A new question on Drop-in Steps

On another thread, people were discussing how to weigh down drop-in steps.

For years I've put bags of filter sand into 3 giant zip-locks that came with the steps. Last season, taking them out, they failed. Replacements are a pain to get.

Today I came up with two brainstorms:

1) I went to fill up my water softener today, and as I was slicing then ends of the 80 lb bags of salt, I noticed that these bags are easily thicker than the giant zip-locks--and they are free. I'm not sure about sealing them--is there an underwater tape? But they are perfect and free.

2) As I was looking at them I thought: Why not just use two salt bags to weigh the steps down? They are 80 lbs, so they weigh more than the 3 50 lb bags I normally use. They are sealed and should have NO floating issue, and if they leak, So What??? They won't grow algae, unlike sand, any salt that leeches out will soften the pool water, since people who add salt for the feel use the same stuff, and the higher levels of salt in the local area should inhibit the inevitable algae growth inside the stairs. Am I off my rocker on this one????

Depeding on the type of steps, couldn't you use dumbell weights? They are plastic, and easy to remove in the fall? Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by Islander2C

Depeding on the type of steps, couldn't you use dumbell weights? They are plastic, and easy to remove in the fall? Just a thought.

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Should be able to. The biggest freezer zip-locks should fit around them. But I don't have them. I have 3 extra bags of filter sand, and 3 80# bags of my water softener salt.

This is our newest challenge.:mad: Just dropped the steps in Sunday and they're 'wobbly.' I can't see how the two little straps they provide to screw into the deck is going to make that much of a difference either. I think we need more weight, although honestly, we've got 120# on it now. I like the bags of water softener salt idea.

Oh, and in my area, the grocery store now carries Ziploc XXL bags. They come 3 or 4 to a package depending on the size you get and they're over 2' long, heavy duty and even have a handle built in. I think it was $6 for the package of 3 super huge bags.

Carl, the salt bags sound like a good idea, the only problem I can see is if they do leak, the steps would become steadily unsteady ;) Sorry, I can't think of a better alternative, but if you use them - keep an eye on how well they're weighting the steps.

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Originally Posted by waste

Carl, the salt bags sound like a good idea, the only problem I can see is if they do leak, the steps would become steadily unsteady ;) Sorry, I can't think of a better alternative, but if you use them - keep an eye on how well they're weighting the steps.

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Well, the salt bags turned out to be a LOUSY idea, well, just not a good one. They had just a few tiny leaks, but that was enough--they are empty. I have a two-rail unit so it's holding it down, but I'll need to put sand in there. The good news is it DID prevent algae in the steps AND the water in the pool is nice and softer.

The new XL ziplock BigBag (2ftx1.7ft) and XXL BigBag (2ftx2.7ft) are nice for containing whatever you use to weigh down the stairs. The plastic and "lock" both seem much better than the piece of junk I received with my steps (yes, it failed with sand twice)

The only plastic weights I could find are standard metal weights that are encased in plastic. I put 50#'s of weights into an XL BigBag. I did this twice then weighed down the steps with the 100#total, in two bags. After I screwed the steps to the top plate it became very stable.

I currently vacuum behind the steps every time I vacuum the pool...but I do wonder if there's anything else I could do that may be a little easier than trying to hold my breath while vacuuming under water. Could a 1/2 gallon milk jug filled with bleach and one small pin hole work? Maybe tie it so it would stay inside the steps???

take care,
dan

Carld, just a thought, the bags my dog's food comes in are resealable (ziploc type) and are made of a very thick plastic - sure, they got a pic of an Australian shepperd on them, but hey, that just gives your divers something to look at!
The brand is Nutrience and you can get them in several sizes. If you got kids, you can probably even pawn the contents off on them without them noticing - my kid likes to snack on a few ocasionally as a reminder of how good his life is in comparison to the dogs!

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Originally Posted by matt4x4

Carld, just a thought, the bags my dog's food comes in are resealable (ziploc type) and are made of a very thick plastic - sure, they got a pic of an Australian shepperd on them, but hey, that just gives your divers something to look at!
The brand is Nutrience and you can get them in several sizes. If you got kids, you can probably even pawn the contents off on them without them noticing - my kid likes to snack on a few ocasionally as a reminder of how good his life is in comparison to the dogs!

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LOL!!!!! No, I don't feed my kids dog food! The big one is too wise to be fooled and the little one too picky--and he's no fool either!

I'm just going to put a bag of sand in one of the salt bags--they are SUCH thick plastic--and use some waterproof tape to close it.

I bought 2 large plastic gas cans at Wally World. (Red was cheaper than the yellow and blue ones and they are the exact same shape, etc.) Total cost 10 to 12 I think.

Then we filled each jug with pea gravel (one bag of rock filled the 2 cans).

We next tried putting them in like that but the jugs floated. So, we then filled the jugs with water too. That worked great. Steps have been holding in place just fine. Should be easy to grasp and take out again in the fall.

I actually think I read a suggestion to use these jugs on the board last year. Don't recall from who.

That would be me :)

I ended up selling my old stairs this season I gave the new owners the yellow diesel fuel cans for the weights. They looked at me strangely when I showed them the containers.

I filled up two empty bleach jugs with sand . Tied a nylon rope between then about 10" longer than the width of the second step up from the bottom of the stairs .

Hung the jugs by the rope on the back of the step ( on mine is were they snap together so was a nice crack to fit the rope in ) one on each side of the steps . Now when I take out my steps I just grab the rope and take off the weights in the pool and they are much easier (the steps) out of the pool .

If you wanted more weight , fill with cement , either use , 2/3 gal , 1 gal , or 1.5 gal jugs . On my pool they are white jugs that more or less blend in with the steps anyway .

cheers
Sprocket

I suggested this as a fix in another thread and it was well received. Maybe it might work in your situation as well.

Maybe you could try a Magnum??

I'm going to try the jugs today. We ended up pulling our stairs out on Sunday because the ziploc bags failed. There was air in the bags, no matter what we did, and when we went to adjust them, the seams popped.:mad: I'll be vacuuming sand this weekend.

I used 3 extra deck blocks i had from the pool deck, worked great. The sand and bags was a PITA. I put each deck block in two extra heavy contractor trash bags and completely wrapped them with duct tape. The bags and tape seem to keep the water out and also contain any small pieces of of the blocks at come off as well as really cushion the blocks so they don't damage the liner while trying to wrestle them under the stairs

http://www.deckplans.com/Images/How-to/dekblock.gif

I think the big question is what kind of steps do you have? I bought a set of Wedding Cake steps a couple years ago. The only place to put weights is along the bottom step which covers the front and part of the side. This doesn't provide a good center of gravity as the back side keeps floating up. It relies on the hand rail being fastened to the deck also. I didn't want to do this because I have to move the steps to clean(after my algae explosion last year) and I didn't want to mangle my composite decking at the time. I put 3 80# of concrete wrapped in garbage bags. When I pulled them out for the winter, they had leaked gravel out causing a big mess. Clean up was easy.....we moved.

We put the pool up at the new house and dropped our steps in 2 days ago. We put a couple deck blocks also. Didn't work. I worried about the duct tape dissolving over time as to what it would do to the pool.

Last night we went and bought a straight ladder. Works great and have more swimming room.

In the end, your steps need a good center of gravity point to place the weights and good water flow. Then you shouldn't need that much to hold them down. Using over 80# just seems like a design flaw.

Update on the Straight ladder. Not liking it too much either. It's a hollow PVC like with the back open. An algae/water boatman breeding ground. Plus there is no way to weigh it down. I'm trying to find a way to fill the openness to 1) weigh it down, 2) eliminate the breeding ground. Any ideas besides concrete? That would make the ladder 100lbs.

I've also got the wedding cake steps. The pool builder put in the sand bags wrapped in plastic bags. I also had the big mess at the end of the season with the bags disentigrating and getting sand in the water, and over the bottom at that end. I didn't do that again.

I use some large oval and rounded river boulders (no nicks or edges), three - maybe 20 to 30 pounds each or so - that I got at a rock supply place. They've worked great for me for three years.

Well we got the Biltmore steps and put three bleach jugs filled with sand/water under the steps. We started with 2 but they lifted just enough for the vinyl mat to float out - 3 jugs did the trick.

I am seeing very good water flow through and behind these steps. We were messing around to put the vinyl back and dh wanted to see the "flow" so we put a few drops of blue food coloring and watched it move. So far, no problems with algae but we will be diligent anyways. The water is still on the chilly side so I guess when it warms more, then the algae alert will be in full mode.

Here's a pic of my steps with the jugs holding them down .

I just reopened my pool and it's great to see no green after all these months :) yaaaaaaaaaaaa !

Thank you pool forum .

http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/1...3_mvc-059s.jpg

http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/1...3_mvc-059s.jpg

I'm thinking maybe I would want to just move the jugs off to the side like that too - as it is, they make the steps heaving having them in the compartment and I would have to be IN the water to remove them, which would be end of season and I'm guessing cold then. Brrr.