Any idea why pools are so expensive here in central Utah?

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jdoghaf

jdoghaf

Member
Feb 6, 2021
17
Springville, Utah
Pool Size
42000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
A couple of months ago we started the bidding process for building a pool here in central Utah. I thought I’d share one of the quotes we got (quotes are attached as images). Although this was the highest bid we got, the others weren’t to far off from this. We ended up going with someone who was a brother of a friend, who gave us a lower quote.

What I’m trying to figure out is why pools are so dang expensive here in central Utah. I know there is lower demand, but still a pool and spa for $246,000 that doesn’t even come with concrete decking is pretty high.

I saw quotes on here from other people that were like 30k for a pool. That sounds crazy. I understand that the specs for this pool are pretty nice but not $250,000 nice.

I guess the moral of the story is if you are a pool contractor, come to central Utah.
 

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J,

Often identical pools in the same town have drastically different prices, just because of the neighborhood the home owner lives in...

May not be fair, but if you look like you can afford a $250K pool, then they are going to build you a $250K pool.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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I’m not sure how much of a role COVID-19 is playing into this, because we have friends who built a pool 2-3 years ago for a very similar price.
 
jdoghaf said:
A couple of months ago we started the bidding process for building a pool here in central Utah. I thought I’d share one of the quotes we got (quotes are attached as images). Although this was the highest bid we got, the others weren’t to far off from this. We ended up going with someone who was a brother of a friend, who gave us a lower quote.

What I’m trying to figure out is why pools are so dang expensive here in central Utah. I know there is lower demand, but still a pool and spa for $246,000 that doesn’t even come with concrete decking is pretty high.

I saw quotes on here from other people that were like 30k for a pool. That sounds crazy. I understand that the specs for this pool are pretty nice but not $250,000 nice.

I guess the moral of the story is if you are a pool contractor, come to central Utah.
Click to expand...
Where in Utah are you. I got 3 fiberglass and 3 gunite bids about 6 months ago that were not even close to that ($85-$120k range). I'm in Salt Lake Valley. If you want to message me, I can share some of the details with you.
 
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I’m down in Springville. (South of Provo) The pool contractor we decided to go with actually does landscaping, but is starting to do pools. He worked for various residential and commercial pool companies for 20+ years before starting a landscaping business. He has had the landscaping business for a little over 5 years now and wants to start doing pools again.

I think part of the reason we got such high quotes is because he had pool companies (with a lot higher overhead) come bid our pool instead of some smaller pool contractors.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Dolphin Pools, but that is the bid I attached. There known as having the highest quality pool, just only double the price I guess.

@johnywess, I’m curious what the specs are on the pool you got bids for.
 
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When you do a breakdown you can figure out rough costs. Your attachments are blurry so I cant read them.

To dig costs about 800-1K/day. In many areas they can dig the pool in a day (my area is solid rock so maybe 10 days)
Plumbing/rebar is less than 10K
Shotcrete gunite is less than 10K
Equipment is 5K, plus a max of 5K to install
plaster is less than 5K
Tile is less than 5K (about 10/sq ft installed for $2/sq ft tile, but more if you have expensive tile. The tile my wife picked is $42/sq ft!).
coping should be about $10/sq ft installed
Decking should be about $10-$20/sq ft installed


so a base pool with heater/spa should be around 45K. The pool contractor gets a markup of 25-30%, so maybe another 15K. This gets you to about 60K for a basic pool anywhere in the US.

I had contractors tell me 150K and the pool we are building is about 75K.

250K should include covered patio, full kitchen, television, water slide, best automation, etc.
 
LOL.
Yes, Dolphin is 2 blocks from my house. I called them in October. They told me that they could schedule a dig date for me in January....... of 2022.
I got some crazy bids, but mostly people not wanting to come bid my job because it was to "small."
Automatic pool cover seems to drive the price up by about 20k here in Utah, but everyone uses those.
I'm scheduled to have a 15x30 salt water pool and 6x8 spa installed in April. Autofill, variable speed pump blah blah blah.
My estimate.... with ZERO decking alloted (7 dollars per square for concrete, 18 per square for pavers) was 105k.
That was the best I could do.
Also, my PB says in his 15 years of working on pool, he's only seen one customer opt for a auto cover on a spa. The price is staggering to add autocover there.
 
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sl7vk said:
I'm scheduled to have a 15x30 salt water pool and 6x8 spa installed in April. Autofill, variable speed pump blah blah blah.
My estimate.... with ZERO decking alloted (7 dollars per square for concrete, 18 per square for pavers) was 105k.
Click to expand...

Ours is a similar size and specs as @sl7vk (15'x35' details in my signature) but no spa. If I pull out our landscaping, decking, and water features cost we would be 80k.
 
Yeah, I just realized that one big difference in price is the auto cover. Pretty much every single pool here in Utah has an autocover.

I reattached the quotes so they are less blurry
 

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