th,was swimming June 20th)
Salt water,vinyl..16'x32' coping(sp?) And concrete decking around..ran us $40k.
I was on the fence about the salt water ,but very glad we did.
Quick pic from inside..nothing "fancy" but the family has been loving it!

Ours is chlorine with a vinyl liner. 20x40', 30,000 gallons. I probably use 60lbs. Of 3" chlorine tabs per year and 25lbs. Of soda ash to keep the ph up. Get a chlorine feeder. Don't get a diving board. I could hit bottom in 8' of water doing a cannonball. I just removed the driving board. Get a slide, they're fun. Get the color changing led light. I think they now make steps with jacuzzi jets. Vacuum the old fashioned way your first year. Then get a Kreepy Krawley. Don't build over a spring. I think if I were building one, I would not have a deep end.

whole series on muck muck and jar jar building all sorts of things like hill side mud flat condos or this

even another set of videos on trapping and fishing tips

Sorry, I didn't answer your question. Ours was here when we bought the house. 10 years ago I was told it would cost $40,000 to build what we have. It's really nothing fancy compared to a lot of others, but that's fine. It made our house the hang out when the kids were in high school, which is a good thing. It's a little work to keep clean and you'd better be on top of it if you get a lot of rain.

TacticalDillhole said:

Also, pebble tech is not plaster so I don’t have any opinion on how salt affects it so they could be correct.

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Pebble tec (generic term) is an additive that they mix into the plaster. Plaster is the coating that they place over the gunite. Search for exposed aggregate for details if anyone is interested.

arios2 said:

looks good, yea no diving board but maybe a slide, depends on the pool builders design and of course price…

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Your homeowners insurance will crush you with a diving board. Put a rock next to the pool. Call it a decoration but really it’s a diving rock.

hire those two Filipino guys from the video's that I keep posting they could build it in two days max and a beach style bungalow throw beech chairs this has to be a cousin but the whole series is sort of funny to watch at this rate the jungle / back yard could / should be a vacation wonder land
and no union whining ...

Congrats.

Now keep your eye on the pool guy. I hear they are bad about diddling wives.

Is that patio cover already existing? One thing that is jumping out at me... More shade. I build tons of patio covers for people. In the middle of the summer it is completely unbearable to be on that deck or cooking out there without shade.

That looks great!

Id hire these guys give them some sticks and you got a work crew