Seen several videos of people purposely destroying (and I don’t mean just draining) their large above grounds pools after (I assume) the warm summer season is over.
Are these pools so inexpensive that people just replace them the next year? Are these pools “collapsible” so they can be stored away if one has the space?
Getting them fully dried off and folded compactly enough for storage is impossible. They’ll just grow mold in all the crevasses. They are cheap enough that most people consider them disposable. Sickeningly wasteful, yes, but that seems par for the course anymore.
Nah.
They were feeding you a line, about how rich they are.
Unless–a tax thing?
Maybe?
Do those videos include any indication that the owners are intending to have another pool the following summer?
Generally speaking, above-the-ground pools are not inexpensive, and maintenance on any pool is often a big thing (and the hardware on an above-the-ground pool will wear out over time). It may well be that these people had the pool for several years, got tired of it, and decided to be done with having a pool (my parents did that). Alternately, they may have had that pool for several years, realized that it needed a lot of repairs (or was just worn out), and decided to scrap that one, in favor of getting a new one the following year.
Above ground pools here are usually the $300-400 kind from Walmart that are just a big plastic bag. Some have hard sides, but lots are just held up by the design of the plastic- just like a wide squat vase shape. These don’t have filters or anything fancy.
In the last 10 or 15 years, three families I know have permanently ditched their above-ground pools. Reasons they cited include the time, effort, and expense of maintenance; high homeowners’ insurance premiums; and the availability of municipal pools and pools at private gyms that they already belonged to.
I don’t know any family that has erected a new or replacement above-ground pool in the same period.
I didn’t even know that these were a thing. :eek:
What possible tax thing could involve destroying an above ground pool?
This page has some even cheaper.
In some areas, it would presumably lower the assessed value of your home and therefore reduce your property tax.
I have a 15 foot diameter above ground pool I have used for two summers, and plan to use this summer as well if it is still in good shape. I disassemble it in the fall and store it in the basement. It has an electric skimmer/filter. I think I paid about $250 for it.
An above ground pool? No way. It’s not something constructed and part of the property. It’s effectively outdoor furniture. Not to mention they are very inexpensive.
A friend of mine destroyed his below ground pool a few years back. But this is Seattle, so a pool that can’t be used for most months yet still needs lots of maintenance is not desirable. He essentially made the call that the presence of the pool was hurting the market value of the house when they bought it more than the cost of removing it, which they promptly did after buying the house.
That’s definitely true with in-ground pools in the upper Midwest, where I live. Very few people have them, and while they were quite a fad for a while, a huge percentage of the people who got them ended up filling them in when the ROI wasn’t quite what they expected.
As for the “giant plastic bag” pools, they’re simply a larger, heavier version of the blow-up pools so many of us had when we were kids.
Yeah, my guess is that they’re the “Giant bag” types. We had one for a year (bought it on clearance) and it did its job although it got a hole in the liner during breakdown and I never felt inclined to patch it up or replace it. they probably are cheap enough to be considered “disposable” if you consider $300/yr a good summer investment. It was the kind with a metal pipe frame that the liner hung in but didn’t have solid sides (sort of like this).
As mentioned, permanently installed pools are a bit of a white elephant and can drive buyers away from your property with fears of maintenance costs, cleaning, chemicals and potential liability and fencing concerns.
My brother has one of those, the type in which the upper rim of the pool is an inflatable tube, while the sidewalls and bottom are heavy plastic. As you fill the pool, the inflatable rim rises and the water presses evenly on the sidewalls to make it rigid. I think it’s a clever design.
The one my brother currently has is his second. Rats got at the first one while it was in storage. I assume that before the pool is put away for storage, you have to dry it out thoroughly to prevent mold, and that’s gotta be a pain in the ass. So I can well understand treating this $150 pool as disposable.
it’s common for people to get rid of above ground pools once their youngest kid reaches the age when they no longer use it . That is probably around junior high, 12-14.
We recently filled our diving pool in.
Should have done it a decade ago.
I am guessing that a lot of HOAs don’t permit above ground pools except the small temporary ones.
I know HOAs that don’t allow pools, swing sets or trampolines. We live on well water so any kind of water toys were out of the question for my kids. We joined a racket club where they had a nice pool and tennis courts. Kids enjoyed it. There is a fancy shmantzy country club with 18 hole golf course and 2 pools and I don’t know what else. We ain’t exactly the C.C. type, though.