Buying a home with a pool

[jeffyzf]

Hello everyone. I am under contract to buy a home, this home has a pool/spa combo. It is a salt water pool as well.
The concern I have is that the coping is sand stone and shows signs that it has half way eroded away about 3 of the stones, in fact the grout is above those stones.

The seller says that he was not told that could happen from the person that sold him the home. So he told my inspector that once he noticed this, that he went to the home depot and bought some kind of a sealer and sealed the stone. He does this about every 6 months. Does this sound right?

thank you all in advance for your help

[PoolDoc]

There's a pool service guy in Texas, with a blog here:
http://thepoolbiz.blogspot.com/
that has info you may want to look it.

He pretty much foams at the mouth, on mention of salt water systems, but he has collected some interesting data. A lot of what he has seems to apply to areas that have lots of evaporation and not much rain in the summer. He seems to assume that the problems he sees in Dallas are the same elsewhere.

As best I can determine, some of the problems he describes are
(a) real, but
(b) limited to pools that experience little summer rain, and
(c) that have natural stone decks or coping, and
(d) that have owners that do NOT rinse down the decks with fresh water every couple of weeks.

So, that doesn't apply to everyone, but it may well apply to you.

[jeffyzf]

I can't say that makes me a whole lot happier with what I may be facing. So for a newbie that knows nothing about pools this is looking like a potential nightmare. I sure hope a solution is easier than I am thinking it could be.
like I said in the original post, I know 3 stones need to be replaced around the coping. Once I replace those 3, I was thinking about finding a place that will seal the coping with deck-o-seal plus. I can't seem to find any reviews on this forum or much online besides the mfrs site.

would this fix this issue caused by the saltwater pool? Or is converting the pool to chlorine an easier option?

[PoolDoc]

You do not have to use a salt system -- it's quite easy to operate without one.

If your pump, filter, pipes and pool shell (or liner) are in acceptable shape, then fixing what you've got may not be such a big deal.

BUT . . . pools require ongoing maintenance. That's why they really don't add lots to home value, and can make a home hard to sell. If you and your family won't ENJOY having a pool, I would consider filling it in. Working to maintain something you don't even like gets old real fast.

As far as what sort of fix you're facing, I have no idea. I'd have to check the piping, the pump, the filter, the shell and the deck BEFORE I'd know. If you're under contract, you're under contract. If you weren't I would have recommended you that you pay the best local pool company you can find to evaluate the pool and needed repairs, BEFORE you signed a contract.

But, since you've already signed, I'd recommend this:
+ Keep in mind you CAN abandon the pool. $1,000 -$2,000 for dozer time, gravel and top soil, plus a couple of weekends, and your pool-free, with more lawn.
+ Don't worry about what you can't change right now. Once you can start operating the pool, you can figure out what has to be done.
+ Coping is not an essential element of a home pool: your family can enjoy swimming in it (if not, looking at it) while you work out what to do.
+ It's very easy to operate without salt. If salt is problematic in your area, and with your deck, stop using it!
+ But, do NOT drain your pool (to get rid of the salty water) without being SURE it's safe to do so. Pools can float out of the ground, and liners can be destroyed if you don't do it right!

Good luck!

[jeffyzf]

In Tx you have 10 days to get out of the contract after inspections. The inspector was the one who saw this Friday afternoon. I still have a few more days to make a final decision. I know the family will love the pool, we had a nice hot tub for a year in my old house because a pool was not really possible. We LOVED IT. Like I said, I know nothing about owning a pool and I would love to keep it the way it is and the look that it has. However, I would love to find a permanent solution instead of replacing coping every year or two.

the deck-o-seal seems to fit the bill for what I need, I just wanted the opinion of the community.

[PoolDoc]

If you've got time, get an inspection of the pool, by someone equipped to evaluate its condition. Rehabs for inground pool can easily run into the multi-thousands, and some very expensive repairs can be overlooked by someone who's not knowledgeable.

Or, you might want to negotiate a conditional price reduction, based on what repairs are needed to get the pool in adequate condition to operate for, say, two pool seasons.

But, unless you've got a fat wallet, and really enjoy pools, I wouldn't buy the house without a clear understanding of what the pool is likely to need.