Winter Pool Installation: Good Idea or Bad Idea?
winter pool installation

People considering getting a winter pool installation for their in-ground and above-ground pool may ask themselves, “Is it a good idea to install a pool in the winter?” When you’re spending a lot of money on something like a pool, you want to be able to use it as soon as possible. Many people then have the idea that installing the pool during the late winter or early spring is a good idea. This means the pool will be installed and ready to use for the summer.

But is that a good idea? Pool installation is greatly affected by the weather, and no season always has the perfect conditions for pool installation. Even the summer is known to have storms and heavy rainfall can get in the way of a pool being installed. Does this mean the winter is as good a time as ever, or are there more issues during installation in the winter than it’s worth?

The Pros of a Winter Pool Installation

There are pros and cons to every decision, especially when it comes to installing your pool. No matter what season you install your pool in, there’s a chance that it goes perfectly fine, and a chance everything goes wrong. These are pros you can count on, that may sway your decision, but always consider that even the best-laid plans can go wrong.

  • Cost: One of the things that drive up the cost of pool installation is how busy pool stores are during the summer. Our manual rates and those of our partners go up when there are more pools to install. Because of this, we have to charge more to make sure everyone can get everything done on time. In the winter, there are far fewer people installing pools, so prices go down. The decrease isn’t the same for every pool model but it can be incredibly significant.
  • Time to Repair Your Yard: Pool installations are messy, even during the winter, so expect there to be a bit of a mess. But, if the pool is completed in the winter, that’s enough time for you to repair your landscape. You can lay down lawn treatments like new grass, or get started with landscape/hardscape projects to go around your new pool. It’s a lot harder to do this when you want to use your pool and it’s not covered. You’ll run the risk of constantly ruining the pool water when you want to swim in it.
  • Ready for the Summer: While you can get an early spring pool installation, this is a busy time of the year. This means there’s no guarantee that you get the pool in your desired time slot or that it’s ready in time for summer. If you want to be able to swim once the summer rolls around, it’s a good idea to get a winter pool installation.

The Cons of a Winter Pool Installation

Let’s get into some of the risks. More than anything, the pool installation process becomes more difficult in the winter. Certain factors can make it incredibly difficult to finish, which may end up delaying how long it takes to install, but all of these cons are temporary.

  • Frozen Ground: Winter is cold and the ground freezes because of it, that’s nothing new. But, when you want to install a pool, this can make digging a hole incredibly difficult, sometimes impossible without increasing the cost. This can lead to a significant slowdown. Due to it being the winter, there is a better chance that the delay won’t be too costly in terms of money or time, but it may cost more than we originally anticipated.
  • Snow: While it rains throughout the whole year, it only snows during the winter. When this happens, pool installation tends to ground to a halt. Rain slows it down too, but snow has longer-lasting effects on the ground, and is even more dangerous to work around.
  • Concrete Pools Aren’t Possible in the Winter: If you want a concrete pool, you can’t install it in the winter. Concrete will crack if it’s poured while it’s freezing outside. Vinyl-liner pools can be installed in the winter, but the cold will cause your pool to have a mountain of wrinkles that will need to be smoothed out. This issue is a non-issue if you’re installing a fiberglass pool. Fiberglass pools are superior in just about every way to save for installation costs, but they cost less over time as they need very little maintenance. You should only consider a winter pool installation if you’re getting a fiberglass pool.

Contact Aqua Leisure Pools and Spas For Your Winter Pool Installation

Whatever time of the year you want to install your pool, we’ll do our best to accommodate you. You can trust us to offer a choice of dates and times until we can best fit your schedule, and install the pool you want.

Pool installations can be long and stressful, but our experts have been doing this for years. We know how to handle pool installations year-round so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Contact us today.