What a Pool Actually Costs to Own Over 10 Years

The 10-Year Cost of Owning a Pool

The Pool Guides Podcast – by River Pools

Host: Cristian Shirilla Guest: Tyler Hermon, VP of Sales & Marketing, Pools of Fun

Cold Open

Tyler Hermon

Very seldom is that part of a regular conversation, or a question from homeowners: what does ten years down the road look like, what do annual expenses look like? The perceived maintenance and the actual maintenance are sometimes not in alignment.

I had a lady who told me, I ran into her over on the east side of Indy one time at a gas station, and she said, "Tyler, I want to talk to you about my pool. There's something you didn't prepare me for, and I've spent a lot of money on this." And I'm taken aback, I pride myself on doing a beautiful job and being as thorough as I can, so I said, "I'm so sorry, what happened?" And she said, "You did not prepare me for the cost of peanut butter and jellies and Beefaroni and all these things I was going to have to have for all these kids who want to come to my house now."

Introduction

Cristian Shirilla

What's up, guys? Cristian here with River Pools. Welcome to The Pool Guides Podcast, a show that helps you gather all the information you might need to make a well-informed decision about having a pool installed in your backyard.

In this particular episode, we're not talking about the cost of buying a pool. We're not talking about the cost of installing a pool. Instead, we're talking about the cost of owning one. I wanted to find a guide who doesn't just work in sales, doesn't just work in maintenance, but who has seen every side of the industry when it comes to pool ownership. Somebody who can help us understand what it might cost to own a pool over a ten-year period.

Meet today's guide, Tyler Hermon.

Meet Tyler Hermon

Cristian Shirilla

Tyler, welcome to the show, my friend. I appreciate you jumping on. Eighteen years in the industry, is that right?

Tyler Hermon

It is, yeah. Eighteen years this year, between hot tubs and pools and the retail team and a little bit of everything. I love every bit of it.

Cristian Shirilla

So what got you into the industry, and more importantly, what's kept you here that long?

Tyler Hermon

I actually started at Pools of Fun in one of our retail stores. They hired me to launch a hot tub business for them. I'd always known of the company, had friends and family who worked there in sales and management, so I knew its reputation. I loved hot tubs, so it was a chance to start a sales career. We sold about forty-eight or fifty spas that first year, floor-planning them in the store and selling them alongside our new pools. From there I moved into new pool sales and I've done that ever since. I've managed some of our weekly pool care routes too, but my heart and soul has been on the marketing and new pool side.

What I love about it is the same thing everybody says. I'm not at a desk, and every day is different. But really, getting to help a family create something like this in their backyard is so rewarding. I didn't fully understand what I did until I put one in at my own house, and then I realized what we were actually creating for families. It changed everything about how I approach it. I still get chills when I talk about my kids' first swim, and I love creating that for other families.

Cristian Shirilla

I feel the same way, man. It's a super fun industry, and seeing the joy people get out of what we put in their backyards, there's nothing like it.

Pools of Fun is based out of the Indianapolis area, and you all still have your hands in much of the industry: hot tub sales, fiberglass and vinyl liner installation, and a maintenance department, right?

Tyler Hermon

Yeah. We take care of close to a hundred and fifty, maybe a hundred and eighty pools, running routes anywhere from one to two stops a week for those customers. We have five retail locations around central Indiana that we call customer care centers, with parts, accessories, and chemicals, and this year we launched our own private-label chemical line. We've got our hand in just about every aspect: renovations, remodeling, everything. We like to say we cover everything from the backyard to the fence.

Cristian Shirilla

So that's the perspective Tyler brings to today's episode. The company he works for, Pools of Fun, sells fiberglass, sells vinyl, and maintains all three types of pools: fiberglass, vinyl, and concrete. He's well versed in today's topic. But I wanted to start by asking him one true question about planning for a pool. It's easy to focus on the cost of the pool itself, but do people actually inquire about the cost of owning one?

Does Anyone Actually Plan for the Cost of Owning a Pool?

Tyler Hermon

This tees up the conversation perfectly, because I represent the manufacturer, River Pools, fiberglass manufacturing. I'm excited to see pools get sold and installed, and people wrapping their heads around that number is often the start of the whole adventure. But how often do people also go through that process thinking about the ten years after it's installed? Very seldom. There's a perceived maintenance and a perceived cost of ownership that comes with it. Your well-educated customers tend to ask what annual expenses look like, but very seldom is that a regular part of the conversation, so kudos to you for covering it.

Cristian Shirilla

When the homeowner doesn't bring it up, do you make a point to have this conversation? And when they get educated, does it start to sway their opinion on what type of pool to buy?

Tyler Hermon

I'd say we probably don't introduce it on our own. I always draw the comparison: if you go to the Hummer dealership, they don't remind you of the gas mileage before you tell them you want it. We're never going to mislead, deceive, or avoid the subject, but we approach it knowing everybody has a perceived understanding, and we answer it head-on when it comes up.

And yes, certain pools are more efficient to own and operate long term. We do vinyl liner and fiberglass. We're in the Midwest, not a big gunite market, so it's not something we typically build or maintain. When we compare a ten-year cost of ownership between liner and fiberglass, chemicals and equipment are only slightly different, nothing of significance. It really comes down to upfront costs versus deferred costs. The liner change, when it happens and what it costs, is what we regularly talk through when people are comparing pool types.

Cristian Shirilla

So that ten-year cost of ownership is very real, yet so many people walk right past it when they're planning. If that's where you are, let's look at it through Tyler's eighteen years of experience, starting with the big question: which pool type is the most affordable over that ten-year period?

Which Pool Costs the Least to Own Over 10 Years?

Cristian Shirilla

Let's start with fiberglass. It's traditionally thought of as having the lowest cost over ten years. True or untrue?

Tyler Hermon

That's absolutely factual, and it's what we'd share with our homeowners. The line I use is: if you're willing to spend a little more money up front to offset those additional ongoing long-term expenses, a fiberglass pool is a great fit.

Cristian Shirilla

So what should the average homeowner prepare to spend over ten years with a fiberglass pool?

Tyler Hermon

Really, you're looking at chemical expenses and utility expenses. In a ten-year period, there's nothing you're going to do to the shell as long as you're taking care of it. We're in the Midwest, so it's different than Texas or Florida or California. We're seasonal. Somebody in a warm state might use their pool three hundred-plus days a year. We use ours a hundred to a hundred and forty days. So the life of pumps, the life of heaters, all of that is dramatically different.

With vinyl, that ten-year mark is where people start to investigate a replacement liner. Locally, in that ten-to-twelve-year window, the liner is typically not at the point of failure, but it's starting to show chemical and UV damage. That can be anywhere from a seven to ten or eleven thousand dollar expense, and it's the single largest piece. Beyond that, in ten years, probably a pump and probably a heater. Pumps run two to three thousand dollars, heaters five to six thousand. Can you set your watch and know it'll all happen in exactly ten years? No. It comes back to how well you take care of things, whether you're a DIYer or using a professional.

Cristian Shirilla

Aside from the liner itself, fiberglass and vinyl are about equal in maintenance. Walk us through everything that goes into a liner replacement, because it's not just the liner.

Tyler Hermon

When we do a liner replacement, we pump down the existing pool, then dispose of and haul off the old liner. We'll spend up to an hour refinishing the floor. In that ten-to-twelve-year window, the walls usually still look pretty good, but the floor may need a little repair to work out any cracks or aggregate that came to the surface, so it's a nice clean install. Then the liner goes back in and we fill the pool completely. It's a morning job. In four to six hours we can take you from your existing pool to a brand-new liner filled back up with water.

Cristian Shirilla

Those costs come from the Midwest, so they may be higher or lower depending on where you are. Now let's talk ten-year ownership costs for concrete pools. You have the authority to speak on this: you don't build or renovate concrete, but you do maintain it.

Tyler Hermon

If a liner change is the range we discussed, re-plastering or re-pebbling a pool locally starts at twenty-plus thousand dollars. So you're double the cost of a liner change, and that's not even a conversation you're having with fiberglass. You'll also use more chemicals and spend more of your own time cleaning a gunite pool because of the porous surface. Pumps, filters, and heaters are about the same across pool types, but that finish is the biggest kicker. There are a handful of companies locally who do a good job building them, but very few who want to refinish and rehab them. You might want it done this year and be on a two-year wait, and you're twenty-plus thousand dollars to have that work done.

Cristian Shirilla

Let's talk time investment. It's more on a concrete pool. How much more, chemically speaking?

Tyler Hermon

We tell people in our retail stores it's about fifteen to twenty percent more on chemicals. Those rough surfaces give algae more to adhere to and grow on. On the smooth surface of gel coat or a liner, algae can still grow, but it has a harder time holding on. Fifteen to twenty percent is probably the high end, but that's typically what we see: gunite pool owners spending double-digit percentages more than liner and fiberglass customers.

Cristian Shirilla

I can attest to that. Brushing algae off a concrete pool is not an easy feat. I worked at a lot of outdoor pools in my younger days, and when an algae bloom happens, and it's not if, it's when, you're going to work hard to get it out. On a fiberglass or vinyl pool, it pops right off and your chemicals and filter finish the job.

Tyler Hermon

Exactly. On a plaster or pebble finish it's a much more rigorous process, and if you think you got it all but you didn't, it comes right back. It has something to really hold onto. So vinyl and fiberglass significantly outperform concrete in that category.

Cristian Shirilla

So fiberglass and vinyl liner pools are pretty close on ten-year ownership cost, except for the potential to replace that liner. That's where a bit of separation happens and a clear winner rises to the top. Concrete will always be more expensive to own and maintain over that period, and if you have to resurface it in that window, it's in a whole other category. But what about all the other equipment needed to operate a pool, regardless of type? Let's ask Tyler what you might expect to replace and what it costs.

The Equipment You'll Replace, and What It Costs

Cristian Shirilla

You've mentioned a couple of components you can expect to replace. This is pretty much the same for all three pool types. Quick yes or no, expect to replace it within ten years. Pumps?

Tyler Hermon

Yes.

Cristian Shirilla

Salt cells?

Tyler Hermon

Yes.

Cristian Shirilla

Chlorinators, a traditional erosion feeder?

Tyler Hermon

You're going to get ten-plus years out of an erosion feeder.

Cristian Shirilla

Heaters and chillers?

Tyler Hermon

Gas heaters, because they're not titanium heat exchangers and use a softer metal, probably won't get ten years. Heat pumps and chillers with a titanium heat exchanger should get you through that ten-year period. On a good-quality heat pump you've taken care of, twelve to fifteen years on the heat exchanger would be good, though it's all water-chemistry based.

Cristian Shirilla

So back to the major components. There are outliers like UV, but the main ones are your pump, your filter, your sanitation device, and your heater or chiller. With a filter you're usually swapping a small portion, not the whole thing. How much is a pump going to run these days, since they're all variable speed now?

Tyler Hermon

The entry-point conversation is about a two thousand dollar expense for the pump. With labor and install, you're really looking at twenty-five hundred to maybe slightly over three thousand in our market to replace a variable speed pump. If you're model-for-model and can keep the controller, you stay near the bottom of that. If the new pump needs a new controller, that's where you get into the three-plus range. And it can snowball: if it's on an automation system, does the new pump talk to it? Most of the time with the big three brands, you get a pump that can plug and play with what you already had.

Cristian Shirilla

Salt cells, or an erosion chlorinator, are really just plastic degrading over time. The salt cell is more likely to break down in that ten-year period. What should people plan to have set aside?

Tyler Hermon

A lot of people want salt because it's cheaper to own and easier to operate, and we could go on a whole tangent about that. But my message is always: when you elect salt, put that money in an envelope and keep it in the drawer, because we are coming back for it. The money you save buying manufactured chlorine, that's what it's for. Most people aren't going to acid-wash the salt cell and do the maintenance a couple times a year to extend its life. We're seeing salt cells needing replacement as early as two to three years for people who aren't maintaining them. You get longer if you do the acid baths and keep the plates clean. Either way, it's about two thousand to twenty-five hundred dollars to replace a salt system, and in ten years, if you're not maintaining it, you could realistically do that a couple of times.

Salt is a nice swim experience, and it's much easier to deal with than caustic chemicals. But it is not a set-it-and-forget-it system. You can do a lot of damage very quickly with a salt cell, beyond the cell itself, and you don't even see it happening. So be very mindful when you make that call for your project.

Cristian Shirilla

Heaters and chillers, did we cover the cost?

Tyler Hermon

In our market, entry-level heaters with smaller BTUs run about forty-five hundred, up to five or five and a half thousand to replace a good gas unit. Heat pumps are a little above that, but as we said, we're probably not into a ten-year replacement window on those yet.

Cristian Shirilla

What's the lifespan of a heater depending on usage? If you barely use it, can you get more life out of it? Or can one bad chemistry event lead to an early death?

Tyler Hermon

Bad chemistry can absolutely lead to an early death. Is it bad chemistry for one week? That'll have an impact, but they're not that fragile or temperamental. You can damage one quickly with water that becomes very acidic, it can eat right through some of those internal parts. One thing I'd add: if the heater isn't something you'll use regularly, is it installed correctly? Does it have a bypass valve, or is it just valved off? We've seen builders literally valve a heater off, and then you see dry rot from it sitting there with no water running through it, which can be just as damaging as acidic water. So there are multiple things that lead to the early demise of a heater. But assuming good water care, you're going to get four, five, six years out of a normal heater before you start thinking about replacing it.

Cristian Shirilla

So you have a clear picture now of the components that might need replacing in a ten-year period and what today's costs are. But what about the expenses you can't really see or touch, and definitely can't avoid? We're talking insurance and property taxes.

Will a Pool Raise Your Insurance or Taxes?

Cristian Shirilla

You're not an insurance guy and you're not a tax guy, but this question surely comes up in the sales conversation. Is my insurance going to go up? Are my taxes going to go up? How do you answer it?

Tyler Hermon

The easy answer is everybody's different and every territory's different. What I've found in eighteen years is that most large insurance carriers write this into an umbrella liability policy on the property, and your premiums don't significantly change. The factors that lead to increases are things that add risk. Are you installing a diving board? A slide? Those may affect your insurance quote and rate. We have a couple of insurance companies locally that won't insure a pool at all if you put a diving board on it. We've had to take slides off contracts just so homeowners could get coverage.

Cristian Shirilla

I was going to ask if you're seeing more of that. My own neighborhood went through it. We tried to get a diving board repaired, just rusty bolts over time, and the service company wouldn't touch it. The insurance company said anything done to it would void the grandfather clause and they'd drop coverage. This is in Virginia, and I'm seeing homeowners report losing coverage over slides too. Are you still selling slides and diving boards?

Tyler Hermon

We do very, very little of it. My normal answer is, if my income were derived from selling slides and diving boards, I wouldn't be talking to you today, I'd be finding something else to do. There's been a massive turn in the industry over the last four or five years toward enjoyment: play pools, tanning ledges, common depths. If we're building a hundred-plus pools a year, we're probably doing less than ten percent with boards and slides.

Cristian Shirilla

And automatic covers, do they help or hurt the case?

Tyler Hermon

They significantly help. In our local state law, and I know other states are adopting this, in Indiana you either have to have a five-foot fence with lockable gates, or an automatic cover. If you do the cover, you don't have to have a fence. It's crazy for people from other states to see pools in backyards with no fence, but an insurance company is one hundred percent going to prefer an automatic cover over a fence.

What an Automatic Cover Actually Saves You

Cristian Shirilla

Let's stick on the automatic cover, because it's not just about insurance. I'll give a safety plug here. It adds a lot of peace of mind when you have little ones running around, or visiting, or the neighbor's kids wander over. Beyond safety, what does it add to your ease of maintenance?

Tyler Hermon

Safety first, there's no price to put on that. It doesn't take a very big or old kid to get over a five-foot fence, and once they do, they have access. A fence also doesn't protect your own people already inside the house from getting out the back door and finding the water. So you're absolutely right on safety.

On maintenance, we see people save fifteen to twenty percent on chemicals with an automatic cover. It keeps the sun and UV rays off the pool, helps extend the life of the finish, and reduces evaporation. And heat retention is huge. This year I haven't turned my heater on one time, and my pool's already almost ninety degrees. So beyond safety, the cover has an immaculate benefit to pool ownership.

Cristian Shirilla

Let's go a little deeper on that chemical savings. You said you're protecting your water from the sun, and someone might think, well, the whole point of the pool is to enjoy it when the sun's out. So what actually happens when sunlight hits your pool water?

Tyler Hermon

In the sunny, hot months, that sun bakes a lot of chemicals straight out of the pool. If you're a liquid chlorine user, that's unstabilized chlorine, and putting it in during the daylight is literally doing nothing for you. That's why everyone talks about adding it after sundown. If you're not in the pool, the cover is essentially a lid, a protective layer over the top.

Now, the other side: if you trap everything under the cover and never open it, you can do just as much damage by not opening it. You're trapping harmful off-gases and not letting the pool vent. So we tell people to open the cover at least an hour or two a day to let it off-gas and get fresh air. But what the cover is really doing is protecting the chemicals you spent money on, keeping the sun and warm temperatures from lifting them straight out of the water.

Cristian Shirilla

Quick term you used, stabilized chlorine. That's about the presence of cyanuric acid, and we're not getting into the nitty-gritty of chemicals here. That's at least an hour-long episode, maybe a ten-part series. But the short version: cyanuric acid is basically sunscreen for your chlorine.

Tyler Hermon

That's right. It prevents the sunlight from freely eating it up. Without an automatic cover, you can plan on about fifteen percent higher chemical usage throughout your season. That's a real number.

Cristian Shirilla

So your insurance will most likely ride along with your existing policy, unless you're installing a slide or diving board, and then you run the risk of losing coverage altogether. An automatic cover might actually be more of a requirement than a way to prevent an insurance increase. And its real benefit is helping with your operational costs more than lowering your insurance. As for the hands-on work, what might it cost to DIY versus hire it out?

DIY vs. Hiring a Pro: The Real Math

Cristian Shirilla

What are the costs of service right now, and how are these services generally offered?

Tyler Hermon

In our market, this type of service has exploded. A lot of companies offer it at competitive prices. Depending on the level of service and the chemicals we're using, I see anywhere from about a hundred dollars a week up to a premium, white-glove, totally-hands-off package in the one-seventy to two-hundred-a-week range here in the Midwest. That includes all the physical maintenance, the brushing, backwashing, filter cleanings, and all your chemicals.

If you're a DIYer, plan on at least two hours a week for your pool. Then it becomes a factor of what your time is worth. Most people would say somewhere in the eighty to a hundred and twenty, maybe a hundred and fifty dollars an hour range, depending on what they do. So it comes down to this: is your time better spent on the pool, or with your family at the park or in the pool? You're essentially at break-even to just hire somebody to take care of it for you.

Cristian Shirilla

Do you find people taking the lower or the higher end?

Tyler Hermon

We're actually seeing more growth on our higher-end program. We own all the liability with that. If you get ammonia, we treat it. If you get algae, we treat it. If you need a drain and fill, we cover it. It's only fair, you're paying us as the professionals to take care of it. Those can be super expensive things to treat: a big algae bloom, or a drain and fill, which isn't easy or cheap on a fiberglass or liner pool. So on that higher tier, all that liability sits completely with us.

Cristian Shirilla

What about the little parts and pieces? O-rings, gaskets, baskets. Even your skimmer basket breaks down over time, and the filter, whether you replace a cartridge or the sand. Are you still seeing a lot of sand filters, or shifting mostly to cartridge?

Tyler Hermon

For new construction, we're shifting almost exclusively to cartridge. We still have plenty of sand in the market from previous pools that we treat and take care of, so we still do sand changes and backwashings. But like the single-speed pump, sand is phasing out. On the higher-end service, those O-rings and small pieces are included by discretion. If they were in bad shape before we took over the pool, those might be things we recommend replacing first, but rings and valves become pretty easy fixes to maintain a good customer relationship. You just do the right thing for people.

Cristian Shirilla

Let's talk about the cost to open and close the pool. Do you see people DIY or hire that out?

Tyler Hermon

We open and close over a thousand pools a year, and we close more than we open. If you're a DIYer, there's probably less you can mess up on an opening than a closing. Forget a ten-cent gasket in a return line and now your plumbing's cracked and you're digging up concrete over a ten-cent O-ring. People who want to put that liability on someone else don't like that risk. A standard opening for us is about three hundred and fifty dollars. Closings are four-fifty to four-eighty depending on the level of service, and that's a blowout: we go to the manifold and blow all the lines out. We have different fees for multi-pump versus single-pump systems, but standard is roughly three-fifty and four-fifty.

Cristian Shirilla

Any other DIY versus hire-it-out things? Should you replace your own pump, your own salt cell?

Tyler Hermon

I'm never going to tell someone not to do it if they're technically inclined and feel comfortable. We have retail stores, we'll sell you the pump to take home and install. We just don't warranty anything we don't install, because I can't guarantee it was wired and put in right. We're here to support both. We have customers happy to grab a pump and do it themselves, and customers who get nervous with a screwdriver in their hand. We run a seven or eight truck service department replacing pumps and filters every day, so we cater to both sides.

One thing worth knowing: the number one service call we get all season is low flow on heaters. Nine times out of ten it's not a heater problem at all, it's a filter problem. We've gained a lot of traction with a filter exchange program, a subscription where we come out every other month, take the old cartridges back to our shop, clean them, and put fresh ones in. A lot of people want to own a pool, then find out cartridge cleaning is a tedious, not-glorious job. So we just do the swaps for them to eliminate that maintenance.

Cristian Shirilla

What's the average lifespan of a cartridge?

Tyler Hermon

It depends on the quality you buy, you get what you pay for. We recommend replacing cartridges with brand-new units at least every two years. Keep an eye on the bands to see if they're still intact and whether the pleats are separating. There are right ways to clean them, and there are people who take them out on the driveway and beat the heck out of them with a pressure washer. Unless you've got two or three sets you're rotating through, if that filter is roughly two years old, it's probably time to replace it.

Cristian Shirilla

Keep an eye on your flow rate. Not getting enough water is one of the hardest things on your entire system. Watch that little gauge, know what normal is for your pool, and keep it clean.

So when it comes to DIY or hiring out, it really comes down to a math problem and your personal preference. Are you a hands-on person who can take on these tasks, or do you simply not have the time and only want to enjoy the pool? You do the math and make the right choice for you. But there's another value to owning a pool, and putting a number on it is virtually impossible. I asked Tyler, in eighteen years, has he ever had anyone say they regretted owning a pool? His answer surprised me.

Is a Pool Actually Worth It?

Cristian Shirilla

Let's go back to the fun side of this. You've talked about your own pool and how much fun your family gets out of it. Any other fun stories, customers who were more rewarded than they expected?

Tyler Hermon

One of my favorites: I live in Zionsville, a north-side suburb of Indianapolis. I'd sold a pool to a couple on the other side of town, right after I'd done my own, so I talked to them about the experience kids have and how fun it is. They had a little girl, probably five or six, and they'd told her they were going to write a check for the pool. She was so excited that she drew her own check and wrote me one to help pay for her parents' pool. Just fun things like that. Getting to know families and their kids, knowing they're going to enjoy it.

I had another lady tell me, I ran into her at a gas station on the east side of Indy, "Tyler, I want to talk to you about my pool. There's something you didn't prepare me for, and I've spent a lot of money on this." I'm taken aback, and she says, "You did not prepare me for the cost of peanut butter and jellies and Beefaroni and all these things I have to have for all these kids who want to come to my house now." And I said, "Well, what a great problem to have." She was joking, but that's why I tell that story. You will be the place to be now, hosting fun get-togethers.

Cristian Shirilla

I wish there were a stat for how much your peanut butter and jelly bill goes up. The boys had their friends over this past weekend and we did all the things. We were out on the river, we went fishing, they were in the woods with slingshots, squirrel hunting, doing all the little-boy things. And when you ask what their favorite thing was from the whole weekend, it's the pool. Every single time. The pool is always the winner. Which really brings this whole conversation together. Have you ever had somebody weigh the maintenance against the time they got to spend together and think, this wasn't worth it?

Tyler Hermon

No. I can't think of a single person. I've done this eighteen years and sold close to a thousand pools myself, and I cannot come up with a single family who told me it wasn't worth it or that they regretted it.

People ask me that in sales meetings, do you have people who say this didn't work out? I don't remember the year, but there was a Pew internet study done with prospective pool owners, and the number one reason people said they wouldn't get a pool was the maintenance. The perceived maintenance. Then they asked pool owners the number one reason they wouldn't get a pool again, and the expectation was maintenance. I don't remember what the top answer was, but an astounding percentage said it wasn't maintenance. So what I always remember is that the perceived maintenance and the actual maintenance are sometimes not in alignment. I've built four pools for some families, three pools for others.

One of my favorite things about it: the tablets, the phones, all of that stays in the house. We get uninterrupted fun and family time and connection, and they're here. I know who they're with and what they're doing. Another family told me they weren't buying a pool, they were buying a grandkid magnet. That was their purpose, the reason the kids wanted to come over to grandma and grandpa's. It's a focal point of gathering and fun and relaxation. That's what's kept them in it for eighteen years.

Cristian Shirilla

There's a cost to put it in the ground and a cost to maintain it, but the memories you build around it, you cannot put a price tag on those. So the perceived maintenance might scare some folks away from buying a pool. But from those who own one, the actual ownership is something they say they'd never trade back.

Should You Buy Now or Wait?

Cristian Shirilla

Before we parted ways, I asked Tyler if he had any parting advice for someone considering a pool, and specifically what he'd say to someone trying to decide whether now is the time to buy or whether they should wait.

Tyler Hermon

I don't know that it's anything above what we've already talked about. I'd just tell you my perspective on all of this changed. Like I said in the opener, once I had a pool, versus selling and designing them before having one, my perspective changed significantly.

The biggest thing, and it's a little off the topic of ten-year cost, is that when you're designing and implementing a pool, it's not so much about how much water you're getting, it's about what you're creating around it. When you host, everyone's in and out of the pool, but rarely is everybody in the pool at once. So my biggest aha moment has been learning that it's just as important to think about creating the entire space around it as it is to be laser-focused on the pool itself.

Cristian Shirilla

Good advice. We just did a couple of episodes on exactly that, how to design the outdoor living space around the pool so you get as much enjoyment as possible throughout as much of the year as possible. Most of your time is actually spent around the water, not in it.

Tyler Hermon

My last piece of advice: it's always easy to say we'll put it off another year. But nine out of ten clients I see who say they'll wait, or that they want the kids to be older, end up regretting it. This sounds like a salesman's answer, but you're deferring memories with your family, and you're deferring costs. Nothing's getting cheaper at the grocery store, the gas pump, or the pool store. There's no better time than now. If you want to do it, you'll have a couple extra years of memories and enjoyment no matter the age of the kids. I'd encourage you to pull the trigger and get it in. You'll never regret the time you're going to have around it.

Cristian Shirilla

I agree one hundred percent. Everybody with children, regardless of how you ended up in your parental situation, has heard the phrase: it goes faster than you think. And that is one hundred percent true. The clock does not stop. They do not stop growing up. So in as many ways as you can make memories with them, go do it. If you're thinking about a pool because you want family time around it, go do it.

Tyler, thanks for your time today. We appreciate your expertise, and next time I'm up in Indy, we'll have to get together.

Tyler Hermon

I look forward to it. I appreciate the opportunity, and everything you all do for River Pools and for the industry. You guys do a great job.

Closing

Cristian Shirilla

So here's what I'd take from Tyler today. The cost of owning a pool over a ten-year period is pretty real. You should plan for the number, be prepared, and go in without any surprises. But over his eighteen years, Tyler has never heard anybody express regret for having a pool. If anything, the value of handing out countless PB&Js, watching first swims, moments that just can't be replayed any other way except in our memories, become the invaluable parts of owning a pool.

If you're still in the planning stages and you've got more questions, head over to riverpoolsandspas.com. You'll find countless resources and self-guided tools to help you make decisions and gather information along the way. The website can also connect you with a pool builder who services your area.

I hope you found this episode helpful. I'm Cristian with River Pools. You've been listening to or watching The Pool Guides Podcast.

Catch the wave.