I run a platform that helps homeowners remove their pools. I still have mine. I want to get that out of the way upfront because I think the honesty of that is what makes everything else in this post worth reading.

The pool is staying closed this year. The heater went. Then the liner started going. I got quotes, did the math, and realized that fixing it cost nearly as much as removing it. And removal was already on the list. Roof comes first, then siding, then windows, then the pool. I am staring down somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 in home work and you have to sequence it right or you are just burning money in the wrong order.

So this year the pool stays closed. It is the test year. I wanted to find out if my family would actually miss it. And heading into July 4th weekend I can tell you the answer so far is no.

What pool ownership actually costs in New England

I have written before about the real annual cost of running a pool in Massachusetts. But I want to say it plainly here because I think most pool owners have never actually added it up.

Chemicals all season. Opening and closing service every year. Electricity for the pump running eight hours a day from May through September. Water to fill and top off throughout the summer. Repairs and parts averaged over a few years because something always needs fixing. The liability rider on your homeowner’s insurance. A new cover every few years. Deck and coping maintenance. It adds up to somewhere between $4,000 and $5,500 a year for a typical inground pool in New England. Some years more when something major goes.

That is real money. And I say that as someone who was spending it without really looking at the total.

The number that finally broke through for me was the per-swim calculation. Last summer we probably got in the pool about ten times. Maybe twelve. When I divided the annual cost by actual uses the number was so absurd I laughed at myself for not running it sooner.

The Cape Cod trip that put it in perspective

In June we drove to Cape Cod for a week. Brewster, bay side. Cottage rental, food, gas, activities for the kids, ice cream every night. The whole week cost around $2,000.

Less than half of what I spend each year to keep the pool running in my own backyard.

The kids ran into the water every morning. They walked the tidal flats at low tide for hours. They fished. They ate fried clams on a picnic table. They went to bed exhausted every single night in the way that kids are supposed to go to bed in the summer. My wife and I sat outside after they fell asleep and talked without anyone needing anything.

We got home and the kids immediately started asking when we could go back. They are lobbying hard for Wellfleet later in the summer. I told them we would figure it out. And even if we go twice the total still comes in under what the pool was costing us to maintain.

That is the comparison that nobody makes when they are deciding whether to open the pool again. Not the pool versus nothing. The pool versus what else that money could do.

The test year is working

I deliberately framed this as a test. Could my family get through a summer without the pool and not feel like they were missing anything? That was the question.

The kids have a kiddie pool in the backyard. They love it. Nobody has once asked about the big pool. Not once. We are two weeks from the biggest summer holiday of the year and it has genuinely not come up.

The pool does not get used the way you think it will when you install it. The first couple of summers are great. By year four or five it becomes furniture. Something that is just there. The kids get in for twenty minutes and get out. Meanwhile you are out there adjusting the chemistry on a Saturday morning instead of doing something with your family.

This summer I have those Saturday mornings back. That is not nothing.

What this means if you are on the fence

If you are reading this and running your own version of the same math, I want to say something directly. The cost of removal is almost always less than people expect. The gap between what you are spending each year to maintain the pool and what it costs to remove it permanently is usually smaller than it looks. In some cases you are talking about three or four years of maintenance costs. And after that the expense is just gone.

I am planning removal for spring 2027. The money I am not spending on maintenance this year goes toward funding it. I am not losing a year. I am gaining one. Gaining savings, gaining clarity, and gaining a summer that is actually good on its own terms.

The pool will still be there in the spring. Right now I am going to figure out Wellfleet.