Month: September 2008

Swimming Pool Accessories

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Swimming Pool Accessories

Swimming Pool Accessories

There are many Swimming Pool Accessories and will take too long to list all of them out here, i will list a few out to give you a rough idea of the essential things you can get. They vary between the ones you need ot maintain and keep your pool looking good and the fun stuff, like waterfalls, games etc.

Important Swimming Pool Accessories

Pool Heater
This is a fantastic accessory that allows you to use the pool during those cold days and nights. Swimming around in a warmed pool is a fantastic feeling and its not something i can do without anymore

Pool Chlorinators
Another important peice of kit you should have is a pool chlorinator. It disperses chloring througout the pool over a period of time and keeps your pool safe and clean for use.

Fun Swimming Pool Accessories

Lounger
What is a pool without a floating lounger to let you soak up the sun and enjoy the water as well. To me a lounger is one of the must have swimming pool accessories and ive spent hours floating around on reading and soaking up the sun.

Swimming Pool Slides
Having a slide is a must have if you have young kids who can really enjoy. It is a lot of fun and they will spend hours and hours on it.

Waterfall
These can be a little expensive and might not always go with the design of your pool but having one can will mean you can have that very relaxing sound of water all the time.

Game Posts
Two posts on either side of your swimming pool which lets you setup a net for various games like vollyball and the like.

If your are planning on building a pool, take the cost of these swimming pool accessories into account when you are budgeting.

Swimming Pool Liner

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Swimming Pool Liner Swimming Pool Liner

A Swimming Pool Liner is a simple device that helps to protect the floor and walls of a pool. Available in models that are constructed for use with in-ground as well as above ground pools, the liners are often made of a highly resilient vinyl or other synthetic materials that can and will stand the test of time. The object of the pool liner is to extend the life of the pool by preventing mold and other forms of damage to occur to the pool itself.

Installation of a Swimming Pool Liner

Pool liners are usually part of the installation process that takes place when the pool is put into place. The liner is usually secured to the interior sides of the pool using a series of fittings along the edges of the pool. As part of the installation process, the pool liner is also sometimes installed with the use of water-resistant adhesives that allow the liner to adhere to the construction of the pool.

While the pool is considered to be more or less permanent, the pool liner is not. Depending on the climate and how well the pool is maintained, the pool liner is likely to last for many years. However, it is not unusual for a swimming pool liner to be replaced at some point. While a homeowner may find it possible to replace the liner on an above ground pool with little trouble, the process is often more involved for an in-ground pool and requires the services of a professional.

While a pool liner can be constructed with many different materials, the vinyl pool liner is often an ideal choice. The vinyl is rugged and also capable of molding to the dimensions of the interior section of the pool with no trouble. This is particularly important if the pool design includes ledges or steps in the pool itself. The vinyl is also relatively easy to move around during the installation process, making it easier to smooth out and wrinkles or air bubbles that may appear as the liner is put into place.

Cleaning the Swimming Pool Liner

Cleaning a pool liner usually involves draining the pool and scrubbing down the surface with cleansers that are formulated for the task. With proper care, a pool liner can easily last for many years before replacement is required. During the life of the liner, it is important to make note of any small rips or tears that may form in the lining. Repair kits that help to seal smaller rifts in the liner should be kept on hand, as the potential for permanent damage to the pool is increased while the tear remains unsealed.

Swimming Pool Designs

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While the specific shapes and sizes of your pool will vary from others, there are some basic types of pool designs that are available. I have listed a few here in order for you to get a better idea of what might interest you.

Swimming Pool Designs Basics

Before you go and add the ultimate luxury to your house which is the swimming pool, there are some things you need to go regardless of whether you are going the diy route or getting it a pool construction company to do it for you. Nowadays there are different options and different packages available at every level so it is important to understand the fundamentals of the swimming pool designs available on the market today.

Above ground vs Inground Pool

The first consideration is whether you want to build yourself an above ground pool or an inground pool. Everyone knows that inground pools are a lot more high end and look a lot snazzier than the above ground variety. However your choice can depend on some factors. Firstly there is the matter of supply, you may be on a waiting to list to get an inground pool as they can take sometime to build and usually the orders are backed up over a period of time. The other is your environment, does your backyard or where it is you’re putting your pool lend itself to above ground or inground? Some backyards are slanted or have a setup where an above ground pool can look very much like an inground pool. That way you could spend the difference in cost on either decking or other accessories.

Swimming Pool Designs – Inground

In ground pools are usually made from the following materials: concrete, vinyl, or fiberglass. Each material has distinct advantages and disadvantages and you need to carefully consider which one would benefit you the most based on the following factors.

(1) Concrete is by far the most versatile and durable of the materials, making it the most popular for new pool.s Concrete pools are also the most difficult and time-consuming to install as concrete has to be laid and cured which can take time.

(2) Vinyl uses a vinyl lining on top of a steel frame. Vinyl is almost as versatile as concrete, but you will need to take greater care is needed to prevent the lining from getting punctured and/or damaged. It is generally cheaper and easier to install than concrete and wont take anyway near as long to complete.

(3) Fiberglass is a prefabricated shell. It is the cheapest and easiest to install. It is more durable than the vinyl, but less versatile and the designs are usually pre-made and kept according to the molds available.

Either way talk to local vendors and scope out the setup in your area. The costs of the above materials might make the difference as certain materials are cheaper in certain areas.

Swimming Pool Designs – Above Ground

The primary choice for above ground pools is whether your pool should be soft-shelled or hard-shelled. Soft-sided pools are much cheaper, but also end up being much less durable. These pools are a better idea for homeowners who want to provide their kids with a pool and an occasional soak, but probably won’t want to keep their pool installation for the long term and don’t consider it an integral part of their home. Hard-sided pools can range in price and longevity to match a your needs. With a quality deck installation, they can rival in ground pools for luxury and appeal and the snazziness we are all looking for.

You may hear that an above ground pool is harder to maintain than an inground pool. This is absolute nonsense. The problems most homeowners have with their above ground pools is that they are skimping on the filter and pump installations, along with the materials. Even the cheapest swimming pools deserve a quality filter and cleaning system to ensure the required maintenance and repair is kept to an absolute minimum.

High End Swimming Pool Designs

The Higher end of the spectrum when it comes to swimming pools can be designed to meet any personal preference for luxury or backyard ambiance. The first step in custom swimming pool design is to design an organic shape that is pleasing to the eye and blends into the dimensions of your yard, making it a work of art. The pool and spa combination can get pricey but will certainly streamline the cost of installing them separately. Waterfalls are the epitome of creating a backyard oasis and can be easily connected to a swimming pool design to give that exotic look to your backyard. Anything you can imagine that would be associated with a swimming pool can be incorporated into the design so you can achieve the pool of your dreams.

Some Example Swimming Pool Designs

While the specific shapes and sizes of your pool will vary from others, there are some basic types of pool designs that are available. I have listed a few here in order for you to get a better idea of what might interest you.

Swimming Pool Designs

Backyard Fun
Boulder Falls

Boulder Falls
Swimming Pool Designs

Entertainer

Fountain-Fun

Fountain Fun

Garden

Garden

Islander

Islander

Lagoon

Lagoon

Mediterranean

Mediterranean

Tropicana

Tropicana

I hope you found this article on swimming pool designs helpful, before you get into the nitty gritty of signing up for a pool i suggest you read this book to get the maximum out of your pool purchase. Trust me you will save a lot of money.

Swimming Pool Games

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Always be sensible when playing in or near a swimming pool or water and supervision by a responsible person is recommended. The swimming pool games listed here should only be played in purpose built swimming pools and by those who are able to swim without assistance. This is just ensure that nobody gets hurt as can sometimes happen when playing in or near a swimming pool

List of Swimming Pool Games

Categories
One person is chosen to be the leader and goes to the opposite side of the pool to the other players. The leader then chooses a cate

Swimming Pool Games

Swimming Pool Games

gory (eg cars, colours, food, ice cream, drinks, etc) and tells the other players, who have to choose their answer/s to that category. The leader can either get out the pool or put their head under water in order not to hear what answers the other players are choosing.

When the players have chosen their answer the leader has to try and guess the other players choices. If they get it right the player (or players if several have the same answer) have to race to the opposite side of the pool while the leader races to the players side of the pool. If the leader wins they remain the leader, but if they loose the person who won the race becomes a new leader. All players must be touching the side of the pool before racing.

Chicken
Nominate someone to be the leader, who then has to do something funny like a funny walk or an impression of someone, then they jump into the pool anyway they want. The other players then have to follow and copy what the leader did. If they get part of it wrong they get given a C of the word CHICKEN. This happens each time until they have collected all the letters that spell CHICKEN.

Players can also decide to chicken out on a particular go to avoid getting a letter. But show that they have chickened out by doing the chicken dance, say “Bok, Bok” and then jump in the pool. Players may only chicken out 5 times.

You can make the game easy, medium, or hard:-

EASY- Players don’t have to do it exact and can chicken out as many times as you want.
MEDIUM- Players have to copy the main idea and can chicken out 5 times.
HARD- Players have to copy the leaders movements exactly and can only chicken out 2 times.

Colors (Colours)
One person is chosen to be ‘it’ (the catcher) gets out and faces away from the pool. All the remaining players in the pool chose a color. The catcher continues to face away from the pool and asks “Do you have your colors?” and if players answer they do the catcher then starts calling out various colors. When a player’s color is called they have to try and swim across the pool quietly without being heard. The catcher if they hear a player moving can then turn around and try and tag them before they reach the safety of the other side of the pool. You can use different categories like cars, flowers, etc…

Make out Tag
Simple game of Tag (or IT), but players have to be tagged underwater. If you tag somebody you have to kiss them.

Get players to partner up. Players try and swim in pairs with one half doing the arm movements while the other half of the pair holds onto their partner and does the leg movement. Best tried in the shallow end.

Play as in Stuck in the Mud’, with one or two players being nominated to capture the others. Once a player is caught they have to go to the shallow end the stay there until they are set free by a player, who has not yet been caught, swimming through their legs.

Sharks
Effectively a swimming pool version of tag or ‘it’, One or two people become sharks with the objective of catching the other players who are in the water. Players are not allowed to leave the water. Once a person is caught they either stand or sit on the side of pool.

Swimming Pool Games Set 2

Simon says swim
1 person says,
“Simon says jump!” – players have to jump
“Simon says leap into water!” – players have to leap into water
“Simon says swim front crawl!” – players have to swim front crawl
“Simons says get an inflatable and swim around for a minute”
Do these in any order

[You could probably do this using any set of commands that are safe to play. ‘Simon Says’ is typically played so that any instruction preceded by the words “Simon says” are obeyed, if not you are out. However, if an instruction is given without Simon says being given, this instruction should not be obeyed, otherwise you are out.]

Stations
Play as NEWS but include nautical terms like:

“port”, – Left

“starboard”, – Right

“stern”, – Back

“bow”. – Front

“Shark” All get out of the water.

“Pirates” All jump in again

WaterPolo
Best played in the shallow end, unless your group is made up of strong swimmers! Play across the width of the pool with two targets, such as floatation board set on end, set up as goals at either side. (or proper goals if they happen to be handy). Rules can be improvised, but to simplify:

  • Once a player holds the ball they cannot move, either they must try to score a goal or throw the ball to another player. All other players are free to move, but must remain in the water (including goal keepers).
  • Play is continuous. Except if the ball goes onto the poolside where it is handed to the nearest ‘goalkeeper’ as a goal throw.
  • Once a goal is scored the ball is given to the referee to be thrown into the middle as a `toss up’ between teams, or it can be given to the goal keeper of the side the goal was against.

Races
Remember to keep the courses safe and use your own common sense, such as use of the shallow end for swimmers who are not confident in the water. Possible races can include

  • Obstacle courses… include things such as swimming through hoops, pushing a ball through the water. Swimming underwater, retrieving objects from the bottom of the pool, etc. But
  • Distance under water,
  • Time under water, etc.

Diving Games
Retrieving items eg set of keys, coins, diving bricks Going through weighted hoops (if available)
Distance you can swim under water Amount of time you can hold your breath underwater.

I hope you enjoy these swimming pool games i listed, i will add more as time goes on

Inground Pool Kits

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Inground Pool Kits

Inground Pool Kits

Inground Pool Kits are very much the same as the standard above ground pool kits except that they are made with the intention of looking like a proper swimming pool. The problem with above ground pool kits is that they look like they have been placed there and dont give the look and feel of what we consider to be a proper swimming pool.

Choosing from the various Inground Pool Kits

The choices are somewhat similiar to the normal kits but in most cases it will be a more expensive operation as it will involve some significant earth moving and you might even need to hire some heavy machinery to get it done unless you can hire a crew to dig the required depth.

The problem with Inground Pool Kits

If your back garden is like mine and not accessible to earth moving machinery then using Inground Pool Kits means that its going to take a lot more time and effort to finish it quickly, so the point of the fast installation of an pool kit is somewhat lost. Above ground pool kits can be setup and assembled in under a week but Inground pool kits require a bit more time. Still they are pool kits and it does still give you a cost saving versus a standard pool construction. This also lends more towards the DIY angle since you could simply buy a pool kit and then hire the contractors to install it for you. What you choose depends on your preference and how much your budget is.

If Inground Pool Kits are not the way to go for you then read up on how to get your money’s worth from a contractor with the book that i recommend.

But if you can, always try to go for an Inground Pool Kit as opposed to the above ground ones

DIY Fiberglass Pool

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DIY Fiberglass PoolDIY Fiberglass Pool

Fiberglass pools are nothing new, in fact these types of pools have been around for nearly 50 years.  DIY Fiberglass pools are single piece, factory built shells made with fiberglass, resins, and finished with a gel coating, a non-porous surface similar to modern day boats and pool slides.

DIY Fiberglass Pool types

Fiberglass pools are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes with various tile patterns, fiber optic lighting, and in-floor cleaning systems, possible. Some forms of maintenance like acid washing, resurfacing, and liner replacements don’t exist with with fiberglass pools, but proper weekly chemical and cleaning maintenance are still needed to protect the gelcoat finish.

DIY Fiberglass Pool Care

There are some things that you will need to consider before you go ahead with a Fiberglass pool:

1. You cannot drain your pool.
Your fiberglass pool is designed to remain full of water at all times. If the pool is drained without proper directions, hydrostatic or ground pressure outside the pool could cause the structure to buckle or crack. All damage to the pool shell resulting from improper pool drainage is the owners responsibility.

If it becomes necessary to drain the pool, contact your fiberglass pool installer or the the fiberglass pool manufacturer

For optimal operation, keep the water level in the center of the rectangular skimmer plate on the pool wall. Low water level may cause the circulating pump to loose prime resulting in pump damage, high water level reduces or eliminates the skimmer effectiveness

2. Surface Care

The “bathtub” ring which forms on the pool wall or tile caused by body oils, suntan lotions and air borne contaminants can easily be removed with swimming pool tile cleaner or other non abrasive commercial tile or vinyl cleaners. On a DIY Fiberglass pool do not use abrasive cleaners, steel wool, metal scrapers, brushes or tools as these may cause permanent damage to the gel coat finish. Dulled gel coat above the water line may be restored with a heavy cut automotive polishing compound either power or hand applied followed by a coat of wax. The gel-coat finish of your fiberglass pool can be scratched like any other gloss surface. The gelcoat is seven to eight times thicker than a normal coat of paint so it is not likely that scratches will be more than superficial.

The added bonus of a DIY Fiberglass Pool is that it is very cost effective against the other options available.

DIY Swimming Pool

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DIY Swimming Pool

DIY Swimming Pool

If you are thinking about getting your own swimming pool in the back yard then building a diy swimming pool maybe something to think about if you want to save some money, or get the best swimming pool for your investment. The money saved from going the DIY route can be used either as a saving you can end up with a much snazzier pool like i did.

DIY Swimming Pool?

So how will you save money by doing it yourself and going for a diy swimming pool? Well a diy swimiing pool means you can cut out the “middle man”, which is the pool construction company, by contracting out the work yourself to teams of subcontractors who would ultimately have been doing the work anyway. By doing it this way you can also avoid the additional fees charged by the pool construction company.

This does not mean extra work for you, because you will have to deal with the people who work on the pool construction anyway, so there is not going to be any additional hassle.

How much will i save if i go the DIY Swimming Pool route?

You can save anywhere between ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars by hiring the contractors out yourself. If you want to go the extra mile you can get a list of the materials they need and source those out yourself, usually that amounts to another five thousand dollar saving. If you are going the DIY route or direct i recommend you read this book, i learnt everything i know about pools from it.

Good luck with your diy swimming pool

DIY Pool

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DIY Pool

DIY Pool

If you are looking for information on taking the DIY Pool route when considering your options then you will find all the information you need right here. I would like to point out that when DIY is mentioned in relation to a swimming pool it does not mean that you are expected to craft the pool yourself. a DIY Pool project is to take the pool construction company out of the equation and to directly engage the contractors who actually build the pool to do it under your supervision.

Inground DIY Pool

In this sense, Inground DIY pools are the way to go, if you were potentially looking at an above ground installation then you might actually be able to do it yourself since these do not require digging of any sort and can actually be setup over a couple of weekends. My inital option was to get an above ground pool but going the DIY route meant that i might as well get an inground and enjoy the benefits of a proper pool.

Why go the DIY Pool route?

Simple. To save money. I’ve been collecting for sometime now to get a pool but going to an advertised pool construction company means you are going to be paying a premium for something could cost a lot less if you went straight to the people who actually did it. Look around in your yellow pages or ask around at your local hardware store and you are bound to find someone who has gone the DIY pool route before.

While i did learn a lot of things along the way, i took most of my guidance from this book that i read that you could probably find useful as well.  I am almost done with my pool and in the course of the next few weeks i will update the site on the things that i have learned and what i find important.

Please bookmark my DIY Pool site and please post comments