Tips For Closing Pools With Tarp Covers
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When it comes time to close and winterize your pool for the off season (in seasonal climate areas that is) tarp covers have long been the go to option for covering pools. To be clear, they definitely are not the go to option any longer. For sure safety covers have rightfully taken that title and if you are on the fence still I would absolutely encourage you to invest in a mesh safety cover. The lightweight, entry level safety covers are great. Mine is 30 years old this season and still in service. Buy it once and take care of it and it will last forever. A substantial improvement over tarp covers for pools. If you want more info on measuring and installing pool safety covers you can find that in this article: pool safety covers. For now, this article assumes you have a tarp and you intend to use it to close your pool this winter. In that case I definitely have some tips for you that will substantially increase you chances for success.
While a tarp cover may lack some of the protection for the pool and safety for the swimming pool area, a tarp cover can effectively be used to cover your pool for the winter. However, a few simple mistakes and you could find yourself with the cover pulling into the pool sometime during the winter. This all but guarantees a more difficult and costly cleanup effort for your pool come the spring time. When done correctly using a tarp cover system you can expect your pool to be clean and clean when you open your pool next spring. Here are some tips to help you accomplish this.
Leave slack on the cover - If you try to span across your pool with a tarp cover it is inevitable that your cover will eventually fall into the pool. Once the weight of water and snow/ice gets on top of the cover no amount of weight around the top edge will hold the cover in place. Even if you rigged your cover with ropes it would tear and rip to pieces under the enormous weight of the water which accumulates on top of the cover. For this reason your goal should be to avoid spanning. Plan for that the cover will eventually have weight on top which will try to drag the cover into the pool. When I place a tarp on a pool I bend down and manually push the cover straight down the wall all the way to the surface of the water. This is where I set the water bags to weight the top edge. Now the cover can have as much water as it wants on top and it will not pull the cover into the pool. That is so long as your pool does not have a leak. If the water level in the pool recedes after tarping then the tarp will lose support from the water level in the pool and surely end up pulling into the pool. Water level in the pool over the winter is a very important thing to watch. Here is an article about water loss in your pool over the winter which looks at this problem closer.
Add water to the cover right away - It can be very frustrating to spend the day winterizing and covering your pool only to have the wind pick up that night and tear the cover off the pool (not to mention blow a bunch more debris into your nice and clean pool). To avoid this the best tip is to add some water to the cover after you have finished closing the pool. If you pay for water obviously there will be a cost associated with this. A 20x40' pool would take 500 gallons of water to add one inch to the entire surface of the pool...so it definitely adds up. Still, I think an inch or two of water is a good protective measure and reasonable cost to absorb when closing and winterizing your pool for the season.
Use water bags to weight down the edges - Look, I know they are expensive and you need a ton of them to weight down your pool cover but this is the cost of doing business if you want to use a tarp cover for your pool. Again, the costs of covers and water bags adds up over the years to the extent that safety covers really are the smart choice. If you are deciding to avoid paying for (barely functional) water bags you might be tempted to use bricks, stones, statuary, paving stones or some other heavy material to weigh down your cover. I encourage you not to do this. If you have a problem in the winter and the cover pulls in there is a very high chance that the bricks and stones will cause damage on the way in. On some pools this can be a costly repair bill that definitely could have been avoided using water bags. A tip for water bags to help them last longer is to only fill them between 1/2 way and 2/3 at most. Never more than that. When they freeze they will expand and explode. The quality and durability of water bags is just not what it used to be so it is better to not test them. Use one or two more and fill them less and you should find that they last longer. Except for the ones the squirrels chew up. Another quick but important tip here is avoid putting the water bags through the loop straps on the edges of the cover. Simply sit the water bag on top of the edges. Fold under any excess cover to look more visibly appealing and avoid catching wind. If you put the bags through the loops and the cove falls in it will drag the bags along with it.
Avoid dragging the cover over the pool deck - At this stage it might be hard to avoid. If you folded your pool tarp cover like a blanket or a towel then you will have no choice but to unfold the entire thing in order to orient it correctly over the pool. This is your advanced warning for next year than when you fold up a pool cover for the year you should do so with a fan fold. Two people stand at the end of the pool and fold three or four feet at a time. Start from the end of the cover and pull three or four feet of cover over the part sitting on the pool deck and place it on top. Then repeat this process over and over until the entire cover it fan folded, three or four feet wide, at the end of the pool. Simply roll and stand on edge to dry. When closing time comes for the pool next season two people simply unroll the cover in the same spot at the end of the pool, each grab a corner, and walk to the other end of the pool. Zero dragging of cover or unfolding on the pool deck required. By the time you are fan folding your tarp cover you should be considering yourself a seasoned DIY pool owner.
When you are ready to winterize the pool equipment be sure to check out this series: Pool Winterizing Series
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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