Distance from water to decking

[JoseAlgete]

Hello,

This is my first post, I hope I'm posting in the right section.

I'm currently refurbishing a 40 year pool, made of brick and concrete. I'm installing new skimmers, as well as increasing the water heigth, and I would greatly appreciate advice about the lowest reasonable distance from water to decking, taking into account that the decking will not overhang over the pool (I will install tiles, model stromboli light by Ceramica Mayor, and the decking can not overhang as the tiles would break). Now I can adjust the height of the skimmers, and there is no restriction on it as they will be installed outside of the pool.

I don't mind some water getting out of the pool, but not more than 400 l/ 100 gal every day. The pool will have an auto fill system so that is not an issue.

Thanks a lot!!

 

[JoseAlgete]

Some pictures to make it clearer. The gutter will be filled with concrete, and all the "gresite" (don't know the name in english, small blue glass tiles) will be covered with new tiles, including the decking.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!

In most pools, there is 6-8 inches of distance from the water level to the top of the deck/coping. I am not sure that is a hard and fast rule.

 

[JoseAlgete]

Thank you very much!

 

[Sollace]

I think of it as those 6" waterline tiles -- The waterline is around 4" from the top of the installed tile. So stepping from the deck into the pool is 10" and that step is into 6" of water. I think that falls in the 6" range as posted above. Hope this makes sense. It's what the PB told us when we were figuring out our stairs/handrail/step down from the deck.

 

[HermanTX]

Since you are adding skimmers, you want to ensure that the skimmer functions properly. There is a weir flap (door) on it and you want the flow of water to push it down and cause a venturi effect. If water is too high, this will not happen. Better to have water level lower (the flap folds down more) to create this venturi but not too low that you suck air into the pump. If you have a different type of skimmer, then review the function of that to ensure that you have the right water level for it.

 

[JoseAlgete]

Thank you for the information, my skimmers do have the weir flap. The system I'm installing will let me change the autofill water level and it will be lower in summer, to avoid the water getting out of the pool, and higher in winter for aesthetic reasons. This system is controlled with the watering controller (Hunter I-core) + an electrovalve connected to the returns + a variable height water level sensor. This way in normal conditions the water level will be kept automatically, and will greatly reduce the risk of a costly malfunction (leak, overflow...) as the filling time will be limited.

I already plumbed the skimmers and today I'll do a pressure test on them to make sure everything is tight.