Anyone built your own pool? Subbed it out yourself?

[ColinR]

Family wants a pool, and the quotes we’re getting are around $80k I’ve herd you can save a ton of money subbing the construction out yourself instead of going thru a pool construction company. I’m a project manager so dealing with contractors doesn’t scare me but what does is I know nothing about pool construction. I would love to talk to some folks that have subbed out your own pool construction. Of if there is a pool builder on here that would be willing to give me some pointers I would greatly appreciate it. Also for anyone that has subbed out our own pool how much did you save?

[Mayhem]

Swimming pools may be the most ridiculously priced money pits on earth.


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[GA Bowhunter]

I'm a homebuilder/developer and I have two subcontractors who built pools in 2018.

They both built new homes with pools.

My electrician hired a contractor to build his pool and paid 60k for a small pool. He also had issues getting the guy to get the pool finished.

My surveyor also built a house with a pool. He acted as the GC on the pool. He built a pimped out pool almost twice as big as the electrician's pool for 30k.

I have had a few pools built for developments over the years. There is not a lot to it as far as moving parts go.

The big items you will need are:

A competent grader to dig a proper hole.

Plumbers and electricians.

A rebar crew.

A gunite crew.

A plaster crew.

Tile guy.

A concrete crew that does coping and pool decks.

The difficulty that I see is having the knowledge to vet the subcontractors so you know that they know what they are doing.

You will also run into the problem of the subcontractors may do 100 pools for a pool GC and you want to hire them for one pool. You had better know how to handle subs. You had better know what the going rate for each sub is too.

My surveyor also does development site work(grading and utilities) so he was on jobs where pools were being built and he could talk to subcontractors in the various pool trades.

At the end of the day, like home building, you will have to know how to do everyone else's job to insure they do their jobs correctly. I doubt you'll be able to get a subcontractor on a pool job to come back and fix something.

[GA Bowhunter]

Swimming pools may be the most ridiculously priced money pits on earth.


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Agreed. My wife want's one at our new house I'm building.

I MAY put in a fiberglass pool myself so the investment will be minimal and I can fill it in with the Kubota if the need arises.

I am not a pool fan. I don't want to soak in someone else's gravy.

[Mayhem]

Agreed. My wife want's one at our new house I'm building.



I MAY put in a fiberglass pool myself so the investment will be minimal and I can fill it in with the Kubota if the need arises.



I am not a pool fan. I don't want to soak in someone else's gravy.

My parents have had one for 15 years and my kids love it, but I don’t spend more than 15 minutes at a time in it.

My wife and kids want one too, and I am totally against having one since I know I’m the one that would be cleaning it and such. Not to mention the cost. [emoji33] pool cost make my flats boat look cheap.


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[ColinR]

Swimming pools may be the most ridiculously priced money pits on earth.


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Oh believe me, I’m with you on that. We had a pool growing up and sure it was fun but not 80 grand fun. We could go on a bad arse vacation every year or an guided elk hunt every year for the cost of the quotes I was getting. Might end up with a $6 grand above ground pool when it’s all said and done.

[ColinR]

I'm a homebuilder/developer and I have two subcontractors who built pools in 2018.

They both built new homes with pools.

My electrician hired a contractor to build his pool and paid 60k for a small pool. He also had issues getting the guy to get the pool finished.

My surveyor also built a house with a pool. He acted as the GC on the pool. He built a pimped out pool almost twice as big as the electrician's pool for 30k.

I have had a few pools built for developments over the years. There is not a lot to it as far as moving parts go.

The big items you will need are:

A competent grader to dig a proper hole.

Plumbers and electricians.

A rebar crew.

A gunite crew.

A plaster crew.

Tile guy.

A concrete crew that does coping and pool decks.

The difficulty that I see is having the knowledge to vet the subcontractors so you know that they know what they are doing.

You will also run into the problem of the subcontractors may do 100 pools for a pool GC and you want to hire them for one pool. You had better know how to handle subs. You had better know what the going rate for each sub is too.

My surveyor also does development site work(grading and utilities) so he was on jobs where pools were being built and he could talk to subcontractors in the various pool trades.

At the end of the day, like home building, you will have to know how to do everyone else's job to insure they do their jobs correctly. I doubt you'll be able to get a subcontractor on a pool job to come back and fix something.

Thank you that is some great info.

[ColinR]

Agreed. My wife want's one at our new house I'm building.

I MAY put in a fiberglass pool myself so the investment will be minimal and I can fill it in with the Kubota if the need arises.

I am not a pool fan. I don't want to soak in someone else's gravy.

Have you gotten quotes on fiberglass pools? Curious how they compare to gunite pools.

[Bassdeer]

No a big fan but fiberglass pools are a lot cheaper, My buddy just got a bid of 40K

[RJK70]

I put in a pool this past year and love it. We went all the way and it’s awesome but we are the type of people who would rather be outside than in.

My opinion is don’t build anything you can’t afford and don’t finance it.

All the homes in my neighborhood have very nice pools and the right person will pay more for a house with a nice pool. I think it all has to do with the neighborhood and property values in the area. If you put an expensive pool in an area where home values do not support it then you just “lost” a lot of money. If the property value will support it then it’s a better idea in my opinion.


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[ColinR]

No a big fan but fiberglass pools are a lot cheaper, My buddy just got a bid of 40K

I’m going to call and get a quote. Do you know if that was with all the bells and whistles like rock water fall, boublers on tanning ledge, etc. or just pool and equipment installed. I will say the pools we were quoted were very nice with lots of extras. And yes our neighborhood will support the investment. Most homes here have very nice pools and most homes are $500k and up, which actually in today’s word really isn’t that expensive of a home I guess. Still don’t want to sink that much money into a hole in the ground.

[Black Ice]

I’m going to call and get a quote. Do you know if that was with all the bells and whistles like rock water fall, boublers on tanning ledge, etc. or just pool and equipment installed. I will say the pools we were quoted were very nice with lots of extras. And yes our neighborhood will support the investment. Most homes here have very nice pools and most homes are $500k and up, which actually in today’s word really isn’t that expensive of a home I guess. Still don’t want to sink that much money into a hole in the ground.

Wife wants a pool for our new house and about 70k will get a decent pool but nothing crazy.


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[Pineywoods]

I am the GM for a custom pool builder and can answer any questions you may have. We build in the Houston area so I'm most familiar with sub pricing in our area. Compared to a homeowner building his own, a pool builder will get better pricing and dependability from pool subs due to the volume they get from us. Pool subs will also make a builder who is giving them 50 -100 pools per year their priority on scheduling which could make it difficult for some homeowners wanting to sub out their own pool. We also get materials and equipment way cheaper due to the volume we buy from distributors that don't sell to the public. There are certain fixed costs associated with any size pool. For example, we use top of the line Pentair equipment packages that on average run $12-15k....just for the equipment. We use only the best company in Houston (Modern Method) for gunite and plaster who are far superior to the average small gunite company and give great warranties. This isn't cheap. Joe Smo that has a crew that can do gunite, and plumb your pool, and has a cousin that does plaster on the side will not have this. So the guy building his own pool for $30k leaves me with a lot of questions about what corners are being cut. Maybe a tiny pool without a spa, minimal decking, cheap tile and coping materials, using inferior equipment, etc, you MIGHT do one for $30-35k. The average fiberglass inground pools cost around that in our area from what I understand. I can build my own for cost and couldn't come close to doing it for $30k. For example....I have a design for my own pool ready to go but have to decide if we are staying in this house or not. It isn't a huge pool but will be nice with some nice features and materials... 130 perimeter ft including spa. It has a 5 ton rock waterfall, stone firepit, and only a moderate amount of Decking. My cost to build this for myself would be about $52k. That's with a break from Pentair on my equipment and my subs giving me a big break. Our average pool that we build is from $60-70k with many over $100k. I believe $60k is the cheapest one we've done since I started with the company last June. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me. I would be glad to offer any advice that might save your family money and give you a pain free process.

Example...This is a pool we finished last week and cost us about $68k to build.

[GA Bowhunter]

Have you gotten quotes on fiberglass pools? Curious how they compare to gunite pools.

I have not gotten any quotes but I've seen them online from 8k-20K+.

I would just buy the pool direct from the manufacturer and have my buddy/grading contractor dig the hole and set the pool. I'd use my other subs to finish the job.

There are a lot of videos on YT showing fiberglass pool installations.

[myway]

Swimming pools may be the most ridiculously priced money pits on earth.


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Add up the insurance, storage, maintenance and other associated cost of a boat and bet you’re off on that statement.

OP I think the key is how long do you plan on being in you’re home and do you truly believe your family will use it to justify the expense. Do you enjoy hosting people and entertaining guest? Everything I read and discussed with realtors is you can expect about a 10-20% return on your expense so you are obviously not doing it for an investment but my girls use the hell out of it so the expense didn’t bother me. In regards to maintenance I empty the skimmer baskets one a week add chlorine once a month in the winter and 2-3x during the summer. There is nothing to it.
In regards to GCing it your self if I could do it over again I would definitely do it my self but if you are financing it that may not be an option. It’s hard to repo a pool much less a incomplete or half *** one.
I suspect if you reach out to a few people on here and a local tile coping distributor you can come up with a deep sublist and talk through all hurdles and successfully build what you are wanting. If there is something you are un certain of specicifcally with the structure pay a engineer for a inspection before gunite. Just like building a home you could spend 250$ a SF or dummy it down to a 110$ a foot. Just figure out how elaborate/custom you want to go. I think you can easily build a nice pool for between 35-45k. I would recommend a spa and extend that use throughout the year.
If you decide to do one I personally wouldn’t go the fiberglass route from the horror stories I have heard and from a personal aesthetic standpoint.

I think the most important thing will be do you have the time (which will be significant) for about 2-3 months. If so then do it.

Just my opinion.