Looking into starting up my own pool cleaning business in my neighborhood, very small scale, looking for maybe ten pools a week, im wondering what I can expect monthly expenditures to be on chemicals (CYA, pH, Chlorine, Shock).
Monthly Chemical Expenses
- Thread starter UptownUpkeep
- Start date
Once the pools are open and functional of your on top of them weekly it’s minimal. The opening and closing are separate charges. 200-300 is the norm.
My pool in NY on tabs takes 6-9 tabs every 7 days. Maybe 8 oz Of muriatic acid a month, a few bags of baking Soda a month and 3-4 Gallons liquid shock per month. I pull the tabs on weekends while I’m around and feed it liquid chlorine to keep cya down.
I do my own pool maintenance but in my area they charge 80-100 dollars a week.
My pool in NY on tabs takes 6-9 tabs every 7 days. Maybe 8 oz Of muriatic acid a month, a few bags of baking Soda a month and 3-4 Gallons liquid shock per month. I pull the tabs on weekends while I’m around and feed it liquid chlorine to keep cya down.
I do my own pool maintenance but in my area they charge 80-100 dollars a week.
- Oct 25, 2015
- 5,800
- Pool Size
- 28000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Up,
That depends on how you plan to treat, how old the pool is, and what type of pool it is. Let's say on average you're looking at a 10000 gal gunite pool with fully cured plaster. Using TFP methods is the lowest cost to treat and requires no shock and no tabs. We use liquid chlorine and acid primarily. You can assume 3.7 ppm FC loss due to sun and disinfection daily. That's .3 gal./day for 12% LC and if you're adjusting pH .2 pH units per week you'll need .05 gal per week. There are a lot of variables but this is pretty typical for hotter months. Of course in winter this is reduced a lot since algae doesn't grow below 60 deg. Here's the problem though, it's really impossible to treat a pool adequately by visiting once per week unless you way over-chlorinate and supplement with tablets. Even then it's almost impossible to adequately treat this way during hot months. So you really need to visit twice per week at least for the hot months at least. If you try to use tabs you're going to have similar problems maintaining the FC level with once per week visits and you'll also need to drain water frequently due to buildup of CYA. What about shock? Problem is that it doesn't really work, that's why we don't recommend it. Also, you're going to need to figure out how to brush twice per week without visiting. Maybe robot? Be sure to use the cost of mileage ($.625/mi is reasonable fully depreciated cost) and your labor on the expense side. Not sure your customers will pay for this plus a reasonable profit for you because most services seem to try to do it this way and eventually they get algae infestation. I think the reality for this business is there's so many people that try this there's competition that's always starting then eventually getting out of it that it's hard to compete with real long term solutions that work and a lot of this is because customers really focus on cost not knowing what minimal requirements are to keep their pool safe and crystal clear. I'd recommend you check into this very carefully before you invest time and money.
I hope this is helpful.
Chris
Thanks Chris, this was very insightful. I am looking to service at least twice. My hope is that with a smaller number of pools to service I will be able to make more than one weekly visit per pool. Also most of the pools I hope to service aren’t very far from me so I’m not too worried about travel costs. My main concern will be quoting clients and keeping monthly chemical expenses in an adequate range and maintaining a profit without charging clients too much.
Wow ! Down here in Dallas it's like $100 per MONTH for a pool service guy.
Chemicals are always going to vary from week to week and client to client. You could do a weekly service charge for a set amount that includes testing and other maintenance for a set fee. Then you can add chemicals at a preset price for what was used.
Just curious but do you know what services that includes/chemicals used? I feel like New Orleans (where I’m based) and Dallas have a bit more similar weather. Just trying to get an accurate idea of what I can expect to charge and spend
Yes, each week they empty the baskets, skim the pool, check the chemistry, and add chemicals as necessary. Every other week also includes brushing the walls and using an electric pool vac to clean the floors.
Wow. That seems cheap for those services. Do you happen to know if that rate includes the cost of chemicals per month? Or do they charge per month for chemicals as a separate fee?
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,749
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
You should separately charge for your services and actual chemicals used in a pool.
That does cause you more record keeping, invoicing, and billing but is fairer to all your customers some who may need few chemicals and some who may need a lot.
That does cause you more record keeping, invoicing, and billing but is fairer to all your customers some who may need few chemicals and some who may need a lot.
Are you going to follow the TPF protocols or the standard pool industry ways of making moolah? I suppose anyone in this business can't be at every pool every day or every other day to watch the proper chemical balance. So if you are going to responsibly follow the scientific way taught here, which will benefit your customers, you need to develop every pool into a clean and sanitary TFP pool and then you could add liquid chlorine to the top of the level for that pool's CYA level and it might last until the next time you're there. If you do it this way you might be one of the few that has done that. I know there are some pool care guys on here but I've not seen anyone state that they care for their customer's pools in this way. Maybe because that's not a profitable way to run a pool business.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,749
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Pool Service would be a lot easier if you made a SWG a requirement for any pool you take on.
A SWG is the most economical way to chlorinate the pool and you should be able to show customers the multi-year savings over liquid chlorine.
A SWG is the most economical way to chlorinate the pool and you should be able to show customers the multi-year savings over liquid chlorine.
Pool service with swg.
1. Show up
2. Look at pool.
3. Empty skimmers
4. Leave
Maybe youll test the water and add some acid on occasion
1. Show up
2. Look at pool.
3. Empty skimmers
4. Leave
Maybe youll test the water and add some acid on occasion
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,749
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Pool service with swg.
1. Show up
2. Look at pool.
3. Empty skimmers
4. Leave
Maybe youll test the water and add some acid on occasion
Pool service with swg.
1. Show up
2. Look at pool - check water level
3. Empty skimmers
4. Brush & clean pool
5. Skim water with net
6. Test FC, pH, TA, Salt, CYA, CH
7. Adjust SWG %, pH, salt, CYA as needed
8. Leave
No customers will want to pay for the daily care their pool deserves, or at least a couple of visits a week.
Besides the flawed methodology which is its own discussion, pool services often don't stand a chance to get it right once a week.
Big storms, high bather days, power failures or particularly high UV days happen and you just know its on day 2, not day 6 or 7.
It'd also be fair for the pool servicer so they didn't get hit with some customers needing more than they were paying for. Everyone wins.
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