Safety Covers in Canada

[Darryl]

Hi everyone,

I am a new pool owner and this is my first post on this forum. I have some questions about safety covers.

First, some background information: We had a 16' x 32' inground humpback kidney pool installed this August. We also had interlocking brick or pavers installed around the pool and in a large (15' x 30') area between the house and the pool. The pool installers poured a 4" thick concrete "sub-deck" all the way around the pool (extending 3' out from the pool edge). The patio installers then used concrete mastic to "glue" the coping stones directly on top of the concrete sub-deck and then installed the other patio stones "freeform" (i.e. the other stones sit directly on the concrete sub-deck with no glue).

We have now winterized the pool and this year we are not using any cover at all for the winter. We are interested in getting a safety cover (for next year), but I have a few questions:

We live in Ottawa, Canada - it gets very cold here and we get a lot of snow. What type of cover is best? Mesh, solid, or solid with mesh panels?

I have heard that the proper way to install safety cover screws with interlocking stones is to drill a hole "between" two stones, and then install the screw into a pipe that gets pounded into the hole between the two stones. Is this correct? Also, does the fact that there is 4" of concrete below the interlocking stones change anything? I guess I would have to drill through the stones AND through the 4" of concrete?

I have also heard that some of the more popular safety cover manufacturers will not sell directly to consumers. Is that right? Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I could order a cover that would sell and ship to a Canadian address, or better yet any recommendations for either a supplier or an installer in the Ottawa area? I have talked to a couple of local pool dealers and they either refused to install a safety cover over interlocking stone or they didn't seem to know how to do it properly.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Darryl

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

I bought my Loop-Loc from Poolcenter.com and installed it myself on a concrete deck. I don't know if the ship to Canada though.


Your method makes sense, as there's a pretty good load on those anchors.

Snow isn't really going to make a difference. The cover just stretches down to the water surface and sits there. Snow will build up until you can't even see the pool.

If you have mesh or solid with mesh panels, the snow will melt into the pool. You may have to drain some water out of the pool during the winter to keep the cover from "sticking" to the water surface and colelcting debris.

With a solid cover, you will have to pump some of the water off the cover during for safety to avoid having a 15" uncovered pool on top.

 

[bk406]

JohnT is pretty spot on.
I have pavers and an anchor in pipe system, although my pavers are set on a traditional bed of stone dust/sand. With pavers, even laid on concrete, you will need to use the pipe system. The anchor is only 3-4 inches, so it would not be long enough to go all the way down to your concrete base. You would just drill between the pavers and continue the hole through the concrete into the subbase below. The pipe is ~18 inches, so it's plenty long enough.
Check the warrenty for whatever cover you are interested in. Some will only warrent them if they are installed by an authorized dealer, just check on that to be sure.

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

You are getting very good advice here

The pavers alone will not! hold a standard 3/4" anchor! You need what bk406 talked about! These are 18" tubes with the anchors embedded in them. You need a 1" bit to drill the holes for them (and you are correct that you need to either drill the hole at the seams OR in the ~ center of a paver- though you still may break a few pavers trying to drill through them)

I've done this a few times and am willing to give advice when you go to plan/ do this