Taking the Plunge: Residents Rush to Install Above-Ground Pools

A few days after Houston’s stay-at-home order went into effect in March, Ashley Hope took the plunge, buying an above-ground-pool for her family online.

“Everyone laughed, and they didn’t believe me when I said quarantine isn’t ending in two weeks,” says Hope, who lives in Westbury. “I said, there isn’t going to be a pool this summer. You need to prep now.”

Fast forward two months, and Buzz-area residents are rushing to put in pools - and many, the quick-to-install above-ground kind - with Houston-area public pools still shuttered. Even if local pools do end up welcoming swimmers this summer, many residents are hesitant to visit with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing. They join families from across the country seeking out a private swimming solution, with pool sales spiking.

“We’re wary of the pool situation, even it opens,” says Shane Allbritton, who also recently installed an above-ground pool for her son, Grayson, 6.

Hope’s children, Winston Weisberg, 8 and Franklin Hope, 6, usually spend summers participating in swim team at their local community pool. But she doesn’t feel comfortable doing it this summer. At the same time, Hope didn’t want to make a huge investment or uproot trees in her yard. So, she bought an above-ground for a few hundred dollars. Then, along with her husband, Josh Weisberg, she leveled the ground in one corner of her yard, assembled the pool and filled it with water.

It’s big enough for Winston and Franklin to do somersaults in and cannonballs off the ladder; most above-ground pools measure to 15 feet. “Our pool came in a box,” Hope says, “but it’s a real pool. It brings my kids delight, and I love it. We’re out there every day.” 

Hope bought an adult-only float with a drink holder, which she happily makes use of while the boys are swimming. Since she bought pool, above-grounds have become harder to find. Some have more than quadrupled in price online and at local stores.

Allbritton wanted a pool to keep Grayson, an only child, entertained this summer. “We thought, oh man, if this is going to be a summer at home, we have to do something,” she says. “We needed something to stay cool.” Allbritton checked out Hope’s pool, then searched for her own online. But they were sold out. “I panicked,” she says.

Finally, after much research, she found a Pennsylvania company that said it would open up orders for above-ground pools one day in early May. “I pounced that morning,” she says, “and within an hour, they were gone.” Allbritton is searching for a tether that she can hook up to a nearby tree, which will let her swim laps in the pool.

“We’re in the pool pretty much every day now,” says Allbritton. “It’s definitely been used and loved already.”

Lindsay Berry and her husband, Parker Elementary vice principal Bryan Berry, took a socially distanced tour of Ashley Hope’s pool as well after the family decided to forgo swim team this year. Then, they began the search for their own above-ground pool. When they finally found a store with a pool in stock, and at a non-inflated price, Bryan jumped on it, and drove nearly an hour to pick it up before the store took it off hold.

“It set in that this summer is not going to be the same,” says Lindsay. “I couldn’t imagine getting the boys outside without a pool to go to in the heat of the summer. We were thankful to get something.” 

Taking down their existing trampoline and putting the pool in place was a family activity, Lindsay says. “And we’ve been out there every day since,” she says. Cayden, 9 and Cameron, 6, each got a massive float in their Easter baskets this year to use this summer and their local community pool. Now the boys are using the massive cat head float and baseball glove float in their new above-ground pool.

Hope says that if it weren’t for the pandemic, she may never have installed an above-ground pool. But she’s overjoyed that she did. “It meets my needs 100 percent,” she says. “If someone gave me a $50,000 pool now, I’d decline.”