Pool service for new owners and home buyers
A pre purchase pool inspection documents the shell, the equipment pad and the water before the option period closes, so a failing pump or heater becomes a negotiating item instead of a surprise. Ongoing weekly service after closing runs $225 to $375+ in Flower Mound, with a photo report every visit.
What is different for new pool owners and home buyers
That the equipment pad you just inherited is hiding a four figure repair, and that the option period closes before anybody tells you which part it is.
What you need that a backyard owner does not
- The pad identified out loud: what the pump is, what the filter is, what the heater is, and roughly how old each one looks
- Findings written down in time to matter, which means inside the option period and not the week after closing
- Somebody who will say plainly whether a thing is failing, aging, or simply ugly
- A first season plan, because inheriting a pool in July is a different job from inheriting one in February
- To be walked through the pad once in person, so the valves and the timer stop being a mystery
Signs you need this
- The listing says pool and nothing else
- No equipment list, no age on anything, no service history. You are being asked to accept a pad worth several thousand dollars sight unseen, and the option period clock is already running.
- Your general inspector wrote one line about the pool
- Most home inspections confirm the pool exists and the pump powers on. That is not a heater run through a full cycle or a salt cell output reading, so the expensive items stay invisible.
- The seller left a bucket of tablets and no explanation
- Nobody handed over how the pad runs, what the timer is set to, or which valve does what. You will be learning all of it during your first hot week, which is the worst time to learn it.
- You cannot get a straight answer on who serviced it
- A pool with no named service history is a pool with no record at all. There is no way to tell a well kept pool from one that simply looked fine on the day of the showing.
- The option period ends this week and nobody has looked at the pool
- After that date a failing heater stops being a negotiating item and becomes your repair. The cost does not change. Who pays for it does, and only inside that window.
What is included
Included in the plan
- Equipment pad inventory with photographs of every nameplate, so you own a record and not a memory
- Pump, filter, heater, cleaner, lights and automation run tested rather than looked at
- Visual inspection of the shell, waterline tile, coping and deck for movement, cracking or hollow spots
- Drain cover condition checked, since a missing or expired cover is a safety item and not a cosmetic one
- A full panel water test that tells you what the previous owner was actually doing
- A written report with photographs, delivered the same day so it lands inside your option period
Extra, and always in writing first
- Leak detection when the inspection turns up a loss the autofill has been quietly covering
- Filter tear down when the pressure reading says the media has never been changed
- Salt cell output testing on pools where the cell age is unknown, which is most of them
- A first stop walkthrough where we run the pad with you standing there and label the valves
- Weekly service starting the week you close, at $225 to $375+, so nothing sits unattended during the move
Extras need a written yes with the dollar amount before the work starts. No verbal add ons, ever.
What it costs
$225 to $375+
That band is the ongoing weekly service number after you close, and it moves on gallonage, tree load, sanitizer type and whether a spa runs. The inspection itself is quoted before it is booked, and what moves that is drive distance, whether there is a heater, automation and a spa on the pad, and how fast you need the report back when an option period is running.
We do not publish a number the phone will not honour. See how pricing works.
What moves the price
A range is only honest if you can tell which end you are on. These are the things that decide it.
| Factor | What it does to the number |
|---|---|
| How fast the report has to come back | An option period that closes in three days means we move other work to get there. A relaxed timeline costs less than a same day turnaround, so the date is the first thing we ask about. |
| What is actually sitting on the pad | A pump and a filter is a short visit. A heater, a salt system, automation and an attached spa means four more things to run, test and photograph, and each one has its own failure story. |
| Drive distance from the daily route | Addresses along FM 2499 and FM 1171 sit on the route already. A property well past the county line is a dedicated trip, and that shows up in the number instead of being hidden inside it. |
| Whether the pool has water in it | A drained or half filled pool cannot be run tested, so the equipment story stays unknown. That changes what an inspection can honestly promise and what has to be rechecked after closing. |
Bundling the pool into the home inspection or buying it separately
| General home inspector covers it | Separate pool inspection | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets checked | The pool exists, equipment powers on, fence noted | Every unit run under load, nameplates photographed, full water panel taken |
| What it catches | Obvious leaks and a broken gate latch | A heater that lights cold and fails hot, a salt cell at the end of its output |
| When the four figure items surface | After closing, when the price is settled | Inside the option period, while the price is still open |
| Who you can ask afterward | Somebody who does not service pools | The crew that can quote the repair and take over the weekly stop |
Short version. Bundling is cheaper on the day and more expensive at the pad. If the house has a pool, buy the pool inspection on its own.
Our process
Tell us the option period end date first
That date drives everything else. Send the address, the date, and a photo of the equipment pad if the listing has one, and we will tell you honestly whether we can get there in time.
The pad gets inventoried, not glanced at
Every nameplate photographed, every piece of equipment run. A pump that sounds fine cold and screams at temperature is the exact thing a walkthrough misses and a run test catches.
You get the report the same day
Photographs, findings, and a plain sentence next to each one saying whether it is failing now, aging, or fine. Your agent can forward it without translating it.
After closing, the pad gets explained
On the first service visit we run the equipment with you standing there, label the valves, and show you the one thing on that pad most likely to need attention first. Then you can stop thinking about it.
How long it takes
Send address and option period date
Answered same day
Inspection booked
Usually within 48 hours
Pad run tested and photographed
One visit on site
Written report with photos
Same day as the visit
Through a North Texas year
- January to FebruaryCold water hides a lot. Nothing is growing, so a pool with no service history can look excellent in a winter listing photo and turn in the first warm week after you close.
- March to MayPeak buying season here and peak pollen at the same time. Water that sat all winter needs correcting while the filter is loading, so expect an opening visit on top of the inspection.
- June to AugustYou inherit the pool at its most demanding. A 100 degree August with an aging or undersized pump is where a new owner finds out what the equipment pad really is.
- September to DecemberSlower closings, and a good window for fixing what the inspection found. Repairs booked in the fall get done without waiting behind a summer emergency list.
Our water. The water test on an inspection tells you about the last owner more than about the pool. Denton County fill runs hard at roughly 150 to 250 parts per million of calcium, so a pool topped off and never balanced carries scale at the tile line. Stabilizer over 100 parts per million says tablets were the entire program. Both are fixable. Both also hint at what else was being skipped.
Common mistakes we get called to fix
Waiting for the seller disclosure to describe the equipment
Disclosures say what the seller knows, and most sellers do not know the age of their own pump. It is not dishonesty. Nobody ever told them, and it will not tell you either.
Treating a green pool at a showing as a deal breaker
Green water is usually the cheapest problem on the property. It is a recovery at $450 to $1,250+ and it clears. A cracked heater header or a shell at the end of its finish life does not.
Skipping the pad walkthrough after closing
Most first year problems on an inherited pool are run time and valve position, not chemistry. One visit where somebody labels the valves and sets the timer removes the majority of them.
What to do with a pre purchase pool inspection denton county report
Get the report and the repair number at the same time. An agent can send a finding to the seller, but a finding with no price attached invites a counter you cannot argue with. Our pre purchase pool inspection denton county buyers use comes with photos of every nameplate, so the request names the part and not just the problem. That is much harder for the other side to talk down.
Decide in advance what you will do with a bad finding. Most buyers do not walk over pool equipment. They ask for a credit or they ask for the repair before closing, and the one they pick should be set before the report lands. A pre purchase pool inspection denton county is only worth the fee if you act inside the option period, because after that date the same report is just a list of your own bills.
The item we flag most often on a pre purchase walk is not the pump. It is a drain cover with no readable date left on it and a gate that does not latch on its own. Both are cheap now and awkward to argue about after closing.
What this looks like on a real job
Photo slot
A real in-progress shot from a pool service for new owners and home buyers job. Crew or equipment visible, not a stock backyard.
Photo slot
The finished result plus a clear photo of the equipment pad, the kind that goes into the photo report after every visit.
Common questions
Is a pool inspection part of the general home inspection?
Usually not in any depth. Most general inspectors note that a pool exists and that the equipment powers on. They are not running a heater through a cycle, reading a salt cell output, or telling you that the plaster has four years left in it.
The seller says the pool was serviced weekly. Does that change anything?
It is a good sign and not a guarantee. Weekly service keeps water balanced, and it does not stop a fifteen year old heater from being fifteen years old. The water test tells us what was being done. The pad tells us what is coming.
I already closed and I have no idea how any of this works. Where do I start?
Start with a stop where we run the pad with you there. Most new owners are not missing knowledge of chemistry, they are missing which valve does what and how long the pump should run. That is one visit, not a course.
What is the most expensive surprise you find on these?
Usually the plaster or a heater. Chemistry problems look alarming and cost the least to correct. A shell at the end of its finish life or a heater with a cracked header does not show up in the water at all, which is exactly why the pad gets run.
Start this week
Send the city and a pad photo. You get the plan before the first stop.