Automatic Poolcover box - How smooth?

[quantase]

I was wondering how smooth does the bottom of the automatic poolcover box have to be to avoid any potential future tears/wear on the cover itself? We are installing a cover and the gunite box where the autocover will sit in looks rough. I am not sure if it should be smooth like trowelled cement or have a few bumps and rough patches are okay. The sides of the box are smooth, but the floor of the box is rough looking.

Thanks

 

[santacruzpool]

Mine is standard gunite that they troweled a tiny bit smoother (a little rougher than say a sidewalk?) The rolled up cover doesn't come close to dragging on the bottom of the vault as far as I can tell - it could be a problem if that ever happened. I think the biggest area for concern is the sloped vault wall and the finish of the final tiles on that section - the cover will glide/rub over that every time you open and close the cover. We have some larger tiles and a little bit of a rough grout edge on that area and is slowly wearing our cover material down from the underside. The material is pretty tough so I am not sure what it will do long term, but it is something to keep in mind.

The only other area that the cover hits while it is rolling up is our stainless cover brackets - they are very smooth and rounded so I don't know if they can damage the vinyl cover over time much.

 

[bmoreswim]

My cover does reach the bottom of our box. It seems to sag off of the roller. It was getting noticeably scratched after the first few opening/closing cycles. I lined the bottom of the box with these. They cut easily on the 1' lines and I lined them up 1' x 20' long. Once they shifted from the cover pulling them out of position. I could tell because the cover had a dirty area on it where it was touching the box bottom. I like having them in there because it also keeps any pebbles, etc. below where the cover will touch.

And as Santa said on the inside vault edge area, I did use a grinder to smooth it off as a recommendation of TFP users during our build. I believe there were pics early in our build thread about that (in my signature).

 

[quantase]

Thanks for letting me know. This is helpful!