What Should You Check About the Pool and Screen Enclosure Before Buying a Home in Bonita Springs?

Have a pool specialist inspect the pool and its equipment during your inspection period, walk the screen enclosure looking for corrosion and storm damage, ask the seller whether the equipment pad ever sat in floodwater, pull the permit record for the pool and the cage, and get an insurance quote that says in writing how the enclosure is covered. Those five steps tell you whether the pool is a feature you can enjoy from the first week or a list of repairs waiting for you after closing.

I am Kris Asquith, Broker Associate at Premiere Plus Realty, and I help buyers and sellers in Bonita Springs and eight other Southwest Florida markets. Bonita Springs runs from older homes near the Imperial River and Old 41 to club communities and newer construction east of I-75, and a private screened pool turns up across all of them. What changes from one home to the next is how close it sits to salt water, what it went through in past storms, and how carefully it has been kept.

Often only briefly, and sometimes not at all. Many general inspectors will note whether the pump runs and whether there is visible cracking, and leave it there. Read the inspection agreement before you book, and if the pool is listed as excluded or visual only, add a separate pool inspection from a company that works on pools every day. Schedule it in the same window as the general inspection, the termite inspection and the wind mitigation report, because every one of them has to be back in your hands before the inspection period ends.

A pool inspector runs the pump, filter, heater and any automation, looks for leaks, checks the surface and tile line, and checks the lighting and the electrical bonding that connects the metal parts of the pool area. Ask for the findings in writing with photographs. My step-by-step buying process shows where the inspection period sits once you are under contract.

Start with what you can see. A rough or stained finish, chips, hollow-sounding spots and cracks in the surface point toward a resurfacing. Loose or missing tile at the waterline, cracks in the deck and gaps where the deck meets the pool edge let water get underneath, which is where bigger repairs start. Settling or uneven pavers around the pool are worth a closer look too.

Leaks take more work to find. A pool that loses more water than the weather explains, an automatic fill that runs constantly, or soft spots in the deck can all mean a leak in the shell or the lines. If the inspector suspects one, a leak detection company can pressure-test the plumbing. Ask the seller directly whether the pool has had leak repairs or a resurfacing, and for the invoices.

The pad beside the house holds the pump, the filter, the heater if there is one, the valves and often a control panel. It is where most of the near-term cost of a pool sits, so ask the inspector to run every component and note its approximate age from the data plate or the permit record. Look for corrosion, dripping unions and valves, a loud or overheating pump motor, and a heater that will not bring the water up to temperature.

Many heated pools here use a heat pump, which looks a lot like an air conditioning condenser and wears the same way in salt air. If the pool has a salt system, ask for the cell to be checked as well. Older equipment that still works is not a reason to walk away. It is a list of what you are likely to replace and roughly when, which belongs in your budget and sometimes in the negotiation. Ask, too, who has been servicing the pool and whether the seller has their records, since a regular pool company often knows the equipment's history better than anyone.

Ask, because in Bonita Springs it is a fair question. Parts of the city have flooded in past storms, from the Imperial River coming out of its banks after Hurricane Irma in 2017 to storm surge near the bay and Bonita Beach in Hurricane Ian in 2022. Pool equipment sits at ground level, so in a home that took on water, the pad usually did too. Motors, heaters and control boards that were submerged may have been replaced, or may still be in place and working for now.

Ask the seller what flooded, whether the equipment was replaced afterward and by whom, and compare the answers with the permit record and the dates on the data plates. Floodwater can also leave silt and debris in the lines and undermine pavers, so ask the inspector to look for both. My article on how to find out whether a Bonita Springs home has flooded explains where that history is recorded and what a seller has to disclose.

A screen enclosure, or pool cage, is a structure in its own right, and it takes more weather than anything else on the lot. Walk all the way around it. Look for torn or sagging screen panels, loose or missing screws and anchors, bent members and a door that does not close and latch on its own. Look up as well, because the roof panels are where storm damage most often hides.

In Bonita Springs, also look closely at the metal. Homes on or near Estero Bay, the Imperial River and the canals that feed them get more salt air than homes farther inland, and salt shows up as white powdery corrosion on the aluminum frame, rust on fasteners and pitting where the frame meets the deck. Ask when the cage was built or last rescreened, and whether it was repaired or replaced after a storm. A rescreen and a structural repair are different jobs, and the second generally calls for a permit.

They should have been. Bonita Springs is its own incorporated city, and the City of Bonita Springs holds the building permit record for homes inside its limits. Building a pool, building or structurally repairing a screen enclosure, adding a pool heater and running new electrical to the pad all generally need a permit and a final inspection. Ask your agent to pull the permit history for the address and line it up against what you see on the lot.

An unpermitted pool, cage, deck extension or outdoor kitchen passes to you at closing, and fixing it later can mean permitting it after the fact. That can complicate insurance and a future sale. My article on why to check the permit history before buying in Bonita Springs walks through how to read the record.

Ask before you assume. Florida homeowners policies handle screen enclosures in different ways, and some limit or exclude them for wind damage unless coverage is added. Ask the insurance agent quoting the home to state in writing how the pool, the enclosure and the equipment are covered, and to quote with the home's wind mitigation report in hand.

Get that quote early in your inspection period rather than the week before closing. The roof, the windows and the wind features shape the premium, and the cage is part of the same conversation. My articles on why two similar Bonita Springs homes get different insurance quotes and on insurance on a bay-front home in Bonita Springs cover the rest of the policy.

Two sets. Florida's Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act requires a newly built residential pool to have at least one approved safety feature, such as a qualifying barrier, an approved safety cover, or alarms on the doors that open to the pool. If you plan to build a pool or replace an enclosure, your contractor will work through those requirements as part of the permit.

Many Bonita Springs homes also sit inside a homeowners association with architectural review. Removing or replacing a cage, changing its color, adding a picture-window panel, extending the deck or changing the finish can each need approval before work begins. Read the architectural guidelines in the association documents, and my article on HOA and club financial questions in Bonita Springs covers the money side of those documents.

Sort the findings into three groups. Safety and code items come first: a pool-area door that does not latch, an electrical problem, or a cage with no permit behind it. Those are reasonable to ask the seller to correct or credit. Active failures come second, such as a pump that has quit or a confirmed leak. Age comes third: equipment or a surface that works but is near the end of its life is usually better planned for in your budget than argued over in a repair list.

If you are selling, gather the pool and cage permits, the equipment invoices, any resurfacing or leak repair records and the latest wind mitigation report before you list. My page on buying a home in Bonita Springs covers the wider picture, and I am glad to look at the pool on a specific home with you. Get in touch or call (239) 300-1427.

This article is a general overview and is not legal, insurance or engineering advice about any particular property. Confirm the specifics with a licensed pool contractor, your home inspector, your insurance agent, the association and the City of Bonita Springs.