Closing for winter, cover question

[redoctober45]

Hey guys,

So I am in the final stages of closing for winter and need to buy a new winter cover. The issue is I have an oval above ground pool with a deck all the way around and the pool edge is very tight to the deck with no room to get hands in at most points (bought the house/pool like this). Our first year (last year) in this house, we crawled under the deck which was very hard and painful but the cover came off half way through anyways.

So I was thinking, what is the disadvantage of just attaching a tarp or hard cover taunt on the deck itself but not touching the water? Just stretched across the open gap tight and then anchored to the deck. My only thought is the pool water is exposed to some degree but I don't know the ramifications of this way.

On a side note, I got a late jump on the closing because my pump broke right when I wanted to start the clean-up and had to order new parts.

Thanks for any help!

 

[JohnT]

The forces on it would be pretty extreme. This is the method in ground safety covers use, but the covers are reinforced with heavy straps between anchors along with springs and elastic fabric to allow the cover to give when a snow or water load is on top. A tarp would be shredded by a 3 inch snow no matter how you anchored it if it wasn't floating on the water already.

You probably could get a safety cover made to anchor to your deck, though the cost would be significantly higher than for a standard AG cover.

 

[linda1]

We have a deck completely around our pool too. Two winters ago we bought a new winter cover with the mesh strip down the center. The cover came with rubber straps with s hooks on each end. We drilled small holes on the ends of the deck boards and pulled the cover tight over the pool and part of the deck. I ordered additional rubber trucking straps so that most of the grommets have a strap. It has worked out well for us.