Hi all, I'll start with a little backstory, I've been lurking here ever since we bought a house that had a large in ground spa (no pool) about 3 years ago. We are a family of 5 with 3 children (12,7, and 5). Neither my husband or I had experience with pools or spas and feared upkeep would be a nightmare. We seriously considered not buying the house because of it. I found this site before we moved in and hit the ground running with a proper test kit. The daily upkeep that I had feared is easy peasy. We use our spa as if it were a teeny tiny pool. We only heat it enough to "swim" in the cooler spring and fall months. When we first moved in, it was workable size wise for our family. Now that our kids have grown a bunch it is getting very cramped.
Our spa is about 10 years old and is in need of some TLC. It has stone coping that has been flaking ever since we moved in. Last year the coping and exterior tile began coming off. There are a few cracked water line tiles and a very small hair line crack in the plaster near the skimmer. We finally had a pool contractor out to discuss our options. We are discussed 3 options.
Option 1: Remodel what we have. He said there is some damage to the bond beam. With the exception of the hairline crack near the skimmer (doesn't appear to leak) the plaster appears to be in good condition. However, he said that since we would be removing and replacing the waterline tiles we would have to do a replaster since the seal between the tiles and plaster would be broken. Is this true? We are still awaiting his final estimate, but the ball park figure was between $6,000 -$8,000 to repair the bond beam, replace coping (travertine), replace exterior tiling with coordinating split face travertine, replace waterline tile, and replaster.
Option 2: Remodel what we have as above, but expand with a larger pool section that ties into the existing spa structure. Would doing this affect the structural integrity of the exisiting spa? I'm not as big a fan of this option because the spa portion would still occupy a large portion of our somewhat limited space for a pool.
Option 3: Demo the current spa, and build a pool that gives our kids enough spread out and actually splash and play. He said that the demo job would only add about $1,500-$3,000 (depends on how much of our patio is removed) to the price of a new pool. With utility easements and setbacks from the foundation, realistically we can only fit a pool that is between 10-13 ft wide by up to about 30 ft long. Is this a reasonable width or will it still feel too narrow and cramped? This option has been at the back of my mind for awhile, but assumed it would be cost prohibitive. I assumed the demo cost would be much higher and that the pool itself would be much more expensive than he estimated. We didn't do a design, just discussed ball park estimates. He said that their starting price for a pool this size (shotcrete w/plaster) is about $35K, but that $50K is much more realistic. Do these estimates seem reasonable for our area (Oklahoma)? From looking at current and sold real estate listing in a 5mi radius, most of the pools near us appear to be vinyl. There are a couple in our neighborhood that are plaster. Aside from cost, is there a benefit to a vinyl lined pool? How often do you have to replace the liner? I've seen estimates online anywhere from 5-20 years.
We will have a few more companies out to discuss what our options are. As we interview pool builders/remodelers what are the main things we should be looking for to assess who would do the best work? I would hate to spend big bucks on a pool and be back where we are with things falling apart in a few years.
Our spa is about 10 years old and is in need of some TLC. It has stone coping that has been flaking ever since we moved in. Last year the coping and exterior tile began coming off. There are a few cracked water line tiles and a very small hair line crack in the plaster near the skimmer. We finally had a pool contractor out to discuss our options. We are discussed 3 options.
Option 1: Remodel what we have. He said there is some damage to the bond beam. With the exception of the hairline crack near the skimmer (doesn't appear to leak) the plaster appears to be in good condition. However, he said that since we would be removing and replacing the waterline tiles we would have to do a replaster since the seal between the tiles and plaster would be broken. Is this true? We are still awaiting his final estimate, but the ball park figure was between $6,000 -$8,000 to repair the bond beam, replace coping (travertine), replace exterior tiling with coordinating split face travertine, replace waterline tile, and replaster.
Option 2: Remodel what we have as above, but expand with a larger pool section that ties into the existing spa structure. Would doing this affect the structural integrity of the exisiting spa? I'm not as big a fan of this option because the spa portion would still occupy a large portion of our somewhat limited space for a pool.
Option 3: Demo the current spa, and build a pool that gives our kids enough spread out and actually splash and play. He said that the demo job would only add about $1,500-$3,000 (depends on how much of our patio is removed) to the price of a new pool. With utility easements and setbacks from the foundation, realistically we can only fit a pool that is between 10-13 ft wide by up to about 30 ft long. Is this a reasonable width or will it still feel too narrow and cramped? This option has been at the back of my mind for awhile, but assumed it would be cost prohibitive. I assumed the demo cost would be much higher and that the pool itself would be much more expensive than he estimated. We didn't do a design, just discussed ball park estimates. He said that their starting price for a pool this size (shotcrete w/plaster) is about $35K, but that $50K is much more realistic. Do these estimates seem reasonable for our area (Oklahoma)? From looking at current and sold real estate listing in a 5mi radius, most of the pools near us appear to be vinyl. There are a couple in our neighborhood that are plaster. Aside from cost, is there a benefit to a vinyl lined pool? How often do you have to replace the liner? I've seen estimates online anywhere from 5-20 years.
We will have a few more companies out to discuss what our options are. As we interview pool builders/remodelers what are the main things we should be looking for to assess who would do the best work? I would hate to spend big bucks on a pool and be back where we are with things falling apart in a few years.
