Pool maintenance is one of those things that everyone talks about, but rarely does anyone do. In general, pool maintenance tends to run you anywhere from $100 to several hundred a month, depending not only on your pool’s size and layout but also on your geographical location and whether or not you have a season running. For example, you may receive a monthly service for free. So, what are the pros and cons of pool maintenance?
For starters, pool maintenance is expensive, no matter where you live. It’s shocking, really, because most people don’t realize just how much chemicals go into a typical “big” swim at their local pool. If you add up all the chemicals used in an average “large” swim, you’ll soon see that it’s more than triple the price of taking a chlorine class and using pool chemicals only once a week. But, if you’ve been thinking twice about getting your pool professionally cleaned then you’re already on the right track. Professional pool maintenance in Virginia tends to be less expensive than in Florida.
One of the major reasons why pool maintenance in Virginia is so expensive is the fact that many people there use a floating chlorine system instead of a traditional chemical one. However, this system requires much more maintenance than the traditional chlorine system, and pool owners in Virginia pay through the nose in order to keep their water clean. Chemicals should be added every day, not just once or twice per week, and chlorine needs to be added not just once, but every 1-2 times per week, or your pool can become cloudy water.
Most people don’t have a problem with this, because they have enough pressure to force the chemicals through the system. However, if your pool maintenance schedule is too far behind your actual swimming seasons, you could run into problems. So what exactly is the optimum pool maintenance schedule? Well, if you’re like most people, you don’t want to schedule too much time outdoors, which means that cloudy water could be much more hazardous than it would be if you had adequate time for cleaning. Therefore, if you live in an area where you get an average of two hours of sun exposure per week, you should plan to clean your pool’s about once a week, unless your pool has a skimmer that can suck up much of the sun’s heat. This won’t be a problem with most swimming pools.
If you do have a pool maintenance schedule, it’s important to make sure that you give your vacuum and brush a thorough cleaning once a week as well. When you vacuum your pool, make sure that you’re doing a thorough cleaning. Start by vacuuming the whole thing thoroughly, then move on to the steps above.
When you’re doing your pool maintenance, it’s also important to remember that you’re dealing with germs-and that chlorine is one of the biggest enemies of those germs. Therefore, keeping your pool maintenance schedule at least once a week will ensure that you’re not introducing more germs to your water than you already have. When you’re doing your cleaning, make sure that you scrub your filter (which includes the pool pump) with a sponge that’s been soaked in chlorine. Make sure that you rinse off the pool pump and filter with hot soapy water after the scrubbing. You may want to leave the filter and pump alone (with the exception of making sure that they are properly aged), but scrub them nonetheless.
Another key element of effective pool maintenance is pool chemistry. If you take care of the water’s pH balance – not too hard, with the use of chemical balance products like PH Test strips or a pH meter – you’ll find that swimming pool maintenance becomes less of a chore and more of a way to stay healthy. It also makes it easier to stay on top of the chemical inventory, as well as the fact that a slight change in pool chemistry can have ripple effects on the pH balance, the amount of dissolved solids, and the overall appearance and health of your pool. For example, changing from hard water to soft water – particularly if it is also going from a highly acidic environment to a less so acidic environment – will have a significant effect on pool chemistry. Similarly, changing the amount of calcium in your pool (either by partially depleting it or completely eliminating it) will have a ripple effect on pool maintenance. If you find that the pH balance or the hardness of the water is out of whack, you will need to either address the situation with chemicals or be willing to clean the pool thoroughly to get things back to where they should be.
The point is that you need to be aware of the importance of maintaining your pool, even as a beginner. You don’t necessarily have to do it all on your own – there’s no substitute for a trained professional pool cleaning service – but having an understanding of how everything works and what can affect the performance of a filter and other types of equipment can go a long way towards making sure you maintain your pool to the best of its ability. In addition to that, hiring a professional pool care service is generally much cheaper than trying to keep up on the maintenance yourself. At the end of the day, maintaining your pool is usually less expensive than paying for professional cleaning services to do it for you, so think seriously about getting a professional Pool Repair Las Vegas to help you keep your pool maintained!