Cement vs Fiberglass Pool

[jsack22]

I am trying to get everyone's take on going with a cement pool vs. a fiberglass pool. I have been recently researching each option and fiberglass sounds like a decent option. Here is my exact situation...

We live in a house in Tampa, FL and have a very small back yard. Max size pool would be about 12' x 33'. In putting a pool in, we will need to rip up some pavers we installed less than a year ago.

At this point, I know a pool is a waste of money because we do not plan to be in the house for over 5 years. However, we do plan to rent it out after we leave and move on to our next house.

Here are my concerns:

Maintenance for myself as well as new tenants (About 5 years from now)
I have two children under the age of 2
My husband would really like to have a spa if we are going to spend a decent amount of money
I would like some sort of swim shelf for the kids and room to entertain and hang out with friends in the pool

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[waterbear]

Fiberglass is going to be easier maintenance since the surface is chemically inert. There are many fiberglass models with swim shelfs available and there are also models with integrated spas so those factors should not affect your choice. You can also get a separate fiberglass or acrylic spa shell, with or without a spillover for a pool/spa combo.
Downsides to fiberglass are that you are limited to what the manufacturer offers...no custom shapes or sizes (but some manufacturers have many different modes to choose from, one has 82 different pool and/or spa shells available!
A bit more prone to metal staining but keeping the calcium hardness up seems to help minimize this
You need to pay for the trucking costs to have the shell delivered but you are in luck because a major manufacturer of fiberglass (SanJuan) has one of their facilities and their corporate offices located close to you in Lakeland Florida. and another (Viking) is located in Zephyrhills, Florida. There might be others that I am not familiar with but both of these are major manufacturers and have a quality product.

Personally, I prefer fiberglass to plaster pools (which is why I have one myself and ma located in Fl also) but both are quite serviceable. It used to be that the cost of fiberglass POOL was much higher than shotcrete and gunnite or other concrete construction methods but the price of concrete has shot up so much in the past 5-10 years that this once major disadvantage to fiberglass no longer exists and now fiberglass can come out less expensive for the initial install (and, IMHO, is less expensive down the road since you do not need to replaster, acid wash, or replace a vinyl liner).

If you want a custom size or shape and you cannot find what you are looking for in fiberglass then by all means go with a concrete construction.