Why it’s smarter to have a backyard swimming pool installed at the end of the summer or in the fall rather than in spring and early summer.
If you’ve been dreaming about installing a swimming pool in your backyard for longer than you can remember, it’s not too late to jump on board (on the diving board that is) this year. A lot of people think of installing swimming pools in the spring and the summer. This is natural since that’s the time of year when the weather is heating up, and the kids are getting ready to get out of school (a pool is a great way to keep your kids entertained in a place where it’s easy to keep an eye on them).
Here’s the thing though: spring and summer are the most expensive times of year to have a swimming pool installed! Just as you can get deals by buying clothes at the end of the season, you can save a lot of money by waiting until the end of the summer or even into the fall to have a swimming pool installed.
This is because contractors, especially contractors who specialize in swimming pools, have a lot less work this time of year than they do in the spring and early summer. If you order a pool built at that time, you’ll pay higher prices and you’ll probably be on a waiting list. But if you approach a contractor or pool designer later in the year, they’ll be eager for the work. This puts you in a good position, as you can negotiate for lower prices.
In addition to being able to get a better deal at this time of year, you can expect to get faster service. The contractors won’t be working on several projects at a time, as can be the case during the busy season. You may very well be the only customer on their slate!
Also, the weather is usually nice in the late summer and into the fall. This means the ground is dry, and the actual excavating of the pool will go faster. (In the spring, the ground is often damp, and it can take longer to dig that sizable hole in your yard.) This is another reason you’ll save money, because the overall work will go faster, so there will be fewer hours you actually have to pay workers to be on the clock.
If you’re thinking to yourself you’ll just wait until next summer, it’s important to realize just how much money you could be saving by having a pool installed during the off season. A swimming pool is a huge investment. Yes, there are lots of ways to get one financed (for example, if the value of your home went up a lot during the housing boom, you can probably draw on its equity), but it is a major purchase. Since a pool is such a large investment, even a savings of 1% can be a significant amount.
So, before you write off the idea of a swimming pool until next summer, check around and see what kind of deals you can get by installing one out of season!
You can get more on nitty gritty details about swimming pool installation by reading about swimming pool decks and swimming pool coping.