Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Nick and I live in Pittsburgh, Pa.
In april of this year, the wife and I bought a home with an old in ground pool. We knew a pool was a lot of work, but boy were we in for a rude awakening...
The pool is old, Concrete, and has issues. First issue is that the only plumbing inside the pool, is the main drain, which does work, although I can not get my pump to hold a prime when i select the main drain as the inlet source. The other plumbing comes in the form of PVC piping dropping over the side of the pool with a skimmer attached, and an outlet for the pump. So as of right now are only using the skimmer as the intake for the pump, because if I select the main drain, or both in my valve, it will not hold a prime after shut down. Other issues include, I can not get my vacuum to work through the skimmer, I have tried and tried, but it just isn't very good suction. The skimmer does an excellent job of skimming, but the vacuum is terrible. So to solve that issue I bought an Aquabot robotic pool cleaner on amazon, initially it solve all of my problems, and kept me from insanity in those early weeks of owning a pool. It died after 6 weeks, and I can not get aquabot to reply to my emails. so i have just been brushing my bottom of my pool for algae, and using my skimmer to keep it clean enough... other issues include, the pump is old and need replaced, the pool is not visually appealing to me, and has been known to leak, wasn't mentioned in home inspection, but the neighbors told me all about it and the previous home owner after I moved in.
Here is where I am at in my decision making process:
I would like the pool to look modern and I would like for everything to work. I would also like the decking around the pool to be nicer than the current 40 year old concrete that is there with caulking everywhere. So maybe a vinyl liner, new skimmer installed into the wall, new inlets and outlets in waller, new pump, and maybe a heater. Those things I estimate would cost $15-$20k. I am currently in a position where I do have the money to do that, but $20k could go a long way to my retirement.
The argument for filling it in stems from this, I live inside the city as per my job requirement (firefighter). There fore I have a standard city lot, and my back yard consists of 3 things, A deck, an in ground pool, and about an 8x40 area of grass. If i were to fill in the pool i would have much more yard for the kids to play in when they get older. I was also told it would be about $2500 to fill in the pool, which is way cheaper than $20k to redo it.
What do you guys think?
In april of this year, the wife and I bought a home with an old in ground pool. We knew a pool was a lot of work, but boy were we in for a rude awakening...
The pool is old, Concrete, and has issues. First issue is that the only plumbing inside the pool, is the main drain, which does work, although I can not get my pump to hold a prime when i select the main drain as the inlet source. The other plumbing comes in the form of PVC piping dropping over the side of the pool with a skimmer attached, and an outlet for the pump. So as of right now are only using the skimmer as the intake for the pump, because if I select the main drain, or both in my valve, it will not hold a prime after shut down. Other issues include, I can not get my vacuum to work through the skimmer, I have tried and tried, but it just isn't very good suction. The skimmer does an excellent job of skimming, but the vacuum is terrible. So to solve that issue I bought an Aquabot robotic pool cleaner on amazon, initially it solve all of my problems, and kept me from insanity in those early weeks of owning a pool. It died after 6 weeks, and I can not get aquabot to reply to my emails. so i have just been brushing my bottom of my pool for algae, and using my skimmer to keep it clean enough... other issues include, the pump is old and need replaced, the pool is not visually appealing to me, and has been known to leak, wasn't mentioned in home inspection, but the neighbors told me all about it and the previous home owner after I moved in.
Here is where I am at in my decision making process:
I would like the pool to look modern and I would like for everything to work. I would also like the decking around the pool to be nicer than the current 40 year old concrete that is there with caulking everywhere. So maybe a vinyl liner, new skimmer installed into the wall, new inlets and outlets in waller, new pump, and maybe a heater. Those things I estimate would cost $15-$20k. I am currently in a position where I do have the money to do that, but $20k could go a long way to my retirement.
The argument for filling it in stems from this, I live inside the city as per my job requirement (firefighter). There fore I have a standard city lot, and my back yard consists of 3 things, A deck, an in ground pool, and about an 8x40 area of grass. If i were to fill in the pool i would have much more yard for the kids to play in when they get older. I was also told it would be about $2500 to fill in the pool, which is way cheaper than $20k to redo it.
What do you guys think?