Good morning, and this is my first venture into this forum, so forgive me for repeating a potentially often asked question
The home I purchased came with a really nice in-ground pool. It is an irregular shape (roughly kidney shaped) and is about 36 feet long and about 20 feet wide, narrowing in the middle to about 16 feet. The sides are a continuos curve with no straight lines. The side of the pool away from the house is raised about 20 - 24 inches above grade essentially resembling a wall about 14 - 18 inches thick.
For the winters since we have owned the home, we have done what the previous owner did, which was to cover the winterized pool with a plastic tarp and anchoring the sides with water tubes, bags of lawn mulch that were on hand (think like a light version of a sand bag) and in the areas where I have seen the wind get bad, large stones.
Each winter, the rain and snow accumulates, along with leaves and other junk so that by May when it is time to remove the cover and open the pool, I have up to a foot of standing and not all-too-appealing water that I have to pump out, followed by wrestling the tarp out of the pool. Something has happened over this past winter to actually cause the tarp to sink in the shallow end, and for the first time I am weakening against the nay-sayers over the amount of trouble the pool is.
I have looked into having a taunt semi-regid cover system installed but the costs of $3,500 - 5,000 are a bit daunting and the side away from the pool is reportedly noy strong enough to have anchors installed which means the anchors would have to be set into the yard area behind the pool, further increasing the difficulty of installation and costs.
Two years ago I tried PVC pipes arranged across the pool but they bowed and gave out under the weight of the tarp as it filled with rain and snow.
So, I'm wondering . . . are there better ideas (there has got to be) that I can use that might not be too expensive? One thought I had in mind is a shallow dome PVC frame similar to this (http://www.pvcplans.com/ArchGrnHouse.pdf) that I could drape the tarp over. I don't want it to be permanent so it would be nice if I could take it down nor is there a need for it to be tall enough or have a door to allow access during the winter .
Does anyone have any ideas, hints, clues, applicable experience that I can use? Pictures, plans, or drawings would be a great help too. Thanks.
John
The home I purchased came with a really nice in-ground pool. It is an irregular shape (roughly kidney shaped) and is about 36 feet long and about 20 feet wide, narrowing in the middle to about 16 feet. The sides are a continuos curve with no straight lines. The side of the pool away from the house is raised about 20 - 24 inches above grade essentially resembling a wall about 14 - 18 inches thick.
For the winters since we have owned the home, we have done what the previous owner did, which was to cover the winterized pool with a plastic tarp and anchoring the sides with water tubes, bags of lawn mulch that were on hand (think like a light version of a sand bag) and in the areas where I have seen the wind get bad, large stones.
Each winter, the rain and snow accumulates, along with leaves and other junk so that by May when it is time to remove the cover and open the pool, I have up to a foot of standing and not all-too-appealing water that I have to pump out, followed by wrestling the tarp out of the pool. Something has happened over this past winter to actually cause the tarp to sink in the shallow end, and for the first time I am weakening against the nay-sayers over the amount of trouble the pool is.
I have looked into having a taunt semi-regid cover system installed but the costs of $3,500 - 5,000 are a bit daunting and the side away from the pool is reportedly noy strong enough to have anchors installed which means the anchors would have to be set into the yard area behind the pool, further increasing the difficulty of installation and costs.
Two years ago I tried PVC pipes arranged across the pool but they bowed and gave out under the weight of the tarp as it filled with rain and snow.
So, I'm wondering . . . are there better ideas (there has got to be) that I can use that might not be too expensive? One thought I had in mind is a shallow dome PVC frame similar to this (http://www.pvcplans.com/ArchGrnHouse.pdf) that I could drape the tarp over. I don't want it to be permanent so it would be nice if I could take it down nor is there a need for it to be tall enough or have a door to allow access during the winter .
Does anyone have any ideas, hints, clues, applicable experience that I can use? Pictures, plans, or drawings would be a great help too. Thanks.
John