Your Best Choices for a New Swimming Pool
Help in choosing the right pool to meet your needs and your budget.
Budd’s understands that you’re faced with a daunting number of questions when thinking about adding a pool to your home: questions of budget, style, features, equipment, construction, and the landscape surrounding your new pool. To help you get started, we’ve narrowed it down to the essential questions you need to consider in the beginning.
Frequent Questions and Answers when Buying an In-Ground Pool
These are the most common questions people ask about choosing the best pool for their budget and lifestyle.
In our experience, we’ve found in-ground pools are the best choice for most homeowners. They add more value to your home than above ground pools and simply provide more enjoyment for your family and guests. They last longer, offer more design possibilities, and can be seamlessly integrated into your home and yard. That’s why Budd’s Pools & Spas only builds in-ground pools
Your best pool investment starts with the design. When you buy a Budd’s pool you have access to expert design services that help you make the best choices for your needs and budget. Whether you’re looking to play with kids in the water, exercise, entertain, or simply enjoy the view, your continued enjoyment rests on this initial design. You can get more information and inspiration on pool design at TheWaterSpace blog.
The best pool for you depends on your budget, where you live, and where you locate your new pool. For outdoor pools, the micro-climate in your area, your yard size and in some cases yard shape will influence your decisions.
Climate:
Budd’s Pools & Spas serves the upper Mid-Atlantic and lower Northeastern regions where low temperatures range from -20 F to 10 F. For in-ground pools in these climates, your best choices are shotcrete (also called gunite) or vinyl lined pools. If you live farther south, or plan to build an indoor pool, you may also find preformed plastic or fiberglass pool options that fit your needs.
Yard size, shape and environment:
Yard size and shape influence pool size and shape. You may prefer rectangles, circles, curvilinear shapes—or a combination—to fit your yard and your style. Outdoor environmental factors, such as sun, shade, prevailing wind, soil composition, and the views beyond your property, will all factor into the best location for your pool.
Modern swimming pools called “gunite” are most likely shotcrete pools. Both terms refer to steel reinforced concrete pools with plaster and/or tiled surfaces. Both processes apply concrete shot (“shotcrete”) from a gun (“gunite”) into a steel rebar framework. Gunite shoots a concrete powder and water mixture (dry mix) that’s mixed as it’s shot from the gun. Shotcrete shoots a pre-mixed liquid concrete (wet mix).
Although shotcrete has been the concrete industry’s name for both processes since the 1950s, the gunite name remains ingrained in the pool industry. For consumers gunite is a generic name for the best custom pools. For pool builders, gunite simply differentiates the dry-mix process from wet-mix. Shotcrete (wet mix), however, is the pool industry’s preferred method of construction. Shotcrete offers greater ease of application, more consistent results, more reliable quality control, greater longevity, and lower costs for both pool builders and homeowners. As a result, most new pools today are built with the shotcrete, not gunite, process.
Budd’s only uses premium quality steel reinforced concrete in constructing its pools. Your best choice comes down to these options:
- The pool finish you prefer: plaster or vinyl
- The pool design you prefer: custom (shotcrete) or semi-custom (modular concrete forms with vinyl liner)
- Initial Cost (Vinyl is lower cost)
- Construction time: If you’re in a hurry, vinyl is faster
- Pool surface longevity (Shotcrete, with its plaster finish, lasts longer but needs more attentive water balance maintenance)
Either choice gives you a high quality, high value luxury pool.
Cost to Build a Plunge Pool:
Also known as a “spool” or “cocktail pool,” plunge pools are small pools that can fit where full sized pools are too big, but they are equally at home in any sized space. Budd’s recommends their modular and customizable concrete, vinyl lined plunge pool, which averages $75,000 to $100,000.
Cost to Build a Modular Vinyl Liner Pool:
$85,000 to $120,000 is the average range for a customizable pool with deluxe vinyl liner. Common additional features may include a sun shelf, custom spa, landscaping, terrace, fire pit, pergola, and other amenities. Budd’s Vinyl Lined pools are an excellent choice for those seeking a luxurious outdoor living environment on a budget.
Cost to Build a Shotcrete Custom Pool:
Pool design and construction averages between 200,000 and $350,000. More complex pool projects range from $500,000 to $600,000 to include a landscaped outdoor area with the most popular features, such as a spa, decks or terraces, lighting, pergola, and water or fire features.
Cost to Build a Custom Design/Build Outdoor Living Area:
These projects start at $500,000 to well over a million dollars. In addition to a custom shotcrete pool and spa, decks, and terraces, they often include a pool house, sheltered dining space, bar area, kitchen, water and fire features, lighting and other special features.
