Jump to content

Cost of maintenance: Var


RickM
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'm minded to agree, however sadly my wife requires a pool. Holiday house; not rented and occupied circa 3 months per year. Hence I am not always around to maintain a pool. I'm wondering if it's the circa €1000pa I expect, or something ridiculous that I will resent, but pay anyway in the interests of marital harmony!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You may well also require a local person as a contact for other (eg garden, house etc) maintenance whilst you are away..

Perhaps it may be prudent to approach the local Marie for advice. Someone on the forum may be able to provide a ball-park figure as you request.

Sorry for my negative response.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can’t be precise, but I will ask our Belgian neighbours who are down here this week, what they pay. I’ll come back on that.

About 3 years ago, he told me that it was around €50 / week, but that’s for around 20 weeks of course. With price inflation, €1200 seems like a sensible number, but that may be well out of date.

Of course, one major thing to consider is what happens if anything goes wrong. If you have a contract, then they are required to fix it ......... and quickly! That may or may not be at your’s or their expense, depending .......

If you attempt to manage the pool yourself and turn up in July to find it green and don’t know what to do to fix it ......... then the pool companies will say that they’ll come when & if. Understandable - their first responsibility is to their contracted clients.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the other hand we have friends with a pool who do all of their maintenance themselves. They are here for around 4/5 months each summer and simply lower the levels, drain the pumps and filters and cover the pool for the winter (autumn and spring). So far no problems that could not be solved with Ph control and sufficient chlorine, coupled with regular cleaning through the filters and with a robot .

Maybe just lucky.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for the delay in getting back on this.

Just seen my neighbour and he said €1500. Andy is right, he probably could do it himself, but (1) he can’t be bothered with all the winterisation / de-winterisation / dealing with problems & (2) he has friends who use the property regularly and having them turn up on a hot mid-Summer Saturday only to find that the pool is green .........!

Hope that helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
[quote user="The Bradfords"]Don't forget about the increased electricity bill that you will incur![/quote]

How did this thread escape me?

RickM

It's all in the preparation, makes sure you have a good (not mesh) cover that fits well and you can keep the pool covered when you are not there.

If the pool is being built by a half decent pool engineer make sure they fit the overflow to the skimmers to take care of excess water whilst you are not there.

Not being rented means you can use a salt water chlorinator which can run on very low setting along with the pump whilst you are not there and a pH doser to keep the water in good condition.

The better the pool the better it will stay clean.

You could then just have someone take a very quick look occasionally or if you have the internet monitor it from home or smartphone.

If you don't want much of an increased electricity bill get a good pool engineer to set up the pool to modern standards using the latest equipment and you really won't see much of an increase. Get the pool installed by someone who doesn't know how to do it and you'll receive a much bigger bill and regret the day you ever said yes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having a house in the Var with a pool, I would endorse the point about electricity, as even though I had a new electric pump installed I found it expensive to run all year and if you heat the pool during the shoulder season then sky is the limit! The alternative would be to drain the pool in Winter, but water in the Var is very expensive, to the point that water evaporation due to the summer heat necessitating regular water top ups, was an appreciable expense.

I do worry about the strict children's pool safety laws in France and resulting criminal liability for non compliance, the only satisfactory answer to which in my opinion, especially if you are going to rent the property, is to build a compliant safety fence around the pool, which can be expensive.

I would not have a house in the Var without a pool, but it is my biggest house related expense after taxes and a bit like a boat the usage rarely justifies the cost!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am advocating NOT fitting a standard pump, electricity is expensive everywhere and only going to get more so. Not only that but a standard single speed pump is not that great.

The cover was mentioned to reduce evaporation, reduce chemical usage and reduce dirt etc entering the pool.

Using the overflow from the skimmer into a water storage tank will be fine for water top ups.

Insulation added to the pool structure will save a fortune on heating costs but using solar or a heat pump (variable speed inverter type) will reduce costs for heating dramatically.

So in short NOT following those who haven't made the best of it is my advice, for those that haven't done it that well there are alternatives to correct that and you will save a lot of the running costs and could still sell your newish pump to someone on Le Bon Coin or facebook.  It's not too late to change. My pool for example €30 ish per season on electricty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...