# Autumn leaves. Winterizing and covering the pool.



## fernandoindia (May 5, 2010)

*Autumn leaves when Autumn comes. Deck covering the pool*

When summer is over, one expects the autumn leaves of red and gold 
start drifting all over the pool. Nice show to be seen on your´s neighbor pool.

Sooner or later, it will happen in yours´, unless…....

.... yes, unless you cover your pool.

Since autumn started in Northern hemisphere, I imagine that someone may be interested in covering the pool, as I was last April.

I made some research, namely surfing the web, and found the exercise of covering the pool can be done either temporarily with a soft or hard cover, the latter being a deck, or permanent deck. I was aiming at a temporary deck cover. (BTW, during this research I joined LJ)

Temporarily Soft covers, comprise different kind of canvass , and are the cheapest and most common.

The standard one,










or the automatic one.










I don´t like them. The pool is still there but you cannot step neither into nor over it. And still there is a question mark as to whether is safe enough for 60 year old children remaining dry after walking over it, provided they can keep equilibrium.

I found a great system to temporary and mechanically hard cover the pool. Absolutely cool, press a button and you can rock and roll over it within a couple of minutes. From "Minesssota http://www.wutgroup.com/":http://www.wutgroup.com/



















Total cost is in the range of USD 85,000/ 125,000. We decided to pass it because we didn´t like the color of the deck LOL

The permanent deck over the pool, is also cool. But is at least semi permanent. It involves some kind of mortar working in the site for the beams installation










construction at day 2










Day 3, install joists, etc










final product day 6

Beam and joists fixed installation can be undone if you wish. As easy as undoing your roof. (Not so hard as Sharon´s bowling) which at the end will mean that we´ll never undeck the pool.

This system is mainly used in houses were the pool will be no longer used. This kind of cover do not require the owner to apply any permission to the county, as if they were to definitely buried. And simultaneously, they keep the pool and the pool added value to the house in case they decide to sell it down the road.

There are other transitory (couple of days only) coverings for the pool, which are usually required for party / dancing organizations. But that covering requires emptying the pool, which is not recommended for a long period of time (several months) since pools float in the terrain.

With all such findings we started our own internal homework to decide which way to go, which was:

1. A treated wooden deck over the pool.

2. Such deck, after retired from the pool, needed to be stored around the pool, and continue to serve as deck.

3. The deck needed to be installed and uninstalled with 2/3 people the most

4. Installation of the deck on the pool should not require any wet work (mortar, whatever), no nails, no screws, nothing that would prevent us no to uninstall the deck in the springtime. Not even a bolt.

Hope it may help someone.

Will continue


----------



## mafe (Dec 10, 2009)

fernandoindia said:


> *Autumn leaves when Autumn comes. Deck covering the pool*
> 
> When summer is over, one expects the autumn leaves of red and gold
> start drifting all over the pool. Nice show to be seen on your´s neighbor pool.
> ...


Beautiful dancing deck you got now!
Best thoughts,
Mads


----------



## fernandoindia (May 5, 2010)

*Designing and starting the structural support*

Our pool is an irregular hexagon 8 meters x 4 meters. Pool deck is made of bricks.

First thing I did was download a 30 day trial version of SmartDraw, a cool and easy to use drawing program.

Limitations known by me of trial version is the written notice that you are using a legal trial version. I need no more.

The upper of the deck was designed as a set of boat marina´s deck. Each marina measuring 3 meters x 1 meter can be handled by 2 persons. Covering the deck in winter, and building aside the deck in summer.

In the following two images show how the movement of the plan










Pool uncovered with the marinas deck aside










Pool covered

THe base structure consisted of 11 IPN 80 (80 mm x 40 mm) profiles equally separated










Calculations for the support structure were checked by a professional engineer to provide more than 100 lb per sqf.

We bought the profiles, and started cleaning, sanding, and then painted with rust converting paint.

Temperature at this time was 25° C (85°F) Prertty much more less in the shadow.










The profiles will sit in the pool border.










Made a test walk, and the profile, despite its weight, did not stand vertical.

So I added a 2×4 treated pine support, between steel profiles, to help keep verticality. Those 2×4 were conveniently notched to fit in the profiles.










My plan was to fix the 2×4 to the pool border by means of a 1 foot long 1/2" round steel rods, which would pass the 2×4 into a hole in the border. 
But my wife Ines didn´t want nothing to change the cosmetics of the border. We agree to reconsider after making final tests. It wasn´t necessary to use the rods.

Next part will comment on building the marinas.


----------



## mafe (Dec 10, 2009)

fernandoindia said:


> *Designing and starting the structural support*
> 
> Our pool is an irregular hexagon 8 meters x 4 meters. Pool deck is made of bricks.
> 
> ...


Beautiful tiled isle and beautiful smile full of life on the face of your wife.
Think those beams look small - but I'm a architect… lol
Thank you,
best thoughts,
Mads


----------

