Options For The Cheapest Salt Water Inground Pool
The biggest expense for building an inground pool relates to the size (water volume) and depth of your pool. The bigger the pool (the great the water volume) and the deeper you want, the more you’ll pay, probably not surprisingly.
The good news is that these days there are plenty of options for inground salt water pools in terms of shape, size, style and material (vinyl, concrete and fiberglass). On that note, I already wrote a page comparing those three types of pools that you can also check out. On this page we’ll stick with discussing the shape and depth of inground pool options.
What Is the Cheapest Pool Type?
I encourage you to check out the above-mentioned page for a detailed Vinyl vs Concrete vs Fiberglass pool comparison but in general terms, you’ll most likely find that:
- Vinyl pools are the cheapest to build, then fiberglass and concrete is the most expensive.
- Over a period of 10 years, a fiberglass pool will be the cheapest option, vinyl pool is in the middle and concrete will be the most expensive in terms of maintenance costs during that period.
Quoting prices here is a mug’s game because of course there are so many price factors not the least of which are: where you live, size of pool, specific circumstances in your backyard, etc. So short of contacting local pool companies yourself, the starting prices for each type of pool are typically:
Vinyl pool: $35,000 and up
Fiberglass pool: $40,000 and up
Concrete pool: $50,000 and up
What Is The Cheapest Inground Pool Shape?
Here are some popular pool shapes in terms of how expensive they are relative to each other.
Cheapest Pool Shape
Rectangular-shaped pools tend to be the cheapest due to their standard design and straight angles. They are the traditional pool shape and while some people might consider them boring looking, they tend to be the easiest to build and are easily found.
Having said that a rectangular pool requires that you have a backyard or space with enough room to put your chosen size in. The benefits of a oval, kidney or other custom-sized pool is that you get to work around your backyard shape and size and fit the pool in accordingly.
Curved pools are more expensive than rectangular-shaped pools because of the custom and curved design that tends to take more time to dig and install.
As mentioned above though, these styles tend to be better to fit into your backyard when a rectangular one won’t work. Plus, curved pools tend to be cool looking and less cookie cutter than a rectangular one.
Most Popular Pool Shapes
Rectangular – The aforementioned rectangular pool shape tends to be one that you will still find in many older pool builds as well as newer fiberglass and concrete designs.
Freeform – These custom built ones allow you to pick a unique design that you choose yourself.
Kidney – The kidney shaped pool was one of the go-to designs after rectangular pools back in the day. While not as popular as before, they can make good use of a backyard while offering an interesting shape design as well.
Oval – This pool design means you won’t have any angles if you like to avoid them but oval pools tend to be more expensive than other options.
Round – I can’t say I’ve ever seen or swam in a private round pool before but they do offer advantages. Liners tend to be cheaper to replace and there are fewer dead spots since there are no corners and water flow tends to be better as a result. From experience I can tell you that corners have to be vacuumed manually as the auto creeper vacuums tend not to be able to get in tight corners.
How To Get The Cheapest Pool And Still Be Happy
In addition to choosing a cost effective inground pool shape, you can make other choices to keep your build price down and still be happy with your purchase.
Choose a vinyl pool
A vinyl pool will be your cheapest up front option. Maintenance is reasonable and pretty much every local pool company you’ll have access to will service them. In my experience while you may read that you will replace your pool liner every 5-9 years, we bought a house with a 3 year old pool and after 10 years, we’re still on the same liner and I don’t think it’s close to replacement time.
Consider your planned pool usage
We had two small kids who learned how to swim in our pool. They weren’t into diving so technically we didn’t really need a super deep pool. I don’t dive much and neither does my wife. Would we have noticed if the pool was say 7 feet deep instead of 9? No, not at all. We’d have gotten by just fine if it was a 6 foot pool like our neighbors who got a plunge pool that is barely deep enough for jumping in let alone diving. The deeper the pool, the bigger the hole and the bigger the hole, the more you’ll pay to have it dug.
Go with a smaller sized pool in terms of its measurements
Get the biggest size you can afford and that you need. If you are looking for one to splash around in and don’t require a very large one for laps, don’t get a large one. You could consider a plunge pool which can be bought at a consistent depth throughout. It’s not deep enough for diving but if you don’t dive, you won’t notice. And unless you’re doing laps for swim team training or planning big pool parties, you won’t notice the smaller size.
Shop around
Get multiple quotes from local pool companies and maybe pick one or two from surrounding areas to see if they can offer a better price. The more options you have (within reason), the more likely you are to get a good deal you won’t regret.
Don’t go overboard with extras
Gas heater. Slide. Automatic vacuum cleaner. Waterfall. Water spouts. Electric pool cover. It all adds up. Some of these things you may install and get bored with or regret buying. Other things like heater and slide – and landscaping – can be done in the future if you like.
Install your pool in the fall
While you might get a deal in the late spring or summer, often pool companies fall behind schedule and spend the rest of the summer building pools that they already had booked. By the time fall hits, they might be light in terms of work before pool closings start and have a chance to squeeze your build in, perhaps at a discount. Doesn’t hurt to check. Plus, many pool stores will be trying to sell off inventory before winter and tend to start discounting to get rid of stock.
Buy a decent salt water chlorinator system
I have experience with Hayward AquaRite chlorinators, Hayward Super Pumps and Sta-Rite filters. I quite like all of these components. I had no pool experience coming in and even with the entry level Lectrinator chlorinator system the pool was built with, maintenance was easy. It got even easier when we replaced it with the AquaRite system with its timer, auto cell cleaning feature, real time salt measurement and other great features that the Lectrinator system didn’t have.
Speaking of chlorinators, check out my post called Why Is My Salt Chlorinator Cell Not Working to learn more about how to troubleshoot problems so you can see the issues that may arise.
