How Much Do Inground Pools Cost? (Pricing, Budget, etc.) - YouTube

Jason: Hey, everybody.

Jason here from River Pools.

We're going to tackle a pretty big question today.

How much do inground pools cost?

That's a pretty broad topic, a pretty broad question, and the short answer is that it

really depends.

It depends on a lot of different things.

Our objective today is to really help you understand the factors that are going to influence

how much you might spend, and then help you narrow down and whittle down to maybe a relevant

price range for you so that you can start planning your budget.

Jason: Some of the things we're going to talk about today are the average price of an inground

pool in America.

We're going to talk about the four factors that are going to influence how much you might

spend on your pool.

We're going to talk a little bit about financing as well.

Jason: There's a research study done in 2014 by a company called Pkdata and they found

that the average inground pool in America costs $39,084.

That could be a baseline.

If you were to kind of figure in a full range to kind of cover the full spectrum, you could

have an inground pool that would cost maybe as little as $20,000 in some areas, and you

could certainly have going up to $100,000.

You could have a $300,000 or $400,000 pool, depending on where you're located and exactly

how elaborate you wanted to get.

Jason: There's four factors that are going to affect how much money you spend on your

inground pool, and they are: where you live; when you buy your pool, what time of year

you buy; what type of pool you buy; and then what you buy.

Where you live in the country actually makes a pretty big difference in terms of how much

money it costs to buy an inground pool.

If you could imagine a simple analogy, someone wanted to sell bicycles, and they lived in

Antarctica.

They could sell those a lot cheaper in Antarctica than they could in the Mojave Desert.

Materials are right there.

Everything's already in place.

Jason: Well, the same principle applies to inground pools because every region of our

country is different when it comes to the supply, the suppliers that are available,

and the subcontractors that are available.

All these different things come into play and they all dramatically affect how much

it costs to buy a pool in each region.

So, that could depend on where you are, but that's something to check on.

It's certainly places like Florida and other hotter climates are going to have lower prices

for inground pools.

Jason: The second factor that's going to affect your price is when you buy, or what season

you buy.

Everybody tends to think about buying a pool in the spring or in the summer, when it's

really hot.

If you really want to get your best value, you really should think about buying in the

off-season, in the fall or in the winter, when pool companies are starting to slow down

a little bit.

Dollar for dollar, you'll get your best value buying a pool in the off-season.

Doesn't mean you're going to get ripped off or get an unfair price in the spring or summer.

It just means that you're going to get the best bargain in the off-season.

So, when you buy your pool is a pretty big factor as well.

Jason: Also, the type of pool that you get is a major consideration that's going to affect

your price.

You have three types of pools: there's vinyl liner pools; there's concrete pools, they're

also called gunite pools; and then there's fiberglass pools.

A vinyl liner pool is going to have your lowest initial cost.

Then concrete and fiberglass, typically, and in most places, are going to be about the

same price.

You might find bigger differences between concrete and fiberglass pool prices in different

areas of the country, but by and large, across the board, in most places they're about the

same price.

But your initial price isn't your only thing to consider when you're buying a pool.

You've got to consider your lifetime cost of ownership.

Jason: Some pools cost more to own than others.

For example, a vinyl liner pool, you have to replace that liner, usually about every

five to ten years.

Then there's other maintenance costs and other aspects of that too to take into consideration,

and we talk about those when we get into our pool comparisons.

We've got different sections of our website that talk about the pros and cons of vinyl

liner, concrete, and fiberglass pools in great detail.

Jason: The fourth thing that's going to affect your price is what you actually buy.

You can get a stripped-down base pool package that's going to be on the lower end of the

range, or you can go all out.

It's just like buying a pickup truck.

If you were to get an F-150, you could get a base model for around 35 or 40 grand, or

you could certainly spend up to $75,000 or $80,000 on the same truck, depending on what

you're getting.

And that same principle applies to inground pools.

Jason: This is actually where we're going to start to hone in and kind of get into where

you might end up with your budget.

From this point on, we're going to talk really specifically more about fiberglass pools,

because that's what we specialize in here at River Pools.

If we want to look at the different things that you can buy and how that's going to affect

your price, what we'll find is that you can buy a fiberglass pool, really, in two basic

ways.

Jason: The first way is going to be you just buy the pool shell and install it yourself.

The second way would be to have a dealer install the pool for you.

And obviously if you want to install the pool yourself, you're going to save money on labor,

but a lot of folks don't want to go that route.

You'll usually end up saving somewhere between maybe $5,000 and $10,00 on your total project

if you install the pool shell yourself.

A lot of folks don't feel that it's worth the headache or the heartache or the stress

on their marriage or whatever it is.

It's a pretty stressful situation.

A lot of folks do it, but a lot of folks would rather just have a dealer install the pool

for them.

You can have a dealer just install the pool shell for you, and you get some options from

him, and you keep it really basic.

Or you can go all out and look for a turnkey package also.

Jason: Some of the major things, the options, that would affect the price would be the pool

size, how much patio you get, what other options and accessories you want, and a really big

one that a lot of folks don't consider is your yard, the contour of your yard, if your

yard is flat or if it has a slope.

If your yard is on a slope and you need a retaining wall, retaining walls often can

make up as much as 10% to 50% of the total cost of the project.

So, you could spend as little as a few thousand dollars, or you could certainly spend as much

as $20,000 or $30,000 on retaining walls.

That's another subject we talk about here that you can research.

Jason: For a basic fiberglass pool package, and this all depends on, again, where you

are in the country, for an install package that would include some basic concrete, patio

around the pool and a pump and filter system, you're probably going to be looking somewhere

between $25,000 and $45,000 for the base package.

That would get you a pool shell installed in the ground, kind of ready to swim.

You can get a pool heater.

You can get lighting in your pool.

You can get a salt water chlorinator or other type of sanitation equipment.

You can get automated controls where you can control your entire pool from a device like

a smartphone.

These are all different things that you can get that would continue to add on to that

base price.

Jason: One of the major factors is your patio.

Two major things there are going to be how much patio you get, and what material you

use.

So, if you get just basic concrete, that's usually about the lowest cost material that

you can get for a patio per square foot.

Then there's other options like concrete pavers or natural stone.

These are all different upgrades that you can get, but if you're going to spend in that

$25 to $45 range on your base package for your pool, you could easily spend somewhere

between $3,000 and $30,000 on your patio.

I would say in our area, here in Virginia and Maryland, the average patio probably costs

somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 on average.

But certainly folks do spend a lot more on a regular basis.

So, the three big things, again, would be the pool that you get, how much patio you

get, and whether or not you need retaining walls.

Jason: Another thing to consider that would make certainly a big difference would be if

you already have an existing fence or not, and that's not something that folks usually

consider.

If you have an existing fence that meets the pool code, then that's something that you

don't need to factor in.

If you need a new fence, you could plan on spending somewhere between usually $4,000

and $8,000.

Jason: I hope this has been helpful for you.

This is a major question, usually the first question that folks have, "How much is my

pool going to cost?"

Hopefully this has helped you kind of narrow down a little bit on that question.

If you're interested in getting a quote for one of our pools here at River Pools, click

on the link below and fill out the form, and we'll have someone get with you here very,

very shortly.

Thanks.