Lay My Hat

Hello all!

I do not live near to my rental property and the new guy that I have to look after the pool and garden insists that he needs 4 hours a week to maintain the pool - cleaning, checking chemical level, cleaning the surround, backwashing on occasions.

Does this seem reasonable to you?

During August when I stay at my father's house in Spain, the pool cleaners seem to come twice a week and stay for about 30 minutes each time! I understand that the water quality is terrible where we have our villa but there is a huge difference between one hour and 4 hours especially as I pay by the hour!

Any opinions gratefully appreciated!

Sounds about right to me for a pool our size 11x4m. How many visit will he do each week? I spend between 15 mins - 45 mins each day cleaning our pool.

Depends on a lot of factors: type & size of pool, filter system, plant room access etc.
We have to pay an annual fee, which for much of the time involves 30 minutes or less a few times a week to check, balance & vacuum. However, were there to be an issue (clouding, algae, pump, filters etc) I would expect it to be addressed immediately & generally it has been. Sometimes you should & have to pay for knowledge rather than man hours.

He may well have to clean the scum line too - sun lotion is horrible stuff.

And of course, there's his travelling time ...

We check the cottage pool every other day this weather (35C and rising). Testing, adding chemicals as required, topping the water level, vaccing, etc etc takes from 20 mins upwards depending on how much use the pool has had (lotions again), whether the guests have already played at being pool cleaners by netting the dead insects off the surface, whether we have had dust in the air that has settled in the pool and needs vaccing to waste ....

As the others say, it depends on what work he does. My pool gets by with about 20 - 30 minutes a week from my pool-man, but I am on hand to net out the leaves, insects, frogs, voles, hedgehogs, etc that would otherwise mar its perfection.

Mols

Thank you guys for all your feedback!

Our pool is smallish - about 7 x 5 metres. He goes twice a week, normally spending about 3 hours there prior to guests arrivals and one hour mid week, so I am realising that this is probably the minimum that I can ask him to do. Guests seem to love fishing out all the dead insects, etc but there are often issues with water quality due to high temperatures and the dusty atmosphere.

Ours is 10 x 5 and our pool guy spends 20 minutes a week. After that we skim the pool once a week....maybe 15 mins.

I think that amount of time is excessive unless there is an issue to be dealt with.

We also leave the net for guests to use themselves.

Mouse
x

30 mins each day is our norm. Living in a rural farming environment this really is necessary along with testing water quality.

Hhmmmm.... different points of view, I see!

Maybe the water in Spain is of a better quality or the atmosphere is less polluted?

I would feel better if the pool guy did a maximum of 2 hours on guest arrival day and a half hour check mid way through their visit.

Something for me to think about!

We are in Italy and our pool is 12x6m. We are not on site and our guy looks after the pool and the garden. He visits twice a week for 4 hours each time. Cleans, runs the robot, changes the filter, checks the chems etc and also does the garden too. May be we are overdoing it? I hate to think of the pool not looking its best. It's the key selling point and most of our guests comment on how fab it looks. Reading your comments I might stretch the number of days between visits.

We are also in Italy, our pool is 25M x 8M. It used to take me 4 hours every time I cleaned it (manually) - new robot arrived yesterday so I don't need to do that now. However there is still the water testing and chemical adjusting to be done, backwashing of filters etc. so if the pool guy is being thorough it may well take him 4 hours a week. IMO.

Ours takes 2½ hours on changeover day and while the pool robot is in, he checks the water quality, cuts the grass, cleans the BBQ, sweeps the deck etc. So this is once a week unless there are any other pool issues, of which there have been many . If you have no issues during the season for his 4 hrs a week then I'd consider that a bargain

4m x 11m pool. 3 times a week. Approx. 15 mins. a time, unless there is a technical problem and then it is as long as it takes.

And what about for a hot tub? Ours is a 6 person tub and we have a 4 nt minimum (2 nts in the off-season). Our guy comes after each and skimms, vacuums, adjusts chemicals , flushes filter, adds water. For that he charges $50-his rate for an hour.

Do most of you only do weekly rentals?
We do a 3-4 night minimum so our hot tub needs servicing 1-3 times a week (after each guest leaves). So 1-3 hrs a week at $50/hr.