# spain pool cost?



## tomtit

I'm getting closer to my retirement and every week I check out homes for sale in spain, almost sure it will be costa blanca.
As I will be mid 60's, if I move an appartment it seems to make sense but I'm a little worried about ending up sharing my retirement days with undesirable holiday makers and their kids.
SOOOOO. . .my questio
n,
If I were able to afford a town house or even better a small villa with a pool, what are the approx annual costs for a small pool, ie maintenance man, cleaning, heating, filters, electric etc.
I've never had one so don't have a clue.
chhers in advance, Tom


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## tarot650

It's hard to put a rough figure on it unless you get a pool cleaner in who supplies all the chemicals,chlorine etc;.I know down here you have to shop around for your chemicals as there can be a vast price difference.Also, you have to weigh up how many months a year you can use your pool.It certainly won't be twelve unless you are fortunate enough for it to be indoors and heated and when you can't use it in winter it still has to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.Wonderful to have one in summer but nowadays it's certainly not the cheap luxury it once was.


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## xicoalc

soulboy said:


> It's hard to put a rough figure on it unless you get a pool cleaner in who supplies all the chemicals,chlorine etc;.I know down here you have to shop around for your chemicals as there can be a vast price difference.Also, you have to weigh up how many months a year you can use your pool.It certainly won't be twelve unless you are fortunate enough for it to be indoors and heated and when you can't use it in winter it still has to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.Wonderful to have one in summer but nowadays it's certainly not the cheap luxury it once was.


 agree – I've never actually had a pool of my own in Spain but I know several people who do and the last time I spoke to somebody about this they paid a company who did everything. I'm not sure how often they visited – perhaps monthly – I really don't know but they did all of the maintenance and then all of the shutting it down before the winter and preparing it again in the spring as well as visiting throughout all seasons and I think they paid them some sort of feel like €25 or €45 a month I could be wrong on that. All I know is that these people took care of everything and supplied all of the chemicals and filters and do all of the cleaning and everything – the only thing my friends had to do was skim things like leaves off the top of it every day.

I know that they had to have some repairs done on it once and consequently it had to be drained. Afterwards they were not able to fill it from the tap because that's banned in their area so had to pay a company to deliver the water but I guess whether you're paying a company or even filling it through a tap the pool holds a lot of water and is going to cost a lot to fill. Don't forget also that in the summer months especially they require regular top ups because water has that habit of evaporating.

I would hazard a guess – a wild guess that if you have a pump running its property going to add €25-€100 per month on to your Electric Bill depending on the size of the pool etc but again I can't be completely sure on this.

As the other person just said it's not the cheap luxury that it used to be. In some ways although communal pool is not the same it certainly makes for an easier life LOL


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## tomtit

I'm glad I asked! never having had one I don't know the system. I thought the pool was operable 52 weeks a year. . .although I suppose 4 months covered in winter would save on the electric bills.
Me being retired and able to do quite a bit would it be possible for me to buy my own chemicals and treat the pool weekly or is a bit more technical than that?


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## CapnBilly

tomtit said:


> I'm glad I asked! never having had one I don't know the system. I thought the pool was operable 52 weeks a year. . .although I suppose 4 months covered in winter would save on the electric bills.
> Me being retired and able to do quite a bit would it be possible for me to buy my own chemicals and treat the pool weekly or is a bit more technical than that?


I live on the Costa Blanca, and around here you pay approx €70 a month inc chemicals for cleaning and maintenance. Having said that I clean my own, as its not difficult to do. I estimate I spend around €100 a year on chemicals, and perhaps €30 on equipment replacement. In terms of the pump, I would estimate ( quick calculation) that it costs me approx €200 a year. This is for an 8 x 4 unheated pool. If you're going to consider heating, and on the Costa Blanca I wouldn't recommend it, as the water is warm, but it's freezing out of the pool, then I certainly wouldn't consider electric heating, the cost would be exterminate. My pool at the moment is about 8 c. That's a lot of power to keep it heated to an ambient temperature. If you do want heating, then probably best to consider solar. Having said that my neighbour has solar, which they also use for water. Their pool is normally 2c higher than mine in summer, perhaps a bit more in winter, but not enough to swim in. I would say they get about 2 extra months a year. 

In the winter I go to my local indoor pool, which is heated to about 29c, and is generally empty ( during the day). The cost is €3 including use of the gymn, or €2 if you are a pensioner. Lots of towns seem to have these

Hope this helps.


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## thrax

Definitely clean and maintain it yourself, it is really easy. Once you are settled, find someone who knows about pool maintenance and get them to show you how it's done. The pool should be cleaned once a week minimum during the summer months and you have to know how to backwash, rinse and clean the filters. The materials are easy to find. Over winter, either have a cover installed, if it doesn't have one, or use one of the over winter cleaning systems which cost about €18 and last four or five months.


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## tomtit

many thanx for all the replies. It seems within reason but I just wanted to check!
cheers!


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## 90199

We use the Atlantic, it is free and requires little maintenance on our part

Seriously though, you mentioned an apartment, we have one near the coast, in a block of four, there are two blocks of four in the complex. Although we like the apartment and its close proximity to the ocean, it is for sale and if sold we would upgrade to a house.

When the other residents are there, it is noisy, smelly from cooking, the communal areas are dirty, the one bed apartment at the back of us, the owner rents it to a family of three who have two dogs. The communidad cannot agree on anything and will not effect any maintenance or repairs. We had the outside of our apartment restored and repainted, this makes the other three look really sad.

Thank goodness we have our house in the capital, apartments are not for us.


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## tomtit

yes Hepa I can sympathise with this. I once had an apartment in sa coma, mallorca and can understand the pitfalls of not knowing who yout neighbours will be. this is why I would prefer my own space, hence the cost of the pool question!


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## Cazzy

We have a 9x5 pool which we maintain ourselves. We winterise it for 4 months a year. We think that on average with electricity, water top up (due to evaporation), chemicals and any new equipment it costs about 1,000 a year to run. In the summer you really need the pump on for 8 hours a day. I have noticed that chemicals vary greatly in price depending on where you are. With Chlorine pools you will find that if a lot of people use the pool you will use a lot more chlorine.


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## CapnBilly

Cazzy said:


> We have a 9x5 pool which we maintain ourselves. We winterise it for 4 months a year. We think that on average with electricity, water top up (due to evaporation), chemicals and any new equipment it costs about 1,000 a year to run. In the summer you really need the pump on for 8 hours a day. I have noticed that chemicals vary greatly in price depending on where you are. With Chlorine pools you will find that if a lot of people use the pool you will use a lot more chlorine.


I think €1,000 is a bit toppish, even if you have to pay a lot for your water. The cost I gave for running the pump included running it for 8 hours in July/August and 7 in June/September etc. You probably use a few more chemicals that I do, as your pool is bigger, but even so, think thats a lot, even if you not using two tier rate electric.


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## tomtit

Well at least I have an idea of roughly what is involved and how much I need to budget. It seems on average cheaper than the annual gas/central heating costs in the UK. I think it may be required if we get the visits from family and friends that are expected. It also gives us the oppurtunity to rent out for a couple of hotter months when we can return and stay with family in the UK.
just a thought! ;-)


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## CapnBilly

Well, depending upon where you're going to live, you'll still need a big budget for heating. It can get very cold in Spain. Another thread ?


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## janicecasaesmena

thrax said:


> Definitely clean and maintain it yourself, it is really easy. Once you are settled, find someone who knows about pool maintenance and get them to show you how it's done. The pool should be cleaned once a week minimum during the summer months and you have to know how to backwash, rinse and clean the filters. The materials are easy to find. Over winter, either have a cover installed, if it doesn't have one, or use one of the over winter cleaning systems which cost about €18 and last four or five months.


Hi what is the over winter cleaning system called.


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## extranjero

Cazzy said:


> We have a 9x5 pool which we maintain ourselves. We winterise it for 4 months a year. We think that on average with electricity, water top up (due to evaporation), chemicals and any new equipment it costs about 1,000 a year to run. In the summer you really need the pump on for 8 hours a day. I have noticed that chemicals vary greatly in price depending on where you are. With Chlorine pools you will find that if a lot of people use the pool you will use a lot more chlorine.


When we had our 9x5 pool, we had the pump on for an hour, am/pm, in winter, and two hours am/pm in summer
Never had a problem with that
That was for just the two of us using it
If you have lots of visitors you'll probably need it on longer
Plus, there was definitely no pee in our pool!


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## Desiato

extranjero said:


> When we had our 9x5 pool, we had the pump on for an hour, am/pm, in winter, and two hours am/pm in summer
> Never had a problem with that
> That was for just the two of us using it
> If you have lots of visitors you'll probably need it on longer
> Plus, there was definitely no pee in our pool!


I run mine for 1 hour at night in the winter and 4 hours at night in the summer (cheap rate) and not suffered any 'green monsters'. As for chemical costs, you will need:

Chlorine tablets
Chlorine shock
PH+
PH-
Algaecide
Flocculent/Clarifiers
And if you have any, stain removers

You will likely get through 2/3 5L tubs of chlorine tablets in a season and probably 1/2 of shock depending how well you keep on top of it. The others you can get away with 1 tub a season but again, you may need more Floc and Algy killer if it gets away from you. Hard to see anyone getting that lot for under €100, I'd say nearer €200 but some of it (like the PH+ and PH-) will be in your shed for years so that will help. 

I look after my pool and don't buy any of those chemicals but that's another story. You'll also have to budget for a partial drain of the pool, usually 50%, at the start of every season to reduce the build of of certain undesirable chemicals. This can add up to a few hundred euros so is a major expense which needs to be factored in. It's not something I need to do but everyone using chlorine tablets does (or at least should). 

So in summary, between €200 and €500 to start with and then the cost of the extra water to replace whats evaporated which could be another €50/100 over the summer months. 

There are many other things you could buy, like winter/solar covers, electronic pool cleaners and salt water generators but that's the minimum to get you started (apart from your brush/skimmer tools that is). 

Hope that helps

EDIT - you'll also need something to test the water with. You can use strips but they have proven to be highly inaccurate (for me) or fork out on a commercial kit which could cost around €100. It will be the best €100 you'll ever spend.


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## BGD

My advice having had 5 properties here over the years would be: do not have one with a pool.

It's a pain in the butt.

Expensive in terms of water, electricity, chemicals, labour; uses up valuable land space around your house, puts cost onto your annual IBI tax, will only be used by you a bit in the high summer - and if you or guests really want to swim just go either to the beach or to any of the much bigger municipal swimming pools nearby....probably including the one in your own town or village that you are paying for anyway via you local IBI tax!

Personal view only, but I'm fed up with the 12 months of hassle and expense of the thing for frankly little enjoyment in return during the June-Septmeber use season, and we will certainly be looking for NO pool at any future property I buy.


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