For those looking for summer fun in the comfort of their own home, swimming pools and custom hot tubs are the way to go. Both have their own costs, but both have certain benefits in terms of your property’s value and what you and your household can get out of having either installed in your backyard.
If you’ve been trying to decide between installing a pool or a custom hot tub, it’s important to lay out all the positive and negative points against each one of them and then deciding which benefits your family will appreciate more. Here’s what you need to know:
Real Estate Value
Building a pool or a hot tub has a varying effect on your house property depending on a lot of factors. In an ideal real estate setting, both pools and hot tubs can cause your property value to rise if it’s located in a place where the climate makes pools and spas good to use year-round.
A pool can increase your property value by at least seven percent, while a hot tub can do roughly the same. In fact, both can drive as much as 50% of the property value under very good circumstances and factors such as location and the overall quality and visual appearance of the backyard.
However, these numbers can only apply to pools and spas that are built in the ground. Portable swimming pools and hot tubs are considered personal property and don’t really affect your overall property value.
Activities
While a pool and a hot tub are somehow similar in concept, choosing one over the other limits the activities you and your household get to do. Hot tubs allow you to soak in relaxing hot water at the end of the day and socialize with other people in the tub, but that’s pretty much it. This isn’t very fun if you have children at home looking to do more than just sit.
Pools, however, offer plenty of space to do activities. Depending on the size of your pool, you can opt to use your pool for water exercises or swimming laps. Kids can play Marco Polo or have diving contests at the deep end of the pool.
So in terms of activities, swimming pools take the clear win.
Size
Swimming pools are generally bigger than hot tubs, which means you can expect to shell out more funds to make a large swimming pool in your backyard. Even the biggest hot tubs are much smaller than the average-sized pool. This may not necessarily be a bad thing: if your backyard has limited space, having a hot tub won’t take up too much space, leaving more room for non-water activities.
Health Benefits
Swimming pools provide you with a place to do laps or practice water aerobics. Hot tubs, however, can improve blood circulation, relieve muscle soreness and joint pain, and can even help improve your sleep quality by taking a 15-minute soak before bed every night. Along with a healthy diet and regular exercise, going in a hot tubcan help you lose weight.
Overall, choosing a hot tub or a pool is up to what you’re looking for to benefit your family. A swimming pool can provide enough space for plenty of water activities, but the costs of building and maintaining one are much more expensive. Hot tubs, on the other hand, have plenty of health benefits and are a great way of relaxing after a long day, but in terms of activities, there isn’t much to do aside from sitting.
