Need to get the diving board jig distance for a vinyl pool with an automatic cover.

[chia9876]

I ordered that 6' SR Smith Edge diving board Edge™ Diving System. Afterward, I read that with auto covers you need an 8' diving board so I went out and also ordered it so I'm now the proud owner of 2 diving boards. Below are the vinyl liner calculations for a jig from the SR Smith website but it doesn't accept the depth for an auto cover. My auto cover depth is 24" (2') from the pool edge to where the concrete will be so do I just add 24" to the recommended 23.79" distance that the calculator came up with? The 8' board doesn't exactly overhand the pool by an extra 2' from the specs I have read so that throws out the whole add 2' to the recommended distance. I only get one chance to get the jig in the right place and since no one can help me, I figure I would ask. I can't be the first person ever to have an auto cover and a diving board?

FYI, I have called SR Smith a few times and no one seems to know how to calculate the jig distance when there is an automatic cover involved in a vinyl pool. They keep saying to talk to a person and forward me to a voice mail that never returns my calls.

Also, is anyone interested in a 6' board only for a good price??

 

[ajw22]

I can't be the first person ever to have an auto cover and a diving board?

You are the first I have seen ask the question.

We see very few new pools built with diving boards.

 

[joepaiii]

You are the first I have seen ask the question.

We see very few new pools built with diving boards.

The jig depth is set by how far the board needs to overhang the water to meet the safety requirements of the dive envelope. I don't think you can just move it back to make room for something. If that makes the end of the board not overhang enough - you won't pass an inspection and will not have a legally installed board. You need to refer to the ansi guides for installing the boards. It may be that you can't install a board with an autocover... or at least with the jig that SR smith provides for their boards.

 

[chia9876]

You are the first I have seen ask the question.

We see very few new pools built with diving boards.

When the pool was installed last year, it was suppose to be 6' but the PB accidentally made it 8' so my son and wife were excited to get a diving board. It was tough to find an insurance company to cover it since it's already hard to get insured when you live near the ocean. So $600 more a year for insurance now but at least we are covered.

 

[chia9876]

The jig depth is set by how far the board needs to overhang the water to meet the safety requirements of the dive envelope. I don't think you can just move it back to make room for something. If that makes the end of the board not overhang enough - you won't pass an inspection and will not have a legally installed board. You need to refer to the ansi guides for installing the boards. It may be that you can't install a board with an autocover... or at least with the jig that SR smith provides for their boards.

Actually got a call from SR Smith saying that one of their engineers will call me tomorrow and calculate it for me. Hoping that they do!!

 

[Bam Bam]

Residential pools aren’t typically designed properly for diving. I recommend this 60 minutes expose for your consideration. Diving Into Danger

My pool had a board when the house was purchased. Until I had it removed only jumping was allowed. Fortunately no teenagers lived at home or visited.

 

[joepaiii]

Residential pools aren’t typically designed properly for diving. I recommend this 60 minutes expose for your consideration. Diving Into Danger

My pool had a board when the house was purchased. Until I had it removed only jumping was allowed. Fortunately no teenagers lived at home or visited.

I built a pool with a diving board. Yes there are dangers - but everything in life has dangers. Diving boards are a lot of fun and can't imagine a pool without one.

 

[Sendit6]

Hi All - I just went through this situation.
We bought the ClearDeck system. For those that aren’t familiar, it’s a pool cover in a tube you bury behind the deep or shallow end wall. It’s not automatic, you simply flip the lid open, grab the straps, walk to the other end of the pool and pull straps toward you and the solar cover unrolls off of the tube to the end of the pool where you are standing.
Then close the lid, which is always flush with the deck.

To retract, open the lid, put the supplied corkscrew bar into the gear at the end of the unit and twist it until the cover is riled back onto the tube.
Close lid.

I hope it’s that easy every time .

Back to the calculations.

So if you place the unit directly behind the pool edge in the deep end, as I did, it comes back 18” to the back of the lid.

If you have an 8’ board and want a 2’ overhang, then the jig has to be mounted 45” from the back of the pool wall.

So my concrete pad for diving board would start right behind the Cleadeck lid.
So right away I’m thinking that a diving board won’t work because you need the jig mounted in the center of a concrete pad.

The issue that I had to work out:
Since the concrete pad wouldn’t START until 18/19 inches behind the pool wall, and the jig would be 45” back from the pool wall, I was fearful that putting the jig only 26” from the front of the concrete pad wouldn’t be stable enough in the concrete.

In other words, I was under the impression that the jig had to be roughly in the middle of the pad. Which, by the way, minimum dimensions for the concrete pad are 8’ long, 4’ wide, 6” deep.

I agonized over this and reached out to S.R. Smith probably 29 times via phone calls and emails.
My main question, which so had to ask different ways because I wanted to make sure I got the same answer from the different people I spoke with there, was DOES IT MATTER HOW FAR BACK FROM THE FRONT EDGE OF THE CONCRETE PAD THE FRONT OF THE JIG IS PLACED?

If you look at the cross-section representations of jig placement on their website, the diving boards are mounted in the slab roughly in the middle of the length of slab.

The answer from two of their engineers was that JIG PLACEMENT IN RELATION TO LOCATION IN THE CONCRETE SLAB IS DRIVEN BY THE POOL TYPE AND CORRESPONDING OVERHANG OF BOARD.

So to amplify the answer in regard to my particular situation, I reached out to them again to say that the front of my jig, while 45” back from the pool edge, will only be roughly 26” from the front of the concrete slab. And will the whole jig have the same stableness in the slab due to it being more towards the front?
I just couldn’t accept the fact that it wouldn’t have to be in the relative middle of the slab.

And their answer was the same.

Still hard for me to accept.
But, I’m expanding upon their minimum requirements for the pad and making it 9’ long, 5’ or 6’ wide and at least 10” deep.

 

[Sendit6]

This is S.R. Smith’s response to my Cleardeck placement situation in regard to what I tried to convey in my post above.
I hope I attached it properly.

 

[jester139]

I ordered that 6' SR Smith Edge diving board Edge™ Diving System. Afterward, I read that with auto covers you need an 8' diving board so I went out and also ordered it so I'm now the proud owner of 2 diving boards. Below are the vinyl liner calculations for a jig from the SR Smith website but it doesn't accept the depth for an auto cover. My auto cover depth is 24" (2') from the pool edge to where the concrete will be so do I just add 24" to the recommended 23.79" distance that the calculator came up with? The 8' board doesn't exactly overhand the pool by an extra 2' from the specs I have read so that throws out the whole add 2' to the recommended distance. I only get one chance to get the jig in the right place and since no one can help me, I figure I would ask. I can't be the first person ever to have an auto cover and a diving board?

FYI, I have called SR Smith a few times and no one seems to know how to calculate the jig distance when there is an automatic cover involved in a vinyl pool. They keep saying to talk to a person and forward me to a voice mail that never returns my calls.

Also, is anyone interested in a 6' board only for a good price??


View attachment 418501

Did you ever get an answer? I have the 8’ board but SR Smith is absolutely worthless in assisting. “We follow the 2011 ANSI, blah blah”. Zero guidance on how to make their product work with a pool
Cover, which the calculator does NOT and should address. Just have it say “doesn’t work, use xyz” but no.

I have a 20x40 vinyl lined pool with a 9’ bottom. Auto pool
Cover is 24” from the water edge.

 

[bmoreswim]

This may not be particularly helpful since my pool is gunite and I have no measurements at hand. But it is an autocover pool with a diving board. Coincidentally, they ordered a 6' board by mistake (and the wrong color), which is why this picture is sans board. The 8' board works well to cover the span needed.

IMG_7767 - TFP.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Jun 30, 2013

Final view with 8' board.

House10 - resized.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Oct 16, 2019