Texas Pool Loan Programs

• Health Benefits for Swimming Pool Owners
• Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Failure to Keep Up with Maintenance
• Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Not Fixing Minor Problems Before They Get Out of Control
• Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Ignoring Minor Leaks & DIY Equipment Installation
• Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Incorrectly Draining or Painting the Pool

Health Benefits for Swimming Pool Owners

There’s a pretty obvious reason for having a backyard swimming pool installed in the Lone Star State: it can be a lot of fun, and it definitely helps with the never-ending summer heat! But however you plan to enjoy your swimming pool, you may not even be aware of the many health benefits that come with owning your own pool. Regardless of your current health and that of the others in your household, there’s sure to be some added bonuses that you’ll be glad to experience.

Low-Impact Workouts That Are Easy on Your Body

Unlike other types of exercise “equipment,” your swimming pool offers an enjoyable exercise option that puts far less strain on your muscles and joints. Don’t think you need to have an official workout regimen in order to benefit from your pool, either: simply walking and moving around in the water will benefit your body. Especially for those with health problems such as osteoporosis and arthritis, aquatic therapy is definitely the way to go.

The reason why pool-based exercises put only ¼ the amount of strain on muscles and joints as do other forms of exercise (such as jogging) is due to the natural buoyancy of water. Even those whose bodies are not healthy enough for more traditional workouts can often tolerate water-based workouts. As your body is strengthened, and you become interested in a more challenging swimming pool workout, you can add water weights and weighted body wraps.

Uniquely Holistic Workouts

As a strengthening workout, do you know what sets swimming apart from most other forms of exercise? Swimming is actually the most successful way to build overall muscular strength and stamina. Why? It helps you strengthen all the muscles of your body, including both primary and secondary ones. And by including a variety of stroke types, you’ll be strengthening several muscle groups.

But swimming does more than strengthen your joints, muscles, and bones. It also offers a great cardiovascular workout! Again, since it’s a low-impact workout, it offers benefits without strain. With a very low risk of injury, you can build up your cardiovascular endurance in a way that’s both extremely efficient and very safe.

Your physical health isn’t the only aspect of your life that owning a swimming pool will stand to benefit. Offering a multi-sensory influence, swimming pools are a remarkably powerful force in relieving stress. The sense of weightlessness combines with the soothing movement of the water and its reflective visual interest as well as its soothing sounds, offering the mind a natural pathway to peace. If your pool is outdoors, the added benefits of Vitamin D and other positive aspects of being out in nature can help you increase your happiness level as well.

Because Texan swimming pool owners are far more likely to get into the pool than those who must travel in order to do so, they’re also more likely to enjoy the many physical and mental health benefits cited above. There’s no doubt about it: having a swimming pool installed in your backyard requires a significant financial investment. However, the effects of low-impact, stress-reducing workouts offered by your swimming pool simply cannot be quantified but will, in all likelihood, pay dividends down the road.

View available swimming pool financing programs for Texas. Call Lyon Financial today at 877.754.5966 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!

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Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Failure to Keep Up with Maintenance

If you’re thinking about installing a swimming pool on your property, it’s important to know exactly what to expect as far as maintenance goes. Keeping up with maintenance is probably the number one key to getting the most out of your pool ownership. If you take proper steps to care for your pool on an ongoing basis, you’ll likely prevent some of the costly problems that less careful pool owners tend to face. The longer you own your pool, the more you’ll learn and the easier maintaining a clean, attractive pool should become. It all boils down to consistency. Find out what needs to be done to maintain your pool, and then stick to a strict schedule for making sure it gets done properly and at the right time.

Figure Out Which Jobs You can Tackle, and Which Should Be Left to the Professionals

As a pool owner in the frequently hot state of Texas, you’ll also need to learn what pool maintenance tasks you can get done on your own and which ones may require some expert assistance. If you don’t educate yourself from other people’s mistakes, the process tends to be based on trial and error. Talking to other pool owners will prove to be of immense benefit when it comes to learning the basics of maintaining your backyard oasis. You’ll have to learn the names of different chemicals and pieces of equipment.

Of course, if you have a huge pool maintenance budget, you could always hire a professional pool service to take care of everything for you; there are many pool service providers throughout Dallas, Forth Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston to select from. Since many pool owners don’t have that kind of cash lying around, they decide to do some of the basic maintenance jobs themselves. It’s really not that complicated once you get the hang of doing it.

There are some things, however, that most pool owners discover are best left to the pros. For other jobs, you may want to ask a friend with more experience to come over and walk you through the process. If you lack experience with caring for a pool, then tackling certain things on your own could lead to major problems and costly repairs down the road. If you’re the type of person who sometimes has trouble remembering all the details while performing a new task, you’ll want to get some help with learning to maintain your new pool.

Don’t Get In Over Your Head!

In the rest of this series of articles, we will take an in-depth look at some of the most common mistakes that pool owners make when it comes to caring for their pools. Many of these mistakes have to do with pool owners biting off more than they can chew as far as pool maintenance is concerned. Other topics we’ll explore have to do with neglecting some of the simple pool maintenance tasks that need to be done on a regular basis. Whether you’re a new pool owner or a more experienced pool owner looking for some straightforward advice about improving your pool care skills, this should prove to be a helpful series for you.

View available swimming pool financing programs for Texas. Call Lyon Financial today at 877.754.5966 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!

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Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Not Fixing Minor Problems Before They Get Out of Control

Properly maintaining a pool has a lot to do with staying on top of the chemical balance. People who work with pools professionally have the opportunity to see the long-term effects of either poor, fair, or excellent pool chemistry maintenance on a regular basis. They can testify to how much of an impact this aspect of pool maintenance can make. It will affect everything from the condition of your pool equipment to how long the pool lining or even the pool itself will last.

Diligently Maintain Your Pool Water’s Chemical Balance

As a pool owner, you most likely know that there is an ideal range for each of your pool’s chemicals in order for them to be considered balanced. Rather than guessimate based on water clarity, it’s imperative to regularly test your pool’s chemical levels. Did you realize that your pool’s heater can be adversely affected if you allow the pH to get too high or low?

You also need to pay close attention to the order in which your pool chemicals are added. Always follow the manufacturer instructions. Getting lazy in this one area could end up costing you a lot more money in chemical replacement throughout the season. Read up on the exact numbers you should see for the different chemicals you add to your pool, such as phosphates, cyanuric acid, total dissolved solids (TDS), free chlorine, total chlorine, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and pH.

The better you strive to keep your pool’s chemicals balanced, the less likely your equipment is going to require costly repairs or even replacement. So stock up on test strips and be sure to test your pool water frequently, even if it looks clear. If your test shows any sign of chemical imbalance, address it immediately.

Always Make Needed Repairs Promptly

Pool equipment and structural repairs can be expensive. That may be the biggest reason why pool owners sometimes try to delay addressing minor problems that arise in the course of their pool ownership. The danger of this common type of procrastination is that over time, small issues tend to turn into major disasters. As the problems get worse, the costs for correcting them rise dramatically.

Another reason people sometimes fail to fix their pools when something goes wrong is that the damage these seemingly minor problems are causing isn’t visible. They’re happening underground, behind the pool walls. For example, consider a leaky plumbing line or a crack in the pool liner. When pool owners find out how much a repair for these seemingly insignificant problems cost, they balk. Then they wait until the small crack becomes a large crack, or the plumbing leak leads to an emergency, such as chemical damage to the pool’s metal components, structural damage to the pool itself, or even the creation of a sinkhole.

So how do pool owners avoid these kinds of major problems? The answer is simple: take care of minor problems before they become major. Don’t fall into the temptation to try to get one more year out of a faulty, malfunctioning piece of pool equipment. This means setting aside savings specifically designated for pool repairs. This fund should be a regular part of your pool budget.

It may mean putting off or foregoing some other pool-related frills, such as those cool water features you’ve been hoping to add. Or you may have to do without that fancy robotic pool cleaning vacuum. Along with keeping up with regular maintenance, taking care of repairs promptly should be a top priority when it comes to your pool.

In our next article, we’ll look at an example of a small repair that you can and should be certain to take care of if the need arises. Then we’ll consider another mistake you should avoid as a pool owner.

View available financing programs for Texan homeowners installing a pool. Call Lyon Financial today at 877.754.5966 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!

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Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Ignoring Minor Leaks & DIY Equipment Installation

Two of the most common mistakes pool owners make is failing to keep up with routine maintenance tasks and not fixing minor problems before they mushroom out of control. To follow up on the last article, we’ll look at a common issue that can arise when you own a pool and how you ought to respond to it.

Always Strive to Keep Water From Leaking Into the Wrong Place

A small crack in your concrete pool deck may seem like no big deal. In actuality, however, it’s a real problem that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. The longer you let the crack remain, the more and more pool water and rainwater will end up in places it was never intended to go. As a worst case scenario, over time such a crack can lead to a structural failure of your deck or pool, causing a need for major repairs or even replacement. Some pool and deck leaks have actually caused sinkholes to form underneath pools.

Instead of allowing these major disasters, be observant and proactive. Many small cracks can be filled in yearly or bi-annually using urethane or silicone. Silicone can be used for above waterline cracks, while those below the water line should be filled with urethane. If you’re not experienced, calling in a professional to assess and repair damage to your pool or deck is a wise choice. Using the wrong material or not using enough to get the job done can lead to ineffective repairs, allowing further damage.

Do-It-Yourself Equipment Installation May Lead to Costly Problems

Many pool owners opt to purchase their own pool equipment online and install it on their own. It’s easy to understand why. Getting equipment installed professionally can be far more expensive than doing it yourself. However, sometimes you get what you pay for. If you’re not all that mechanical or experienced, you can end up making a mistake when it comes to selecting the right product for your pool, or when it comes to installation methods.

Even experts sometimes make mistakes due to the complex nature of pool equipment and the sheer number of different sizes and types of pumps, filters, chlorinators, heaters, and other pool-related devices on the market. You could face anything from premature failure of the machine to a potentially life-threatening malfunction due to improper installation techniques.

So before opting to do any sort of installation on your own, be sure to do your homework. Consider consulting with someone who has successfully installed the equipment before on your exact type and size pool. If you can possibly afford it, allowing a professional to install the equipment is your safest choice. That decision may also help you to get a better warranty, as whether or not you install equipment on your own or get it professionally installed can make a difference in this area.

Our last article in this series will focus on how draining your pool or painting your pool can lead to major headaches when it’s not done in the correct manner.

View available swimming pool financing programs for Texans. Call Lyon Financial today at 877.754.5966 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!

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Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make: Incorrectly Draining or Painting the Pool

Pool ownership offers you the benefit of having a refreshing place to relax and entertain guests right in your own backyard. Though it’s extremely rewarding, it’s also a huge responsibility. In this final article in our series, we’ll look at two more common mistakes which pool owners make and what you can do to avoid making them.

Improperly Draining Your Pool Can Lead to a Whole Host of Problems

If your pool requires structural repair work, chances are you’re going to have to drain it. Whether it’s going to require a partial or a complete drain will depend on the type of work that needs to be done. Sometimes pool owners drain their pools on their own, without consulting a professional. If not done in the right manner, pool draining in and of itself can lead to major issues.

Before draining your pool, either a professional or someone with lots of experience with pool draining should give it and the surrounding property a careful inspection. Along with this preliminary inspection, someone knowledgeable about the process should continue to monitor the pool while the draining is taking place. The location for discharging drained water should be chosen carefully.

At specific points throughout the draining process, a professional will know to check on both the structure of the pool as well as various pool components. Certain types of pools, such as fiberglass, shouldn’t be fully drained, and if they are, that can cause possibly irreparable structural damage to the pool.

Though removing water from a pool seems like it wouldn’t be a big deal, it actually is. Pools are designed to operate full of water. When that water is removed, the pressure from the ground surrounding the pool can be too great and can damage the pool. That’s why it’s best not to drain a pool unless it’s absolutely necessary, and then only under careful professional supervision. Repairs should be made promptly and efficiently to allow as little time as possible for the pool to remain unfilled to its proper capacity.

Painting Your Pool With the Wrong Product or at the Wrong Time Can Cause Headaches

Some pool owners grow tired of the plain look of their pool’s unpainted interior, or if it’s already a certain color, they decide they’d like a change. Though painting the inside of your pool isn’t always a problem, doing it at the wrong time or with an inferior product could spell disaster.

The decision to paint your pool shouldn’t be taken lightly. Long-lasting pool paint will still, at some point, need to be removed some time down the road a number of years from now. This can add even more to the already significant cost of maintaining your pool. If you do decide to paint your pool, it’s extremely important to only use paint that’s specifically designed for this exact purpose. Other types of paint simply aren’t made to withstand constant contact with chemicals and water. They would quickly deteriorate, leaving an unsightly mess.

Another big consideration is choosing the right time to paint your pool’s interior. This task should only be undertaken during a dry, hot period of the year. Many pool owners who live in temperate climates may be tempted to paint their pool interiors right at the beginning of pool season. The problem with this idea is that during the wet, cool springtime weather when the water table is high, the paint will not be able to dry well. It’s also not a good time of year to drain the pool. The choice to paint at a less than ideal time of year could hurt not just the paint quality, but also cause structural damage to your pool.

As you can see, caring for a pool can be complicated. That’s why educating yourself is so crucial. The more you learn, the more you’ll be able to decide which jobs you can take on yourself and which you should leave to the professionals.

View available swimming pool financing programs for homeowners in Texas. Call Lyon Financial today at 877.754.5966 for the financing you need to make the memories you deserve!

Disclaimer: The Lyon Financial website does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Content from this website is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information provided on this website is intended for general consumer understanding and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.

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