Fall arrived last week but it’s still warmish here, low 70s in the day and 50s in the night. However, 50 degree nights are too cold to enjoy an unheated, above ground swimming pool. Dave closed up ours.
Swimming Pool Closed for the Winter
This is the third fall we’ve lived here. The first year we moved in October and the prior owner graciously had closed up the pool before we came. He bought a new cover, secured it with wooden bars screwed into the wood deck, with an air pillow under the cover. That was Cover #1.
That cover unfortunately ripped with the weight of rain water. We called in a pool company – it was now November – who replaced the cover. They didn’t do it right and that one blew around some but was more or less intact. That was Cover #2.
Last fall Dave got a new cover and water pillows. The water pillows are long sausage like things filled with water, about 6 feet long and heavy. That cover didn’t rip but the pool developed a gazillion leaks and we lost all the water. You can read about our pool adventures this spring in this post here: Fixing Up the Swimming Pool – It’s Hot Outside!
Pool Side Water Pillows Up Close
That was Cover #3.
This fall Dave realized that Cover #3 had holes. Maybe mice chewed on it over the summer or maybe it got holes from temperature changes, who knows. But he bought yet another cover. This is Cover #4.
Cover #4 is supposed to attach with a string that goes through grommets around the side. The theory is you thread the string through the grommets, snug the cover under the lip, tighten it up and voila! You have a nice cover.
Ratchet Thing That Holds the Pool Cover Down
That may work ok on smaller pools, or those that are free standing. Ours has a deck built all around and there isn’t much free space between the metal edge cover and the deck. Within minutes of putting the cover on and tightening it up one edge blew into the pool. We knew we couldn’t rely on the string thing to hold the cover on.
Dave got the water pillows back out, filled them and lay them around the edges. You can see places where they are on top the edge and places where they are alongside. He wanted to cover up the spots where the wind could catch loose edges and now he bought more pillows to really weight down the top edge too.
Pool Closed, Getting Topped Off with Water
That doesn’t completely end the pool work for the year. You can see he’s running the hose into the top of the pool. You do that to keep the cover down, floating on top the water in the pool. That means the old cover and a bunch of empty plastic pool chemical containers to toss plus a hose, bucket,odds and ends to put away. Then the swing cushions need to come inside the garage, something I forgot about until January last year!
Closing the Pool – Still More Work to Do
Here we are, ready to enjoy the fall and winter. And look forward to next summer and pool time again!
Here’s this past summer’s view, something to look forward to.
Pool Bubbling Right After 2013 First Dose of Chemicals, June 25, 2013
Linking to Susan of Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday.
Pictures and text copyright Kathy Eickholt, 2013
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