Quick answer, a fraction of the cost of hiring a local pool contractor.
When we started out on this journey one year ago (well when we definitively went from pinning ideas to ordering a pool kit) we thought it might cost about $20,000 – which was about $20-30k less than having a pool company install a very basic, very small, very cookie-cutter backyard pool. The problem was, we didn’t want cookie cutter, and we didn’t want small. And quite honestly, we didn’t want to pay a guy to instruct other guys to work – and then be left with two things; the feeling of, I could have done that myself, and the mess that contractors inevitably leave that have to be cleaned up by the homeowner (and I am not talking mess like leaving some things behind, I mean mess like doing a crappy job).
So of course we were going to do this project on our own, lol. The only two things we contracted out were, 1) excavation and backfill (because renting and learning how to use a backhoe and digger to dig out precise dimensions of a pool didn’t seem like something that could be done by watching a youtube video), and 2) an electrician, because this whole thing needed to be permitted and required a licensed electrician and inspection.
While there are still a couple of things on our to-do list for this spring (ie the fence, the rest of the deck around the backside of the pool, and the diving board pad and diving board installation) the majority of the project is done and paid for. And we want to share those costs with you so you can get an idea if this is a route you want to take.
We had an amazing electrician who really only does pools for local pool companies. He estimated our pool to be worth at least $75,000 had a pool company installed it. If that is true, this was the deal of the decade.
A couple of disclaimers- the mortar price is a close estimate – we lost track of the bags we bought (it was a lot more than we estimated); decking was bought at the peak of the wood-shortage-high-priced-lumber-pandmic era. Prices went down several weeks later and that is why we decided to wait on the deck around the rest of the pool; the pool kit price includes the sand filter, the pool pump, the saltwater chlorinator.. everything; shortly after we ordered the pool we noticed the kit cost $2000 more than it did when we ordered it in January 2021, and also the time to deliver had extended. I am not sure if pool kit prices will/have come back down.
Finally, here is a quick breakdown of the costs in a convenient little video. Thanks for being here!
xo, Erica
