In ground swimming pool advice

If you plan on staying in the house for a while I would go gunite. I guess price would be the only advantage of fiberglass. Fiberglass people feel free to defend as I have no experience with a fiberglass pool.

My suggestion to you is the same I give everyone. Don't be stupid with money but don't be cheap. GET A HOT TUB!!! You will use it damn near year round. Depending on where you live. Kids will love the pool less and less as they age. You will love the hot tub more and more as you age.

I have built 1 new gunite and renovated 4 gunite pools. What I can tell you for sure is that all gunite pools will leak from the various penetrations. Believe it or not this seems to be acceptable to pool contractors. It has to do with how they are constructed. PVC lines are made water tight by the plaster only. While leaks may not develop for years they will eventually develop as expansion and contraction of the masonry products will occur.

I have no experience with Fiberglass pools but I would think it would be faster cheaper and penetrations made more easily watertight. Also plaster finished pools will have to be re plastered every 6 years or so especially if they are chlorinated.

If I were you I would keep the size of the pool as small as you can live with as it will keep your chemical cost down. With a small pool you can more easily set it up to be saltwater which will further reduce the cost of additives.

I put in a in ground liner pool about 5 years ago. Bought the kit off the internet and did the work myself with help from my buddy, father in law, and brother in law. Saved alot of money but it was A LOT of work. 18' X 36' with saltwater generator. Saltwater is a MUST.

If I were to do it, I would go with fiberglass. Research both. Cost wise, a fiberglass will save you an easy 10% when installing, then save more over the life of owning the pool due to chemical and maintences cost.

Oh, saltwater is a MUST and a lot cheaper in the long run.

Get Gunite. Fiberglass is limited to the shapes of their forms. You can make gunite any shape, depth you want. I found when comparing the same size pools gunite was cheaper and looks better. I've had mine 5 years and no problems.

Def Gunite def Russell Pools only decent folks in town. After the sale service is important

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In ground swimming pool advice

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Don't.

Russell Pools just finished my gunite pool about 3 weeks ago. They were great to work with. They are doing a friends now.

We did not go salt water. After looking into it we decided against. According to all three of the pool companies we talked to, salt water is starting to fade in popularity. Not sure why. Another friend that got pool from Olivier recently went chlorine too. We didn't talk about it until we both had made the decision seperately. Cost was not a factor in the salt/ chlorine decision.

I went gunite because all commercial pools are guinite. Seems like they last forever if you care for them properly.

Gunite here (with salt). Fiberglass is cheaper but not as attractive and limited to certain shapes and sizes. Liner pool will definitely require changing the liner every 3-4 years (a couple of grand). As previous posters mentioned, if you plan to live in the house a long time go with Gunite.

Also realize that the pool will NOT increase your home value (actually probably decrease it......as it limits the field of potential buyers).

Pool builders don't push or suggest salt.....I'm guessing that might be because they sell cholorine??? (which ain't cheap)

I have salt, run the pump 10 hrs a day in summer, about 5 hrs a day in winter (on a timer)and have spent a grand total of about $350 in chemicals during the 5 years we've had it. Also have a Kreepy Krauler (as of last year) and wish I had bought it from the start. I have not vaccumed in over a year.

Keep the size small is my last bit of advice.