We moved into our home about three years ago. I had never owned a pool before and I was a little nervous about taking care of my first pool. To make matters worse, I had heard horror stories about people who tried to manage the pool’s chemicals on their own. So I decided to leave it up to the professionals.
I hired a pool guy who a friend trusted recommended and went about my business. With the pool guy there were two options:
Option #1: He comes and takes care of balancing the chemicals, empties the skimmer baskets, uses the net and cleans all the leaves and dead bugs out of the pool. This costs $150 per month.
Option #2: He comes and takes care of balancing the chemicals and I clean the pool myself. This costs $75 per month.
I went with option #2.
At first, cleaning the pool really wasn’t all that hard. However, as time moved on I began noticing small things that I wasn’t happy with. For example, the green algae that I was cleaning off the walls of the pool pretty much weekly, was beginning to grow at an alarming rate. What were weekly cleanings, became daily, then twice daily. I was getting frustrated and exhausted.
I headed to the Leslie’s pool store for help. I had become friends with Len, the manger sometime in my first year of pool ownership. His wife is a teacher in my district and he and I just clicked.
Len helped me solve the algae problem and I haven’t scrubbed the pool walls in over a year. He also tried to convince me that I could easily take care of the pool’s chemicals, however, I was still hesitant to do it myself.
It wasn’t until recently when I happened to be home two weeks in a row when the pool guy came. I watched expecting to see him take water samples and test the chlorine levels then head back to the truck to build the right mixture of chemicals to add to the pool.
But that was far from reality.
Two weeks in a row all he did was walk up to the pool, throw in a scoop full of what I assume is chlorine and leave. He was only spending about 60 seconds in my backyard! That’s only about 4 minutes a month! At this rate was paying this guy about $280 bucks an hour…and I had to solve the algae problem myself???
I decided to take Len’s advice and manage my pool myself.
I’m on my third week as the New Pool Boy and I couldn’t be happier. I take a water sample to Leslie’s pool supply where they test it for free, tell me what I need to add, and I’m out the door. It takes about 10 minutes.
And for a guy who likes building things and working on stuff… being a pool boy is a dream come true!
I’m having a blast taking care of the pool, it looks the best it has in three years and I’ve got 75 extra bucks in my pocket. If I had a beer I’d be in heaven!
But my boss is pretty strict…
