Our DIY Cheap Leaf Dome to keep leaves out of our pool

[Tfloyd]

Thought I would share our creation with anyone interested in keeping the fall leaves out of your pool without having to spend tons of money to do so. My husband made me this homemade Leaf Dome to prevent leaves from entering the pool. It may not be for everyone but it certainly has prevented all leaves, acorns and debris from entering our pool. As you can see in the pictures, the leaves fall onto the netting and eventually blow away in the breeze. This has saved me a tremendous amount of time and labor everyday. Its so nice to walk out and take a pool water sample and not spend 25 minutes dipping out leaves.

 

[Tfloyd]

It has 4 legs and 4 netting support braces on it right now, (but he is planning to add 4 more of each in the coming days). When we need to vacuum or sweep, its easy to raise the legs one at a time until the net is high enough above the pool edges to work under it, then once the cleaning is done just push the legs back down which lowers the netting back down around the pool where we tie it back down and we have had no problems at all with the wind due to how he designed the legs. Gotta love a creative husband..LOL

 

[Oly]

That looks great and effective. Keeping the net well up off the water surface allows the skimmer to do it's job. Nice.

 

[Tfloyd]

Thank you, we looked into the purchase price of a pool dome with netting and those are quiet expensive, so this is certainly a much cheaper option for anyone willing to spend an hour putting pipes into fittings and stretching a net over the frame. And I am very proud of the fact that I don't have to spend time scooping leaves out of the pool any more. LOL

 

[YippeeSkippy]

What a great idea! My only question is to ask what if anything is under the raw edge of that PVC so that it doesn't cut into your liner??

Maddie

 

[Tfloyd]

Thank you YippeeSkippy, The large center pipe has a rather large protective endcap on it to protect the liner and to disperse the weight evenly. He even installed protective end caps on each of the 4 legs that are sitting outside of the pool, just to ensure that nothing could damage the liner inside or outside of the pool.

The pool water is TFP crystal clear and my skimmer sock stays white and debris free. I can raise the netting with one hand to get my daily water sample for testing, and completely raise it up twice a week for the weekly maintenance of sweeping and vacuum, so needles to say I'm loving not having to battle the leaves in of the pool constantly..LOL​

 

[Tfloyd]

Also, In order to keep the center pole from floating up or moving around on top of the liner, and to avoid adding unwanted weight pressing down on the liner, instead of filling the pipe with anything to weight it, we decided to use the water itself to hold the center pole down and in place and avoid it rubbing or moving about on top of liner. we simply opted to bore 4 rows of large holes 4 inches apart and straight across from one another, down the entire pipe. the holes start right above the water line and go

all the way down to 2 inches from the end cap at the bottom of the pipe. ​

(that way as it rains and the pool water level rises, the water will simply fill to the same level inside the pipe, and as we need to lower the water level in the pool, the water level in the pipe will also lower, ensuring the water inside the pipe remains level with the water in the pool at all times)

 

[pabeader]

I love it! I did wonder about the center pole on the liner. Sounds like you have that covered. Just as an extra precaution you might want to consider a small patch of liner material between the cap and the actual liner.

 

[Catanzaro]

I love it! I did wonder about the center pole on the liner. Sounds like you have that covered. Just as an extra precaution you might want to consider a small patch of liner material between the cap and the actual liner.

I was thinking the same thing, but more in line like cups that the pool ladders have (that are nice and soft) that are between the legs and liners as support.

 

[Tfloyd]

That’s a great ideal, Lets see what we can come up with to add underneath the stand pipe just as a little extra protection between its bottom and the liner. Maybe a piece of rubber conveyers belting or one of the rubber children’s playroom safety squares. Not very experienced with a pool so wasn’t sure what we can add under there that wouldn’t stain the liner or mess up the pools chemistry

 

[Vdunkelly]

Like to purchase a leaf dome for a 30×30 inground pool.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

The picture above is someone's homemade cover. Looks pretty darn neat to me, too! Are you handy with PVC?

Maddie

 

[Newdude]

@thefloatqueen this is your fall project !!! Sweet job OP

 

[thefloatqueen]

@thefloatqueen this is your fall project !!! Sweet job OP

Yessss it is!!!!! LOL!