Different cover options

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pinguy

pinguy

0
May 30, 2015
529
Pennsylvania
Hi, this is our pool's first season and I'm wondering what the best option is for covers.

It's a 48ft long 20ft wide free free form pool. The PB gave us a quote for a coverlon cover, $5300 for mesh or $5600 for solid installed.

1) Any other brands I should check out besides coverlon?
2) Does the cover have to be made custom to the shape of the pool?
3) Mesh or solid?
4) What do covers of this size usually cost? Just wondering if this is on the low end or higher end for this type of cover.

Here's a pic of the pool:

Af1dfWx.jpg
 
1. I have a plastimayd 20x40 solid cover. Other brands I've seen are HPI, loop-loc, and GLI. I don't know how they all compare as far as quality goes.
2. With a free form pool they are usually custom made to the shape, and that will add some to the cost.
3. Mine is solid, and I would not want any mesh. A guy I work with has one with a mesh panel in the middle and he gets all kinds of dirt in his pool while it's closed. With a solid cover you can close it and just pump the water off the cover and not worry about the water level in the pool increasing.
4. A replacement cover for mine is $900-1200 with a loop-loc as high as $1800-1900. I think the price you got is super high, but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about that brand, so maybe it's just a super high quality one. I don't know exactly how much a custom cover adds to the price, but I would expect $3700-4200 installed for your size pool. All they have to do is measure and drill holes for the anchors. 3-4 hours of work and $200-250 for anchors. I would think the install portion would be $500-600 of the total cost.


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n240sxguy said:
1. I have a plastimayd 20x40 solid cover. Other brands I've seen are HPI, loop-loc, and GLI. I don't know how they all compare as far as quality goes.
2. With a free form pool they are usually custom made to the shape, and that will add some to the cost.
3. Mine is solid, and I would not want any mesh. A guy I work with has one with a mesh panel in the middle and he gets all kinds of dirt in his pool while it's closed. With a solid cover you can close it and just pump the water off the cover and not worry about the water level in the pool increasing.
4. A replacement cover for mine is $900-1200 with a loop-loc as high as $1800-1900. I think the price you got is super high, but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about that brand, so maybe it's just a super high quality one. I don't know exactly how much a custom cover adds to the price, but I would expect $3700-4200 installed for your size pool. All they have to do is measure and drill holes for the anchors. 3-4 hours of work and $200-250 for anchors. I would think the install portion would be $500-600 of the total cost.


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Thank you! I'll get a few more quotes and weigh my options.

Does anyone else know anything about the coverlon brand? If it's a significantly better cover I do not mind the cost.

Home - Coverlon - The Cover Company
 
I just found a price for a 20x40 coverlon online. $1254.99. Same ballpark as most others. I didn't see anything that made it any more special than the others. They all claim to be the best there is. Definitely get more quotes. If you're handy and want to tackle it yourself, I've seen some sites where you can have them custom make and ship the cover to you to install. That would cut out the middle man. Sometimes "professional" doesn't mean they know what they're doing. One of my straps should land right in the middle of the diving board. They just put the anchor off to the side of the diving board. Why didn't they have a cover made with a center strap on either side of the board? No idea.


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The custom shape is what will drive up your cost. I had a replacement mesh safety cover made to fit existing deck anchors and it cost $3,500. My pool is smaller, but similar shaped. Raynor is the brand. Since this was replacing an old cover with existing anchor points we shipped the old cover for use as a template. Solid covers keep the pool more clean when used, but you have to pump the water off them. They are also typically held in place by sand bags. Pets and children can still fall into those covers and get trapped. I prefer the mesh covers that stretch tight since we have a two year old. They call that style safety covers.


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I would recommend mesh as well. Solid covers tend to trap dust/dirt over time and will get heavy and appear a bit dingy.

Loop Loc is considered the cadilac of covers as far as I know. A good brand just a bit more affordable is Garrett. If looploc was $4k for mesh, then you might be able to get garrett mesh for %500 less.

For traditional shaped pools, you can get covers built with 5 foot spacing grids. For free form pools, cover manufacturers must switch to a 2 foot grid spacing. This means more spring/buckles and more hardware into your pool deck. Thus more cost.

For your pool, I wonder how the cover will attach around the water feature and remain a "safety" cover. I am guessing that drives up the cost a bit.
 
I installed this LoopLoc cover 10 years ago for around $3500. Pool is 24 at widest part and 50 long.
One thing to note is that the pool was close and covered for over 8 years, so this cover has been exposed to the elements 100% of the time for those 8 years
Once hose down and cleaned it looks brand new.
Our Pool has stone coping which is rough and LoopLoc supplied a set of coping covers included in the cost. at that time we had a rock waterfall and they build around the fall using Plastic material to prevent wear. we removed the waterfall when we installed the new pavers

IMG_0162_zpstgr7gdr1.jpg


RE: Black hose from shallow to deep end, I'm opening the pool this weekend, as the weather called to have bleach/chlorine added to the pool, did not want algae he!!, i took the winter sump pump's return and put it in the deep end of the pool. this way i can circulate the chlorine even though the pump/filter is not set up yet
Also looks like we have the same pavers ;-)
 
This is the area that was around the water fall.
The blue spots are where SS hooks & eyes were installed to match up with ones on the waterfall. They will add anchor straps at a couple of these points this summer. The black flap's of plastic pushed against the waterfall rocks. The green outline shows some of the coping cover which protects the LoopLoc from the rough coping

IMG_0166x_zpsopwciid9.png
 

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Purchased a Loop-Loc last year for about $2,400. Having had both over my pool ownership tenure, there are pros and cons for both. I think there are more pros and less cons for a mesh safety cover.

1) First and foremost, I don't know if it can actually support an elephant, but it can support my (then) 2 year old, who decided he wanted to try it out not once but twice.
2) Keeps out the big pieces of debris.
3) Easier to clean and store in the springtime
4) Allows rain and melted snow and ice through so no filling with the garden hose.
5) No water bags
6) No leaf skimming.

Really the only con in my book was price.
 
pinguy said:
Pulling the trigger on the mesh loop loc for $5700.

Do I need a cover pump to keep the water level below the tiles? I'm told the tiles will freeze and come off without a pump.
Click to expand...


Have you tried some of the on-line companies? They may be able to design a custom fit cover for a lot less. These on line vendors have referrals of individuals-companies who will come out and measure everything for you. May people worked for pool companies that went out on their own and have low overhead, making the total cost a lot less expensive.

I know that when I was looking (still have not bit the bullet), the cost was around $1,300 (custom cover), + Install, which would be around $800 less than the PB. I can guess that this cover would be no more than $3,000 for you. Then finding someone for another $500-$750 could be possible, making this a lot less of a cost.

Good Luck and keep us posted!
 
Catanzaro said:
Have you tried some of the on-line companies? They may be able to design a custom fit cover for a lot less. These on line vendors have referrals of individuals-companies who will come out and measure everything for you. May people worked for pool companies that went out on their own and have low overhead, making the total cost a lot less expensive.

I know that when I was looking (still have not bit the bullet), the cost was around $1,300 (custom cover), + Install, which would be around $800 less than the PB. I can guess that this cover would be no more than $3,000 for you. Then finding someone for another $500-$750 could be possible, making this a lot less of a cost.

Good Luck and keep us posted!
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What online companies? I got 3 quotes from $4300-$8000. The loop loc guy was the only vendor loop loc would give me in my area.
 
pinguy said:
What online companies? I got 3 quotes from $4300-$8000. The loop loc guy was the only vendor loop loc would give me in my area.
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Keep in mind, I have not worked with these companies directly.

Pool Covers-Solar Covers-Pool Closing-Pool Cover Center has a form you can use to order a custom cover. Keep in mind, this puts the onus to get all the measurements and diagrams correct on you. Once you have submitted measurements and placed the order, if it doesn't fit, it's your fault.

Leslie's also offers a similar form and custom cover sales.

Doheny's is another that offers the service. There are also others. Your best bet is to call them, get a feel for the process and get some quotes once you've either had someone do the measurements or complete the measuring process yourself.
 
When our pool is closed they drain about half the water before putting on the cover. Our cover lets water drain in to the pool from the very center so we don't have a winter cover pump. By the time the spring comes along the water level is back up to the skimmer. I actually sometimes drain some water back out of the pool so it doesn't overflow before opening it in the spring.
 
wjr75 said:
When our pool is closed they drain about half the water before putting on the cover. Our cover lets I actually sometimes drain some water back out of the pool so it doesn't overflow before opening it in the spring.
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My understanding is that's the problem. I was told if the water level raises above the tiles before the last freeze that they'll all pop off. Is someone just trying to sell me a pump?
 

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