How to Price a Green Pool Cleanup (and Turn It Into a Weekly Account)

Green pools are some of the best jobs in the pool business. The homeowner is motivated, the price is good, and when you finish, you have a customer who just saw what you can do. But a green pool priced too low can eat three afternoons and a filter. Here is how to price them.

Why pools go green

Most green pools come from the same causes: a storm that dumped debris and rain, a pump that stopped, a homeowner who stopped service, or a house that sat empty before a sale. In South Florida, the weeks after a tropical storm bring a wave of calls.

Grade the pool before you quote

Ask for a photo by text, or have your calculator ask for the size and how green it is. Use three grades:

• Light green: you can see the bottom. One or two visits, shock, brush, filter clean
• Dark green: you cannot see the bottom clearly. Two to four visits, heavy shock, lots of brushing and vacuuming to waste, at least one filter clean
• Black or swamp: frogs, leaves, years of neglect. Often a drain and acid wash is cheaper and faster than chemicals

Typical prices

For a residential pool, typical prices are:

• Light green: $250 to $400
• Dark green: $400 to $700
• Swamp: $600 to $1,000 or more, or quote a drain and acid wash at $400 to $600 plus water and chemicals

Add $8 to $15 per thousand gallons for bigger pools, because chemical use scales with volume. A 25,000 gallon pool takes almost twice the shock of a 13,000 gallon pool.

Price the parts people forget

• Chemicals: a dark green pool can take 10 to 20 gallons of liquid chlorine across several visits. Know your cost
• Filter cleaning: you will clean the filter at least once, often twice. Include it or list it
• Vacuum to waste water: the water bill is the homeowner's, but tell them
• Equipment problems: if the pump or filter caused the problem, the repair is separate. Say so in writing

A worked example

A house in Miramar sat empty for two months before closing. The pool is 16,000 gallons, dark green, bottom not visible, and the filter is a cartridge. You quote:

• Dark green recovery, up to three visits: $450
• Filter cleaning, twice during recovery: included
• Extra visits if needed: $75 each
• Pump or equipment repairs: priced separately

Your chemical cost runs about $90 to $120, and you spend maybe four hours across three visits. That is a solid job, and the new owners need weekly service the day it clears.

Work safely

Heavy shock doses mean a lot of chlorine in a short time. Wear gloves and eye protection, never mix chemicals, add acid and chlorine at different times and keep the homeowner and their kids out of the water until the chlorine is back to a normal level. Write the "do not swim" date on your note.

Put it in writing

Before you start, send a short written quote: the price, the number of visits included, what is not included (repairs, drain and refill) and what happens if it takes longer. A green pool that turns out to have a broken pump is a different job.

Turn the cleanup into a weekly account

This is where the money is. A $450 green pool cleanup is nice. A $165 weekly account that stays 4 years is worth almost $8,000. When you finish:

1. Show the before and after photos
2. Explain why it went green and how weekly service prevents it
3. Offer the first month of weekly service at a small discount if they sign today

Many companies close half of their green pool customers into weekly service this way.

Let the customer price it before the call

Most green pool calls come in during storm weeks, when you are busiest. A calculator on your website that asks for the pool size and shows a green pool price range, and an AI receptionist that quotes the same range while you work, mean you do not lose those calls. Leads arrive with the size and the price they saw. Read what missed calls cost a pool company.