Ahhh, the swimming pool.
Besides keeping you cool in the summer and being a great party gathering place, there’s lots of health benefits for putting in a swimming pool. Swimming relieves stress, enhances your body’s metabolism, allows greater oxygen flow into your blood stream, works all muscles without putting strain on your body, and is regarded as the best all-around exercise that allows you to lose weight. But will it increase your property’s market value?
A recent study published by the National Association of Realtors maintains that swimming pool installations increase the value of homes from 5% to as much as 15 percent. The percentage varies by region depending on climate – here in Northern Virginia estimates range from 5 – 10%.
A swimming pool’s charm and recreational appeal can be important qualities to potential buyers. But it can be a turn-off for others that don’t want to fool with the maintenance. If you’re deciding to put one in, first make sure it’s not overkill for your neighborhood.
A friend of mine put a fiberglass pool in this summer. The reason for fiberglass was 3-fold. One – cheaper. Two – quicker and less construction mess -- they dig the hole one day, and the pool goes in and is up and running the next. Three – size -- Fairfax County’s new restrictions on ‘disturbed earth’ limits the size you can put in without paying up to $10,000 for a complicated engineer-certified ‘flood plan’.
Here are some guidelines and lessons learned.
Think about what you are going to use the pool for. If children will be using it, you probably want to consider a shallow depth and/or a pool that has a sloping grade. They are much more confident in their swimming ability when they can touch bottom.
Are you going to dive? Deeper pools have a very sharp drop off. If you get a ‘jump-board’– Beware! You encourage diving and open yourself up to teenagers and guests who may try to show off and someone could be seriously hurt.
Where are you going to put the pool? Close to the house? This is good for entertaining. Beyond that, I don’t know why people do it. The pool is going to be covered six months out of the year. My friend placed hers in the back corner of her yard – far and away from the house. This part of the yard consisted of crab grass and was for the most part unusable and unattractive, and the pool is actually out of sight from the house. It doesn’t interfere with the aesthetics of the natural pond and the rest of the landscaping.
After you’ve decided on style, size, and placement, find a reputable dealer. Check their references and find out how long they've been in business. Make sure they are hands-on when it comes to project management. Otherwise, you’ll be fending and negotiating for yourself with county officials, inspectors, and contractors.
After you sign the contract, you’ll need a building permit. Fairfax County requires you submit a plat of your property showing the pool size and location – drawn to scale. This is the biggest hurdle. Hire a surveyor to ensure the the pool itself, and the ground around it is within the disturbed earth square footage limitations.
Now, the County starts counting disturbed earth from the edge of your driveway. They also require a minimum 10 foot clearance around the pool. And if you dig up dirt for the hole, they count that dirt, and of course the pool square footage. The kicker is, even if you haul the dirt away immediately, they count the square footage of where you dump it in the County as well !!!
You will have to pay to have the dirt hauled away. Make sure they don’t take away too much. My friend had to pay to have more dirt hauled in when it came to the decking, to allow for proper drainage.
My friend ended up extending her asphalt driveway just to get the pool where she wanted it. This involved many measurements and pounding stakes into the ground – thus the reason for the surveyor before starting the permit process.
Concurrent with the installation, you’re going to need an electrician and a plumber who know what they’re doing. Some electricians won’t touch the pool equipment. Additional plumbing may be required to install a shut off valve on the heater as an added safety measure (again required by the County).
Water was provided, at a cost of course, by tapping into a nearby fire hydrant.
Don’t forget the heat source. My friend had three massive propane tanks installed thinking they would be getting a much bigger pool in the beginning. The propane tanks heat the smaller pool up very quickly, but are quite the eye sore.
You have to have a 4-ft fence around the pool. And child-proof locks. My friend already had fencing, but had to have all the latches replaced with child-proof locks that are a pain-in-the-you-know-what because it takes two hands to open. Also required are alarms on every door of your house that opens out to the pool area.
Don’t be surprised that once the pool is installed, you never hear from your salesman again. Make sure you have the time and patience to deal with the inspectors and the additional contractors.
Landscaping and pool decking are a necessity. Fiberglass pools don’t come with coping, so your decking contractor will have to be knowledgeable in this application as well.
Pool installation can obviously be costly and stressful. It’s really important to evaluate the how your home will fare on the market once a pool is added and whether or not you will make back all of the money you put into the installation. If no one in your neighborhood has a pool, chances are that you won’t recoup the cost of adding one when you sell. This is because the average price of a home in your area will likely not include the cost of an added pool, which can require a significant investment.
On the other hand, when you add a pool to a large property in a wealthy neighborhood chances are that the investment will pay off. Homebuyers in upscale neighborhoods often expect every amenity imaginable to be included so if your house doesn’t have a pool and every other place in the neighborhood does you might be in trouble when it comes time to sell.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember when you build a swimming pool is the purpose of doing so – to improve resale value. Don’t let your swimming hole become a money pit. Let me assist you in doing the necessary research before taking the plunge and adding a pool to your home. Contact me at dgreco@kw.com!
With Thanksgiving upon us, couldn’t help but pass along this holiday anecdote:
