Anyone dealt with rehabbing a neglected pool and figuring out the maintenance budget?
Inherited a pool that the previous owner clearly neglected - it needs a lot of attention to get back to healthy, and I'm worried the maintenance costs to catch up plus keep it up are going to be brutal. I want to estimate what upkeep will realistically run for a pool that's starting from a rough spot. Anyone dealt with rehabbing a neglected pool and figuring out the maintenance budget?
Rehabbing a neglected pool is its own thing - there's the catch-up hump and then the steady-state upkeep, and it helps to see them separately. For the ongoing side, Pool Cost Planner's maintenance calculator gives estimated pool maintenance costs by pool type, size, frequency, system, and season, so you can model what healthy upkeep looks like once you're past the rough start. That gave me a target. Tip: run it at a higher service frequency for the first stretch - a neglected pool needs more attention up front, then dial frequency down and re-run for the steady-state number. And be realistic about condition; a rough start means more chemicals early. Seeing both phases kept the budget from feeling bottomless.
