Why Toronto inground pool quotes disagree by $200,000

Easy Pools reports that a standard inground pool installation in Toronto costs most homeowners $60,000 to $130,000. Action Home Services, serving Ontario in the same year, puts the Toronto and GTA range at $90,000 to $350,000 and adds that a vinyl liner build starts near $85,000. These are not one cheap source and one expensive source. They are two published guides describing different amounts of finished backyard.

Take the low number as a bare-bones job. Take the high number as a yard you would show off. Once you spot which end the contractor quoted, the range stops looking random and starts looking useful.

Action Home Services breaks a project into parts, and the parts are where disputes arise. Excavation and site preparation run $10,000 to $20,000. The shell itself runs $40,000 to $200,000. Plumbing, pump and filtration run $6,000 to $15,000. Electrical and pool lighting run $4,000 to $9,000. Permits, drawings and inspections run $2,000 to $5,000. Cover, heater and accessories run $4,000 to $15,000.

A bid that leaves out two or three of those lines will always look cheaper, because it is cheaper, for less work. Ask each builder to quote those six as individual line items. A builder who will not itemise is asking you to compare one number with another builder's number, which is not a genuine comparison.

Two quotes for pools of different sizes cannot be compared by their total prices. Action Home Services publishes per-square-foot costs for water surface as $220 to $340 for vinyl liner, $230 to $380 for fibreglass and $500 to $900 for concrete.

Take each quote and divide it by the square footage of the water area, then look at what you get. A vinyl price that comes to $600 per square foot has either folded a big yard into the same number or it is too high, and in both cases that is the question to ask the contractor.

Swimpool 360 prices deck and coping beyond the basic apron from $8,000 to $30,000, sets landscaping at $5,000 to $30,000 and up, and lists fencing or an enclosure from $3,000 to $15,000. Project Landscaping gives $7,200 to $11,000 for a typical 400 to 500 sq ft pool deck, and interlocking pavers run $18 to $22 per square foot.

None of that is something you can skip in the real world. You cannot leave a hole in the ground surrounded by mud, and in Toronto you cannot leave it without a fence. Set aside money for the backyard at the beginning or you will pay for it in a rush at the end.

Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 447, section 447-1.3B(1), prohibits anyone from digging for or building a swimming pool, or directing or allowing such digging or building, unless they first secure a swimming pool enclosure permit for that pool from the Executive Director. Chapter 441 sets the application fee at $198.59, and Toronto demands an approved Zoning Certificate before it will issue the enclosure permit.

The City puts the other side just as bluntly: you cannot fill the pool or let water remain in it until an inspection confirms a compliant permanent enclosure. A permit delay does not cost you a few hundred dollars. It costs you a swimming season.

Every guide for Toronto pool construction that we reviewed leaves out whether its prices include Ontario's 13 percent HST. For a project of this scale, that is not a minor omission.

Then decide what the pool is for. Swimpool 360 and Easy Pools both publish that a pool increases resale value by $30,000 to $50,000, a figure Easy Pools describes as roughly 40 to 60 percent of the installation price. A GTA pool is a purchase for use, not a financial investment. If cost is the constraint, Easy Pools lists a semi-inground build at $20,000 to $50,000 and a plunge pool at $20,000 to $45,000, and you should get a quote for both before you decide that a full inground pool is your only option.