Buying a House With a Vinyl Pool
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If you are shopping for a new home and you are considering to buy a house that has an existing vinyl liner swimming pool then the information on this page will be extremely useful to you. There definitely is no getting around the fact that it will be prudent for you to hire a local pool specialist (ot two) to inspect and provide a report for your swimming pool. The reality is that problems with swimming pools can be hidden and even with professional inspections you can still end up with expensive problems that have become yours to deal with. So you definitely want to take every opportunity to protect yourself when buying a house with a pool...any kind of pool.
When it comes to vinyl liner swimming pools you potentially are dealing with less risk than say a concrete swimming pool in terms of how expensive the average (hidden) repairs might cost you. But on the other hand you should consider that vinyl liner swimming pools are an entry level swimming pool and quite often installed by companies with minimal (or zero) experience installing swimming pools. Sadly, due to a general lack of regulations and trade certification within the pool installation industry, it is not uncommon to see very poorly built and installed vinyl liner pools. For this reason you should approach any unknown vinyl liner pool not with the mentality of "I hope it's good" but instead a healthy dose of skepticism assuming that the pool likely is built poorly. With this in mind let's talk more about what you should be looking for with your initial inspection.
When is a pool inspection not a pool inspection? - Quite simply, there is no replacement for a professional swimming pool inspection if you are looking to buy a new house. With how punishingly expensive swimming pool repairs can be you should definitely consider hiring multiple local professional pool companies to inspect a house (a pool) you are very serious about. Of course this would be prohibitively expensive to pay for every house you are casually looking at. That is where the video below on this page comes into play. This video will teach you how to break down a vinyl liner swimming pool into the individual components of the system, and how you can infer a ton of valuable information about the pool simply through basic observations. This information will help dramatically in enabling you to determine a good pool from "a lemon" at least to the extent as to allow you to narrow down your house search considerably. Once a potential house (and pool) passes your initial inspection and review you can now get more serious about this house and start booking a professional company to come and provide a detailed inspection report. In total you will have a lot more power in your house shopping experience and this will allow you to focus more on the good potential options...and more importantly avoid the bad ones!
Vinyl liner swimming pool system components - Most people just look at a swimming pool as a singular thing. However, a pool specialist knows that a pool is a system...an interconnected technical process with individual components all working together. Really, it is a lot like a house. There is a structure, usually some concrete, lighting and electrical, plumbing of course, structural steel, pumps, filters, gas heaters etc. All of these things can also be found in an average home construction. When you look at a house to buy you likely instinctively break it down into pieces. Is the roof good? How is the electrical? Plumbing? What about the structure itself? Are there any signs of leaking anywhere? Doesn't this all sound pretty similar to a swimming pool? It does to me. So what are the system components in a vinyl liner swimming pool?
Filtration equipment (pump and filter)
Heating equipment (natural gas, propane, electric heat pumps)
Sanitization equipment (erosion feeders, salt chlorine generators, UV, AOP)
Plumbing lines (everything underground)
Electrical components (bonding grid, lighting, service panels)
Pool deck (concrete, wood, natural stone etc.)
Pool coping track (where the liner connects to the top of the walls)
Vinyl liner (the interior surface of the pool)
Structure (floors and walls under the liner)
When you start to think in terms of the individual components of a vinyl liner pool you will have a much greater success identifying the good pools from the bad pools, and even allowing you to make reasonable estimations about which parts of the pool appear to be in good condition and which do not. Further, you will definitely start to notice red flags about potential hidden problems which can be invaluable in helping you to avoid a swimming pool nightmare scenario.
Fortunately vinyl liner swimming pools have an impressively long service life, and they generally are repairable in all but the more extreme cases of deterioration or dilapidation. Another advantage of a liner pool is that you can be looking at the worst eyesore you have ever seen in terms of half drained, green pool with a ripped up liner, and within two days you can be looking at essentially a "brand new pool" once you have a new liner installed. If the plumbing, structure and deck for the pool are in decent shape, a new liner can be installed very quickly and restore the pool to almost new looking again. Just don't forget to actually inspect and repair the rest of the pool before you install a new liner. The new liner always comes last once everything else has already been attended to.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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