Swimming Pools
Buy and sell swimming pools in Guatemala.
In many neighbourhoods of the capital the water comes and goes, so a backyard pool here is filled more often from a cistern truck than from a garden hose, and that is worth knowing before you choose its size. Most pools that change hands are the kind you set up yourself: inflatable ring-top pools for the children and steel-frame pools from Intex and Bestway that stand on the lawn for months. Next to them come the pumps, filters and cleaners that keep a built concrete pool running, along with covers, ladders and the net on its pole. New and pre-owned both turn up.
Inflatable pools, frame pools and the kit for a built one:
they sit side by side and get bought for different reasons. An inflatable ring-top pool, the Intex Easy Set or Bestway Fast Set kind, rises as it fills: the air ring floats up and lifts the wall with it. It suits small children and packs away in its box, but the ring is its weak point: a slow leak there and the whole wall slumps. A frame pool hangs a heavy laminated liner from steel poles, holds far more water, stays up for months and is big enough for adults to swim. Rectangular frames suit a long, narrow patio. The third group serves a concrete pool at a weekend house: the pump, the sand or cartridge filter, the robot cleaner. For hot water, look at jacuzzis, and the loungers that go beside the water are under outdoor furniture.
A frame pool and the cistern truck that fills it:
size the pool to the water you can get, not only to the yard. Where the municipal supply is unreliable, filling a pool means buying a truckload, and a family-size round frame pool takes roughly one truck; the long rectangular ones need two or more. That water has to last the season, so a frame pool needs its filter pump running, while an inflatable is usually emptied onto the garden once the water clouds. Both need flat, firm ground cleared of stones and roots. On a slope the water piles up on the low side, the wall bulges, and that is how frames fold.
What the liner is worth on a used frame pool:
a family frame pool around three and a half to four metres across costs about Q2,500 to Q4,500 new, and the big rectangular sets with a ladder and pump run towards Q10,000. The liner is the part that ages: sun turns the vinyl stiff, and replacing it means tracking down the one made for that exact model, so a used pool is priced on its liner far more than on its frame. Pumps for a concrete pool are a separate market that starts around Q2,000 for a small motor, and there a used price follows the horsepower on the motor plate and whether the brand still has parts to be found.
Poles, pins and the air ring on a second-hand pool:
ask to see it set up, or at least spread out with every piece of frame laid beside it. Count the poles, the T-joints and the pins or clips that lock them, because one missing joint stops the whole build and generic ones rarely fit. Look at the foot of each upright: water sits there, and rust that has eaten into the steel will not carry the load again. The sleeves where the poles pass through the liner tear before the wall does. On an inflatable, blow up the top ring and leave it overnight; if it has gone soft by morning, find the leak before you pay. With a pump for a concrete pool, unplug it and turn the shaft by hand: it should spin freely. A cracked strainer lid lets it draw air and lose its prime. Chlorine tablets are only worth having sealed; an opened bucket that took on damp crumbles.
A frame pool for sale ahead of Semana Santa:
the hot weeks around that holiday are when families go looking, and a pool listed after it waits. Give the brand, the shape, the size and the capacity in litres printed on the box, and say how many seasons it has been up. List what goes with it: pump, ladder, cover, ground cloth. Photograph it full and clear, or boxed with the pieces laid out and counted. Equipment for a concrete pool sells on its motor plate, so photograph that straight on. Put the litres where they are seen at once, because someone who fills from a cistern truck is counting truckloads before counting quetzales.