Buying a house with a pool? Find out what you are inheriting before you close — the equipment, the liner, the plumbing and the water. Serving Twinsburg, Solon, Hudson and the Route 91 corridor.
This is the thing most buyers find out too late, and it is worth checking on your own report right now.
Home inspections routinely exclude pools, or cover them in a line or two that amounts to confirming one exists. That is not a criticism of home inspectors — a pool is a plant room with a water body attached, and it is a genuinely separate discipline.
So the most expensive item in the back garden is frequently the least examined thing in the transaction. A pool with a failing heater, a liner at the end of its life and a pump on borrowed time can present perfectly well on a sunny afternoon in June.
And the timing is against you. In this part of Ohio a pool may be closed and under a cover for roughly half the year, which means a good share of house sales involve a pool nobody can see. A covered pool in March tells you almost nothing.
An inspection is a condition assessment of the pool and its plant. What we examine:
The equipment pad. Pump, filter, heater, sanitiser, automation and the plumbing between them — age, condition, whether it runs, and whether it was installed properly. Signs of past freeze damage are specifically looked for, because that is the local failure mode and it is often visible as repaired or replaced components.
The pump and filtration. Whether the pump primes and holds it, noise indicating bearings, evidence of a weeping seal, and filter pressure against what it ought to be. A filter that will not come back to a sensible pressure tells you something about what is behind it.
The heater. Whether it fires, whether it holds, and — where it can be seen — the condition of the exchanger. Scale and corrosion history matter more than the age on the plate. See pool heaters.
The liner or interior surface. Flexibility, water-line condition, staining, wrinkling, fit at the track and around fittings. Whether a liner has years left or is a purchase you will be making shortly is one of the single biggest numbers in the assessment. See pool liners.
The water. We titrate a full panel rather than reading a test-strip, because chemistry history is a reliable indicator of how the pool has been looked after. High hardness, metals in solution needing a sequesterant or chelateing agent, or a sanitiser that has clearly been dosed erratically all tell you something the seller may not. We test whichever sanitiser the pool actually runs — some brominate rather than chlorinate, and a bromine pool that has been managed as a chlorine one is its own finding.
The safety cover, if there is one. Straps, springs, anchors, seams and whether it is a genuine safety cover or a winter tarp — those are different products with different implications.
The electrical bonding. The bond that ties the pad together is a safety item and it corrodes.
Signs of leaking. Whether the pool is losing water, and if so a first view of whether it looks like liner, plumbing or evaporation.
A liner being assessed by hand
A written condition report covering what we examined, what we found, and what we would expect to need attention — separated into "now", "soon" and "eventually", because those are different conversations with a seller.
What it is genuinely useful for: deciding whether to buy, deciding what to negotiate, and knowing what your first two years of ownership are likely to cost. A liner near the end of its life or a heater with a scaled exchanger are real numbers to bring to a negotiation.
Being straight about the limits, because that is the point of paying for one.
It is not a warranty or a guarantee. It reports condition on the day. Pool equipment can fail the week after any inspection, and nobody assessing a pump can tell you when its bearings will go.
We are not home inspectors and this is not a home inspection. We assess the pool and its plant. Anything beyond that — decking structure, retaining walls, drainage, electrical supply beyond the pool's own bonding and disconnect — is outside what we do and outside what we will comment on.
It is not a structural or engineering assessment. We are a service company, not builders and not engineers. If something suggests a structural question, we will say that it needs a structural opinion rather than offering one.
A closed pool limits what can be assessed. We will tell you plainly what could and could not be examined, and a report on a covered pool in February carries more "could not determine" than one in July. Sometimes the right advice is to make the assessment a condition rather than accept a limited one.
Inspections are not only for buyers.
Taking over a property — a rental, an inherited house, a pool that came with a place you have owned for years and never really understood — is the same assessment. Plenty of people call us because they have a pool they did not choose and would like to know what they are dealing with before the next season.
Before a big decision. If you are weighing a liner replacement, a heater replacement or a full equipment upgrade, an assessment of the whole pad first stops you spending on one component while another is about to fail.
Commercial and HOA properties. A condition assessment before taking on a contract or a property is worth having, and the plant is more involved — see commercial pool maintenance.
Freeze damage to a pool pump housing
“The crew is super knowledgeable and courteous.”
Tell us where it is and whether it is open, and we will tell you what can be assessed.
We are a service company, so if you buy the house we are generally the people who then look after it — but the inspection is not a lead-in to a sales pitch, and the report says what we found rather than what we would like to sell.
Where work is needed, a $150 service call covers up to the first hour of diagnosis or repair — see pool equipment repair. If you are taking over a pool that has been neglected, the sensible first step is usually a proper opening or close followed by getting the chemistry documented — see chemical and equipment checks.
A hairline crack in a pool pump volute
M & G Pools services in-ground pools exclusively. We do not service, repair or supply equipment for above-ground pools, and we do not service hot tubs or spas.
Usually not, or only in a line confirming one exists. A pool is a plant room with a water body attached and it is a separate discipline — which means the most expensive item in the back garden is often the least examined thing in the transaction.
The equipment pad — pump, filter, heater, sanitiser, automation and plumbing — plus the liner or interior surface, the safety cover if there is one, the electrical bonding, signs of leaking, and a full titrated water test. Chemistry history is a reliable indicator of how well the pool has been looked after.
Partly, and we will tell you plainly what could and could not be assessed. A covered pool in February leaves far more undetermined than an open one in July. Sometimes the right advice is to make the assessment a condition of sale rather than accept a limited one.
No. It reports condition on the day. Equipment can fail the week after any inspection, and nobody assessing a pump can tell you when its bearings will go. What it does give you is a basis for deciding whether to buy, what to negotiate, and what your first couple of years are likely to cost.
No, and this is not a home inspection. We are a pool service company assessing the pool and its plant. Decking structure, retaining walls, drainage and the electrical supply beyond the pool's own bonding are outside what we do — and if something raises a structural question we will say it needs a structural opinion rather than offer one ourselves.
