Full canopy over pool

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Swimgirl

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Jun 2, 2008
347
Marana, AZ
Don't think I've posted this before; I know I haven't put pictures of it up here before. Anyway, it's great. Can swim for hours without burning. It's made of the solar screening fabric and secured by bungie cords to a canopy frame made by stringing rope between 4 metal poles. (We hope to eventually get an entirely metal frame put together eventually.) The solar fabric is extremely light and the bungie cords make it so it goes up or down in only a few minutes. It doesn't matter if it gets wet, so I can do part of the putting up / taking down while actually in the pool. The canopy is actually 2 sections joined in the middle with canopy ties because we were afraid that one big canopy would become a huge kite in even a fairly light wind. This I will keep up in light to fairly moderate winds, but will take it down if the forecast is for a heavy blow. So the fact it's light and easy to put up / take down is important. And it feels so nice to swim under the thing! :cool:
 
I got the solar screening in the garden section of Lowes. It is $26 for a 6' X15' roll - I got 4 of them and sewed them together in 2's to make two 12' by 15' panels. Like I said, I didn't want to make one big panel because I didn't want it to become a big kite! I actually put the 1st one together and had half the pool covered starting a couple of summers ago.
I then got brass grommets over in the tarp section of the store. They sell plastic grommets by the solar screening, and I tried them first, but they don't hold. One thing I found out the hard way - the brass grommet kit comes with a circular hole punch for your fabric but you do NOT want to use this with solar screening material. The material is too stretchy and therefore the hole the punch makes is too big; fabric stretches and your grommet pops out. Better to use a pair of scissors and cut as few threads as possible to fit the grommet through. Like I said; we just bungied this to a rope canopy frame. We're hoping to make the frame metal, probably using chain link fencing top rails, at some point.
As far as water temperature, I think it does have an effect. I wouldn't want to have it up when cooler water is a concern. I have not, however, had my water be too cool because of it. I actually have my solar cover on the pool when I'm not swimming; it keeps the water from cooling at night. (The nights are getting warm enough I'm not going to need to do that anymore though.) But that's part of the beauty of having a quick put up / take down. You can take it down and keep it off when the weather is just barely swimming weather. In Tucson, what we have to worry about in the summer is our water getting too hot! :)
 
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