Please Help, Buying A Pool In Ma

[poolrookie]

Hi,

I'm hoping to get some intelligent feedback on which direction I should lean towards. I plan on purchasing an inground pool, I'm located in Massachusetts. I have already done a lot of research (mainly on fiberglass) and if money was no object, I would 100% choose a fiberglass pool. Money is a factor so I'm entertaining the idea of getting a steel wall foam padded vinyl pool. I am ruling out gunite because it cost just as much as a fiberglass pool and I'm totally sold on fiberglass...minus the expense. Just to let you know, I was quoted about $22,000 (20x40) for a steel wall vinyl foam padded and $34,000 (16x40) for a viking fiberglass pool. See why I'm in a dilemma?? Living in Massachusetts, the pool will not add (maybe a little) any value to my home but we do plan on staying in our home for life but who really knows (I'm 30 years old with two young kids)??

I do have questions regarding vinyl pools…

1) In MA, how often will I have to replace the liner, it comes with a 20-25 year warranty…I always thought it was every 7 years?

2) How easy is it to puncture the liner? Other than pets, what else could cause a rip?

3) What’s the story with the steel walls, will they ever give?

Another side note, according to my neighbors, we live in an area with a high-water table. Fiberglass pools can easily address this and it’s included in the price above. Any idea if a vinyl pool builder can address this?

Now that I gave you the background, can anyone convince me that a vinyl pool is the only way to go? Your help is much appreciated!

[Pathfinder]

Ive built steel wall pools for 8 years & I believe polymer walls are the way to go these days if your not going with a fibreglass pool. Do some research you will find they are a better product. Now for installation- depending on how deep your pool will be, if you hit ground water take your quote and throw it out the window. This part of the install now becomes time and material since they have to haul out additional material with the over dig. They have to bring in new material like crushed stone, run a sump pit to ensure water doesnt start filling up the area. This pump will run till the install is done. There is also more labour involved for repacking and shaping the bottom once its been excavated properly. Liners will last between 5 & 12 years depending on quality and care of the liner. Liners dont usually rip unless there is misuse i.e. dont glass near pol area or bottle caps. A steel wall wont move if its installed and achored properly. On the install there should be sona tubes on the potential walkway which the wall will anchored to as well this keeps the walls from shifting in.

With regards to the pricing, if you hit ground water the excavation for both types of pools becomes the same. So if the fibreglass pool company deals with ground water all of the time then they can quote a realistic figure. If the Vinyl pool company doesnt quote for ground water your price could be the same as the fibreglass or more depending on your soil condition.

[poolrookie]

Ive built steel wall pools for 8 years & I believe polymer walls are the way to go these days if your not going with a fibreglass pool. Do some research you will find they are a better product. Now for installation- depending on how deep your pool will be, if you hit ground water take your quote and throw it out the window. This part of the install now becomes time and material since they have to haul out additional material with the over dig. They have to bring in new material like crushed stone, run a sump pit to ensure water doesnt start filling up the area. This pump will run till the install is done. There is also more labour involved for repacking and shaping the bottom once its been excavated properly. Liners will last between 5 & 12 years depending on quality and care of the liner. Liners dont usually rip unless there is misuse i.e. dont glass near pol area or bottle caps. A steel wall wont move if its installed and achored properly. On the install there should be sona tubes on the potential walkway which the wall will anchored to as well this keeps the walls from shifting in.

With regards to the pricing, if you hit ground water the excavation for both types of pools becomes the same. So if the fibreglass pool company deals with ground water all of the time then they can quote a realistic figure. If the Vinyl pool company doesnt quote for ground water your price could be the same as the fibreglass or more depending on your soil condition.

Thank you, I didn't realize that about the high-water table...

I plan on having a formal sit down with the vinyl pool builder next week and I will ask him how much more it could be to address a high water table...hopefully he can give me best and worse case scenerio.

[jeffreyrichard]

Hi ... I'm brandy new to this forum. I live in RI and I've owned an in-ground pool for 4 years ... that is my experience. So it is rather limited. However, I'll share my thoughts ...

I believe it is more important to choose the right vendor more so than the pool material. When we were considering a pool, we looked at Gunite, Cement/vinyl and Steel/vinyl. Our neighbor has a gunite pool, so we were able to leverage their experiences.

5 years ago, the cost in our area for the pool 32 x 16 (no landscaping or deck) were about $25K for a gunite pool, $18K for the cement wall pool, and $14K for a steel walled pool. The cost of the gunite plus the cost of redo-ing the coatings every 6-8 years (neighbor's experience) didn't make sense. So we looked closely at the steel pools. The Cement wall pools are sold by a vendor who has been in business for 30+ years with lots of local recommendations. We talked to the sales people for 3 steel pool companies, and found that they were in business for an averageof less than 2 years. In fact, several had actually changed the name of their company several times ... a big red flag. In the end, we went with the established business and the middle-of-the-road cost. We are completely happy with the vendor.

I had heard that you run risks of rusting ourt steel pools when they are not installed correctly ... and I'm not one to trust a fly-by-night operation.

I will tell you that my best friend purchased a steel-wall pool. He's had a bit of trouble with a leaky liner that needed to be replaced 2xs. Otherwise he likes his pool.