How much does bulk water cost? and other pool questions?
I am looking to lease a home with an in ground pool and I would like some advice from pool owners. How much per gallon did you pay for your bulk water, I know it fluctuates depending on region, I’m in the midwest, but Id like an idea of what others pay. Also do you hire a company to do the weekly maintenance or do you do the chemicals yourself, which do you find to be more cost effective? Any other advice for keeping pool maintenance costs down are appreciated.
In Southern Arizona, bulk water delivery is charged at a penny a gallon and $95 per hour for the water truck. The last pool I designed and had to be filled that way ended up running around $850 for 13,000 gallons.
It is always cheaper to do it yourself, but you have to be honest with yourself as to whether or not you feel like you can keep on top of the maintenance. If you ‘let the pool go’ and let the chemistry get out of whack, you can damage the equipment or the interior surface, which cost a heck of a lot more than pool service.
Again, using southern AZ as a guide, you can expect to pay from $50-$125 per month on a service, which includes chemicals. The variance in price is because some services are water chemistry only, and do not perform other maintenance services like cleaning filters, salt cels (if you have one) and so on.
Maintaining a pool is a lot like maintaining a car – you can skip oil changes and not check the air pressure in the tires and save a little, or you can buy tires more often and replace the engine at 60,000 miles.