One thing that is often top of mind when buying a swimming pool is “will this be a good investment”. Naturally, when making improvements to your home, you want to ensure that you are being wise with the money you are spending.

The answer as to whether your pool will turn out to be a good purchase needs to be looked at from a few different angles.

A Swimming Pool will provide years of enjoyment, entertainment and health benefits to your family

Having a backyard pool can dramatically change your life at home for the better! Many families report that their swimming pool provides countless hours of entertainment for children (keeping active and away from screen time!), increases the amount of quality family time and can be used to boost fitness. Unlike spending money on a holiday, a swimming pool allows you to have resort-style living all summer long, every year!

If well-planned, a pool can add significant value to your home too

There tend to be two types of buyers in the housing market. The first group are the people who see a swimming pool in the backyard, and immediately see the house as a better option for them, thus a pool increases the perceived value of the property for this group of people.

The other group can see a swimming pool and wonder if it will be costly to run and take up too much time to keep clean and maintain. So it is essential that when buying a pool you investigate ways to make it appeal to as many people as possible.

A few simple considerations at the beginning of your pool buying process can make the world of difference when it comes to making sure your pool adds value to your home when the time comes to sell.

Here’s a few tips to help ensure your pool will add value to your home:

1. Consider location carefully

Take some time to think about the best area to place your pool. Be sure to think about sunshine, wind, proximity to the house, noise and aesthetics. Swimming pools are a great centrepiece of the backyard; in fact, you spend more time looking at them than you do swimming in them. The more appealing the pool looks from your living spaces, the better!

2. Choose your pool shape wisely

Like most things, pool shapes go in and out of fashion. For example in the 90’s kidney shaped pools were very common, but these days very few people buy them.  If you are thinking about future on-sale value it pays to choose shapes that have stood the test of time. Rectangular pools and pools with straight edges like the X-Trainer swimming pool and Vogue pool models have always remained best sellers because they seem to work in with most people’s tastes. Our Vogue swimming pool is a popular family pool.

3. Think carefully about depth

People often tell us they want their pool to be “as deep as possible” which is why we encourage you to think carefully about what depth will suit you best. Most people tend to enjoy their pool by standing and playing rather than actually swimming. This is one of the reasons we make the majority of our pools running shallow to deep; that way each pool model caters to people of different heights and abilities. Further to this, every model has a safety ledge running around the perimeter of the pool to allow a safe place to stand and rest.

4. Minimise effort

One of the things that can potentially scare people off swimming pools is the thought of having to look after it on a daily basis. It pays to think about the different things you can do to make your pool as “hands-free” as possible. In an ideal world, people want to be able to use their pool whenever they want with little preparation. These days swimming pools can be set up to be virtually hands-free. Our Vantage in-floor cleaning system ensures your water is properly circulated and that all debris is regularly removed from your pool without the need for manual cleaning or automatic vacuums. Our customers regularly report to us that this system has made their pool, and home easier to sell when on the market. It is one of the features you should go for when looking for “the best pool” that you’ll love. Integrated pool management systems can also be added to your pool. These essentially manage the day to day water chemistry in your swimming pool – all of the seemingly daunting work can now be managed by one simple machine.

5. Think about energy savings

The less your pool costs to run the better it is for you and the more attractive it will be to future buyers. Ask your pool consultant to walk you through the different options to help reduce power consumption. These days’ energy efficient pumps are very popular and come recommended by most pool dealers. But beware; when operating in reduced-flow mode you may find that your pool experiences a significant reduction in circulation quality. This often means you will end up spending more money trying to keep your pool water clean and healthy. The most effective way to have a low-energy pool is to mix energy efficient equipment with a circulation method that ensures maximum mixing water. Traditional circulation systems tend to only move/mix the top 2ft of water in your pool leaving the deeper water to become the perfect breeding ground for algae and bacteria.  Talk to us about the two different ways you can boost circulation, save energy and have healthier water in your pool.

One of the FREE services that all Compass Pools dealers offer is an onsite pool consultation. These meetings usually take 1-2 hours and are designed to help you get answers to all the important questions before investing in a pool.

Here’s a few of the questions we can help with on the day:

• Where is the best spot to put a pool?
• What size pool is ideal for my family?
• What shapes will work best for my backyard and budget?
• What can be done to reduce ongoing maintenance work?
• What can be done to reduce the power my pool will use?

Call us today on 1300 667 445 or find your local pool builder now.

On 15 February, fires stroked Christchurch Port Hills, just at the east boundary of a house equipped with a brand-new Compass Pool. The home and probably others were saved thanks to the pool which was used as a water tank filled with water from a nearby fire hydrant.

Source: Stuff.co.cz

There are so many benefits of having a pool. It is a spot to relax, place to have fun, work out or just be admired by your neighbours and friends. The couple from Port Hills, Christchurch, however, know that having a pool means much more than that. In fact, their home would probably not be there anymore if their new pool was not completed just two weeks ago.

Strong fires struck the area of Port Hills dangerously close to their home. They were evacuated immediately and while waiting in safety and thinking of the worst, the firemen converted their pool into a water tank used by helicopters to fight the fire.

They could use the outside hydrant to refill it and thus, it helped to put the fire under control and save not only their house, but most probably other properties and nature as well. About midday on Friday, Miranda and Craig Newbury knew they were incredibly lucky. As Miranda said to Stuff: “It’s terribly sad but we are hugging and celebrating. All our neighbours are talking about coming back and rebuilding. This is not going to stop us living up there.”

Video transcription: When thinking about installing your pool, thinking about where it goes may come naturally. This might be, ok, that’s the spot I’m definitely going to have my pool installed. Other properties might have tremendous flexibility. There can be a little bit of consternation about where that pool is exactly going to go.

When we’re generally talking about installation of a pool and you’re thinking about it in relation to your lifestyle, what is most ideal is that the pool becomes an extension of your living area. It’s an area that is connected to your house. You may want to see your kids swimming and so forth, which is an important factor as well.

Being able to look out of the windows onto something that, when you’re not swimming in it, let’s face it, is just an expensive water feature, this is an important factor for putting the pool in. When we put that pool in, that pool is going to stay in that position for as long as you own it. So some careful consideration about how that is done is a really important factor.

Yes, we have to take into consideration what the rules are and whether there are any issues in terms of putting in the pool there from another point of view such as pipes or things like main sewers and different things and certain setbacks from fences. But we have the luxury and the ability to even incorporate parts of the house inside the pool area.

You can never have an area that basically steps up or doors that open up and flows straight onto the pool area. That is an issue. You always need to have some sort of fencing between it, but you can certainly use a wall, modify windows and so forth so that they comply with the pool fencing code and allow that area to be basically connected to the house. That may or may not suit your property, it just depends.

But some careful consideration as to where that pool goes is a really important thing. Really we have a lot of customers who are out there who are building and designing their house so the whole pool is a feature. That is something that we think is tremendously valuable when it comes to not only your enjoyment but even resale.

So when we’re thinking about where that pool is going to go, at Compass, we put a lot of effort and energy into training our people so we’re in a position to come out, consult with you and really determine what we think is going to be the best place to maximize the enjoyment and the long term benefits of you owning a Compass pool. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.