Pool opening inspection
Annual · typically April
Why it matters
Opening weekend is the one time each year you actually look at the pool as equipment instead of scenery — and it's when winter's damage is freshest and cheapest to fix. With 60–120 freeze days a year in your county, winter is genuinely hard on your pool: ice works on the tile line, the coping, and any water left in the lines. Spring inspection is where you find what it did.
This is also the drowning-barrier check, and that one's not optional: gates, latches, and fences drift out of adjustment over winter, and the season's first unsupervised backyard afternoon is exactly when it matters.
What skipping it costs
$500–$8,000
A pinhole liner leak or a cracked pump housing caught at opening is a few hundred dollars. Run a season on it and you're looking at washed-out soil behind the shell, a burned-out pump running dry, or a leak under the deck — $500 to $8,000. Pools punish inattention with interest.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Flashlight, Phone for photos.
- Walk the shell before filling or right after: look for new cracks in plaster or concrete, wrinkles or pulls in a liner, and tile-line damage. Photograph everything with the date.
- Check the coping and deck for new movement — lifted edges, widening joints, soil washing out from underneath. Movement means water is going somewhere it shouldn't.
- At the equipment pad: look for cracked housings, rust weeps, and chewed wiring. Once running, note the filter pressure and listen — grinding or surging means bearings or air in the line.
- Safety barrier check: every gate self-closes and self-latches, fence panels are tight, door alarms work (if the house is part of the barrier), and the drain covers are intact and screwed down. Broken or missing drain covers are an emergency, not a to-do item.
- Bucket test if you suspect a leak: bucket of water on the step, mark both levels, wait 24 hours. Pool dropping faster than the bucket = a real leak, not evaporation.
Hire it out
$250–$450National fair range — local labor moves this number.
A professional opening with inspection runs $250–$450 depending on your equipment, and it's honest money if it includes a real startup — priming, pressure checks, heater fire-up — plus written notes on condition. Ask for the numbers, not "looks good."
The trap at opening is the season-kickoff upsell: it's the industry's showroom moment, and a liner with three years left photographs a lot like a liner with ten. Photos of specific damage or it didn't happen. And any leak talk should come with a test — bucket, dye, or pressure — before anyone quotes excavation.
Ask the tech
- What's the condition of the liner/plaster, and can you show me photos of anything you're flagging?
- How do the pump and filter pressures look against spec — actual numbers?
- Did you pressure-test the lines, or just visually check the equipment pad?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A 'you need a new liner/resurface' verdict at opening, before the water's even balanced. Liners fade long before they fail — demand photos of actual tears or delamination.
- Equipment-replacement packages pitched as bundles. Pumps, filters, and heaters fail on their own schedules; replacing all three 'while we're here' is a boat payment.
- A leak diagnosis without a bucket test or pressure test behind it. 'You're losing water' in spring is often just evaporation math.
Second opinion time: Any resurface or liner-replacement quote over $4,000, or any underground-leak repair — leak detection is its own specialty, and generalists guess.
The call
DIY the walk-around and the safety check — it's your eyes and a flashlight. Hire the opening itself if your setup has a heater or in-floor system; the startup sequence matters.