Pool Maintenance for One: What I Honestly Handle Myself vs. What I Hire Out
What I Handled Without Knowing What I Was Doing
Pool maintenance for one is one of those things that looks intimidating until you just start doing it. Years ago, before I owned any property, I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d own a house with a pool. I remember thinking as a child, if I had a pool (or a friend with one) that would be the ultimate in luxury living. I must have turned on the pool manifestation Gods.
Bought a condo in 2003 that had a shared pool. It was nice because I didn’t have to maintain it, or anything else. When I came to the open house for my current home, I honestly did not think I would or could own a home with a pool. Me? No way. That’s for rich people.
Fast forward to summer of ’14. Here I am; happy owner of a home with an inground pool. If being a first-time solo homeowner wasn’t challenging enough, I had exactly zero experience with pools to add to the mix. Oh my God, what have I done? There’s nobody to call. I didn’t know anyone with a pool. There’s no dad, brother, daughter or son who could help. So, got a hold of a local pool company and hired them to open it & close it, whatever that entailed. I took notes, pictures and asked questions. I don’t think they wanted to be my pool teacher (and talk themselves out of a customer).
I still had no idea what I was doing. The first 5 years or so, I cleaned out the skimmer, re-filled the chlorinator, vacuumed and skimmed the top of the pool with a net – THAT’S IT! I didn’t know anything else. And surprisingly, that worked. But then the climate changed. One summer it was so rainy. No matter what I did, that pool stayed cloudy, and green. I closed it up early in frustration.
The Resource That Changed Everything
Then I learned about https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/pool-school/ through Reddit or Facebook. What a lifesaver this was. I finally had a free and reliable resource. I spent time reading in the forums, asked questions. I also joined a pool group on Facebook. I learned so much! Bought the Taylor test kit as they recommended and it’s also how I learned about skimmer socks . Of course being frugal me, I reuse mine at least 3 times before I toss it. Quick hose rinse and you’re in business again. Now, I not only know what CYA, pH and alkalinity are, I know how to test and correct them if the levels are off. (In my world CYA = cover your a$$)
Tips I Learned the Hard Way
Do you know about the sock method? If you need to add CYA to your pool, put it in an old sock, anchor it with a weight then dangle it over one of the return jets and let it slowly dissolve. This worked great! I learned about the S.L.A.M. method, and know exactly how to get my pool from green to crystal clean and sparkling. There are so many tips like this that I couldn’t have learned on my own. One pool guy I had wanted to charge me $300 per month for maintenance. Seriously? I think he thought he could take advantage of me. No thanks. Well, he got that wrong. I got this! But I did take one tip from him, so I’ll pass it on to you. When it’s early summer and it starts to get hot outside and you haven’t yet opened your pool, lift a corner of the cover off and dump in a couple gallons of chlorine. This will help keep the algae blooms down until opening.
Speaking of chlorine, here’s another tip I learned myself, the hard way. I bought chlorine, but it didn’t seem to work. I learned that chlorine degrades quickly. They have expiration dates. If they don’t, do not buy it. I’ve now seen 2 different places (1 is a large well-known retailer) that sold expired pool shock, i.e. chlorine. Look for a number like this: 26063. This means it was manufactured the 63rd day of 2026 i.e. 3/04/26. I saw this on 5/25/26. Other bottles had 26132 5/12. I bought these. So, pay attention and don’t buy old shock, otherwise you might just be dumping salty water into your pool.
The Tool That Replaced My Pool Hose
For years I used my pool hose with vac head setup to vacuum my pool. I cringed every time I did it. Lugging out that heavy hose was tedious. It’s heavy. Then connecting the vacuum head, and changing the pump to skimmer (which I wasn’t really sure about). Lots of trial and error went into this. Then I learned you can buy an external vacuum. I’m not talking about the robots. They are expensive and I simply can’t justify the cost for my small(ish) pool. I decided to buy the Pool Blaster Max Best Decision Ever. The reviews sold me. Light weight (plus) no heavy hose to carry (plus) re-chargeable battery (plus) re-usable filter (plus) I mean, why wouldn’t I get this? I can’t remember the last time I used the hose vacuum. I pull this thing out and it takes me about 30-40 minutes with a single charge to clean my whole pool. The dirt is minimal, but it can still handle leaves and debris like a champ. So happy I got it.
What I Still Hire Out — and Why
But not everything is worth figuring out yourself. I still hire someone to open/close my pool. Why? Physically it’s hard. I don’t need to be an expert in all things pools. There are times when paying someone to do it makes sense. This is one of them. They also get it done quicker than I ever could. My back thanks them to. Another task worth paying for was replacing the pool liner in 2020. They estimated it was about 20-25 years old! There was a team of people that did that job. I was happy to pay them.
So I’ve come a long way from fear and dread to proudly being able to maintain an inground pool myself. Sometimes there are things that only experience can teach you. I learned more about myself than I learned about my pool.
