Maintenance costs of a swimming pool

[quote=”jmi82060″]Does anyone have a home with a swimming pool? I was wondering if you need to have it heated. If so how much is the typical cost of heating and maintaining a mid-size pool? Do you hire a local person to maintain it? How much do you pay him/her?[/quote]

I do not have a pool but I know is a little expensive, even more if you have to heat it and hire someone for maintenance. I did pool maintenance many years ago, it was a large pool 46 x 23 ft. I don´t remember the numbers but I remember it was not cheap to keep water and pool clean, plus the electric bill for the pump. It was not heated but it had not been a bad idea to heat it during rainy and windy season (Lake Arenal). Pools need maintenance, you can put a timer on the pump and clorine tablets in the skimmer baskets, but someone has to keep an eye on it. If you are living on the property you can take care of that. If you leave for a longer time period you would not want to leave the house and pool unattended anyhow. Maybe you will consider a solar system for pump and heating (off grid or grid connected, depends where you live).

It will cost about $250, minimum to heat and hire someone to clean and maintain a pool. Of course this depends on where and what altitude you live at.
Even in hot Guanacaste, the water cools off and I felt ours was too cool for me.
But, since you were asking previously about ‘[i]Tico[/i] style’ homes, a pool is not usually found in one and to build one will not be cheap.

I meant to write a minimum of $350 [b]not[/b] $250.
My husband maintained our small pool, and so we didn’t pay out that expense, but when you get 5 kids using it regularly and it is located anywhere near trees that loses their leaves, it will require much more upkeep.