- Nov 12, 2017
- 12,636
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I have a shade sail over my pool. Even in perfect TFP water I need to hide from the sun once in a while. But to position it where I wanted it, I needed to run a cable over the water. Now I like me some birds, and have supplied them with literally a million places to hang out (hundreds of feet of fence, an entire oak forest, over 60 trees on site, etc). But they have selected that cable over my pool as the place to be. And so they leave a trail of droppings on the deck under the cable and worse use the pool for their business. Not cool. So...
I'm giving this a try and so far so good. Maybe someone can use this idea for a similar situation in thier yard.
Here's the sail and the cable over the pool.
I attached a small block to the d-ring of the sail, about 1.5" high. I used composite bender board as that holds up well in the elements:
And at the other end of the cable I installed a small screw, also about 1.5" above the cable:
To the screw I attached a small spring, and between the spring and the block I ran a thin stainless steel wire (.032). I thought maybe fishing line, to make it near invisible, but I figured the stainless would be invisible enough (which it is) and the steel will far outlast the fishing line in the hot sun. I added some spikes to the top of the post and a few loops of wire to the spring to keep the birds off of there, too.
Voila! The wire is too thin for them to hang onto, and sits just the right height above the cable to make it too uncomfortable to use as a perch. The spring keeps it nice and tight. After a few weeks my deck is still clean, and I presume my pool water is also better off.
I've taken to using this stainless wire in place of all sorts of fasteners, including zip ties. Zips just don't cut it out in the sun. The wire can be cut to any length and is impervious to sun, water, weather and gnawing animals. I buy it by the spool from Amazon, here. The spring is from Lowes. The spikes are just 8p galvanized finish nails.
I'm giving this a try and so far so good. Maybe someone can use this idea for a similar situation in thier yard.
Here's the sail and the cable over the pool.
I attached a small block to the d-ring of the sail, about 1.5" high. I used composite bender board as that holds up well in the elements:
And at the other end of the cable I installed a small screw, also about 1.5" above the cable:
To the screw I attached a small spring, and between the spring and the block I ran a thin stainless steel wire (.032). I thought maybe fishing line, to make it near invisible, but I figured the stainless would be invisible enough (which it is) and the steel will far outlast the fishing line in the hot sun. I added some spikes to the top of the post and a few loops of wire to the spring to keep the birds off of there, too.
Voila! The wire is too thin for them to hang onto, and sits just the right height above the cable to make it too uncomfortable to use as a perch. The spring keeps it nice and tight. After a few weeks my deck is still clean, and I presume my pool water is also better off.
I've taken to using this stainless wire in place of all sorts of fasteners, including zip ties. Zips just don't cut it out in the sun. The wire can be cut to any length and is impervious to sun, water, weather and gnawing animals. I buy it by the spool from Amazon, here. The spring is from Lowes. The spikes are just 8p galvanized finish nails.
Last edited:
