New House w Pool, Lots of questions...

[PoolNewb101]

Hey everyone, I am new, and completely new to pool ownership, so please bear with me while I ask some questions...

I recently purchased a home that has an In-ground pool and in ground hot tub. The house itself sat empty for almost 4 years before I bought it. The pool has a badly torn liner, but I had an inspection from a pool installation and service company, and they indicated that the pool and spa were both properly closed and winterized when they were last used. (everything capped, anti freeze apparent in the lines etc...) The hot tub is in good condition, no cracks etc. They indicated the sand bottom needed to be replaced. They gave us a quote, but became unable to do the work for health reasons.

So, A few questions. I have received a few quotes on having a liner installed, but the price ranges WILDLY, and I am wondering what is REASONABLE to expect to install an in ground liner and sand/vermiculite? I certainly don't want to overpay, but by the same token I don't want someone to come in and do a garbage job that wont last either. My friends seem to think we can do the work ourselves if I purchase a liner, and while it's true we are a pretty handy bunch when it comes to home repair and improvement, (having tackled numerous roofs, drywall projects, and even building a garage) I just don't know if that's a task a DIYer can do.

Also, numerous people suggested I forgo a liner and spend the money to tile the pool, however, I seem to recall hearing to make a lined pool into a hard walled pool it needed to have some additional inner wall installed or something of that nature... and the cost was almost as high as installing a new pool. Is that accurate?

Secondly, as far as the Hot Tub goes, since it is in "Usable" condition, can we go ahead and use that independently of the pool, or is all of the plumbing "interconnected" and will we have issues if we just attempt to use the hot tub with the plugs still in the pool?

Thats all for now... thanks for taking the time to read a total newbies questions.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I will let other talk about the liner costs. But we have recently had a thread discussing the costs of changing a liner pool into a plaster pool. Consensus was the cost would basically be like building a new pool. And I would imagine the same would be true for tiling the pool as you likely need a new inner surface to tile to. Also tile pools can be a challenge if the installation is not done correctly.

Chances are that the hot tub can be isolated with valves if they share a pump/filter ... or they may be totally separate systems.
Add some pictures of the equipment pad and we can help you figure that out.

 

[JasonLion]

The hot tub can be run independently of the pool as long as you are careful to get all of the valves in the correct positions. The hot tub is normally isolated from the pool while in spa mode, with circulation and heat only going to the spa. As long as you set everything up in that mode it will work.

As jblizzle mentioned, converting to tile is a huge expense.

Liner costs vary from place to place and with the size of the pool. $3K to $6K is reasonable assuming there aren't any repairs that need to be done other than the liner, but I can't say where in that range your pool falls.

Replacing a liner is a plausible DIY job, but it is on the physically demanding end of the range. If you take it on you will need to do some reading up on how to approach the project and will also want some helpers on the day of the actual install. Liner prices vary but are way less than an installed liner, say $800 to $1600 depending on size and complexity. Things get rapidly more complex if there is damage to anything other than the sand base that needs to be repaired, which you sometimes don't find out about until you are well into the project.

 

[Isaac-1]

I will not comment on current market price for a liner as my current one is around 10 years old (maybe more, time flies). However I will tell you quality of the liner and installation can make a fairly big difference on liner life, the same also is true of maintaining chemical balance. Labor will be about the same if you opt for a premium or a budget liner. My pool has been through 4 or 5 liners over the last 30 years, some cheap ones have lasted only 3-4 years, where as my current premium liner is now around 10 years old and still looks good, if not brand new, who knows it may have another 10 years of life left in it..

 

[PoolNewb101]

Thanks... Those price estimates seem right in the middle of what I have been quoted, so not too far off. I'll see about getting some pics of the equipment this weekend. I appreciate your time!