Watermom's New Pool Adventure

[Watermom]

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

[AnnaK]

We cut ours in sections and fold it accordion-like when we take it off, then either stack the sections on the deck or under it. With this method of folding it's easy to put back on the water: You just push it to unfold with the net pole. It's a one person job. The solar stick looks interesting but may require two people to lift out. My deck isn't wide enough on the long sides of the oval to where this would be feasible.

[kelemvor]

I'll be waiting with bated breath to hear the results. I abandoned the pool cover I bought last season after using it only a handful of times. Total PITA to deal with, but I sure wouldn't mind having my pool 5-10 degrees warmer.

[Watermom]

I know what you mean about it being a total PITA to fool with that huge piece of vinyl!! But, the difference it makes in keeping my pool warm is HUGE so despite it being a pain, I still use it. Especially when combined with my solar heater, there is quite a difference in my pool's water temperature. Without the solar cover on there, you basically lose at night whatever heat you picked up during the day.

[AnnaK]

Nights is when our pool loses all the heat gained during the day. We run the pump at night to take advantage of the 50% reduction in rates. The above-ground steel walls act like a heat sink when the temperatures drop at night.

[Watermom]

Ok. So, today the old pool was taken down. I had replaced my liner about 6 years ago and at that time, there was some rust on the pool walls. They took a wire brush and knocked the rust off and then sprayed it with Rustoleum. That bought me another 6 years. Apparently, today the rust was back in the same areas as before and there were a couple of pinholes in one area of the wall. The bottom tracks and frame were still in good shape however.

After the pool was removed today, the guy used some kind of a thing to pack down my sand. Not so much for the final prepping for the floor, but more to bring the water to the surface. We have had a lot of rain lately and its gonna have to dry out some before we can install. The problem is that in Charleston, the summer forecast is the same every day -- hazy, hot and humid with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. (And, even though today is the first day of spring, it is summer here already. Temps in the mid 80s. We don't really get much spring around here. We go from winter, which is typically mild, to summer. Maybe a week or two of spring at most.) They are calling for quite a bit of rain this weekend, so we are hoping that a lot of it will dry out tomorrow and he'll be able to work Thursday and Friday and get it installed before the weekend.

While he was doing this, my dogs were on the deck by the house with the gate closed. I told him that his nice smooth sand that he had just packed was not going to look that way when he returned on Thursday because there is no way my dogs are going to stay out of it. He said it didn't matter. He'd just pack it down again and that today's packing was to help it dry more than to actually be prepping the ground. Five minutes after he was gone, all three of them were out there prancing over every square inch of the area where the old pool had been. So far, I haven't seen any of them digging, but that doesn't mean they won't do it later!

I also had a return call from the carpenter that we had contacted for an estimate on the new deck which will be put up after the pool is installed. We made tentative plans for him to come back Monday evening to have a look.

I'm anxious to have it all done and have my yard all put back together. Plus, with as hot as it is, if I can get the pool filled, the solar panels hooked up and the solar cover on there (after I buy a new one), then we can start getting some heat in there!

[Watermom]

Here are some pictures. This first couple are from several years ago. In them, you can see how my pool and deck are in my yard. (Or I guess I should say "were" since right now the pool and deck have both been removed.)

From the road behind my house looking into my yard:




The next was taken from the house looking out into my backyard. Ignore the ugly white lattice "fence." Puppies like to chew pump cords, ya know!





This one shows the pool after the light blue liner was replaced. It was taken in 2006.





And, now, some pictures taken this afternoon after my pool was dismantled and removed from the yard. Notice all the pawprints in the sand. My "little girls" quickly decided they needed to play in the sandpit and they spent much of the afternoon in there. I looked outside one time and they were all asleep in a pile in the middle of it.


First is Kylie. She is 11 months old and the most mischievous of the three. She is always in the middle of any and everything that is going on. Fortunately for her, she is so cute that you can't stay mad at her for long.





Next, comes her sister, Malia, also 11 months old --- same litter. Malia is a little more aloof than Kylie and more reserved. She kind of just does her own thing most of the time.





Last but not least is our sweet Kenzie. Kenzie will be 8 in May and is the sweetest and most gentle dog we have ever had. (We've had 6 golden retrievers -- all female -- over the last 24 years.) She tolerates the puppies' nonsense pretty well and lets them crawl all over her in all their rambunctiousness. A lot of people ask us if she is the mother of these pups, and the answer is no. But, she is a good big sister to them and we love her to pieces. She is the only curly golden we have ever had. She still has all her winter hair and it is a heavy coat. But, all three are starting to shed. They need to. It was 87 degrees in Charleston today! You can also see the pool area in this pic, uh.... I mean, play arena!





I just noticed that in some of the pictures, it looks like my pool is not level. That is not true. It is just the photographer who can't hold a camera straight, apparently!

[FlowerPool]

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

I just watched the videos for the cover stick yesterday. The woman demonstrator didn't give me much confidence about the ease of the process tho. Watermom I am going to wait for your feedback after using it for awhile so do keep us posted here. Also, when your cover was cut into fourths didn't it blow off or uncover in some areas while on the water in a strong wind? I have tons of trees and debris from them and battle such all season long. While the cover and i are in the water kind of fold the cover into a burrito and fold the ends in to trap the rain and debris in and then hoist it onto my deck as fast as possible so the filthy water doesn't dump right into the pool. Sometimes there is gallons of dirty water I am attempting to hoist up. I then unroll the burrito on the deck so all the water n yuck drains thru the deck. If really bad I have to then hose down the cover and then the deck. Yesterday I saw on poolsupplies.com some plastic grommets to insert into the cover to allow water to drain freely...but then I would have debris coming out of 6 grommets and have filth draining all over the pool vs one spot of to heavy to hoist. I then have to hurriedly grab the net to snag the big stuff while the green and tiny stuff floats away and creates more mess to vac at some point. This process is the worst part about owning a pool as I can't afford an automatic pool cleaner and clean with a stick pump run vac. Please lmk how the cover in fourths worked for u or send me the link. Videos would be even better!

[Watermom]

No videos of the cover cut into fourths. Sorry! It did NOT blow off of the pool. One thing we did do was after all the pieces were unrolled off of the PVC pipes and were on the pool, we took the empty poles and laid them across the cover in various places.

I will report back on the Solar Roller Cover Stick. I'm hoping it works really well.

[BigDave]

I hope it does too. Thanks Watermom!