Like any of your home’s systems or services, you make certain they are properly maintained to comply with warranties, and ensure they operate safely and cost effectively. There is always something to do when you are a homeowner. You’ve a laundry list of filters to swap, window caulking to check, alarm batteries to change and security systems to test. It’s your home, your castle, and deserves all the TLC it can get.
With a backyard swimming pool, you’ve got a different set of conditions for which to prepare: namely, the weather. It is easy enough to take the furniture cushions in and stash the pool tools in the shed to prep for storms, but there are also preventative things you can do for the pool itself – as it can’t be folded and stowed.
Here are some of our tips for protecting your pool in a storm:
Wind
Its damaging effects have been documented with all the anomalous systems across the country. The first action is to secure anything that can be picked up and carried away and/or bullet its way into a window or hurt someone. Test the balance in the pool and if there are no flood alerts, it is best to keep the pool filter on. If the situation worsens and there is a rising water level, to protect the pool pump, turn it off from the safety of your home by flipping the breaker on the electrical panel.
Water
In preparation for a storm, it would be proactive to actually lower the pool’s water level. The closer that level is to the pool’s rim, the more likely it will take on the contaminants from the soil, etc. Depending on your pool type, consult with your pool contractor or local pool supply company to understand completely how to do this properly. Whether a hose spigot or a valve (you could possibly siphon some water too) but obviously, the one thing you don’t want to do is damage the pool when you are trying to protect it.
Drainage
You may find you have a chronic problem in this area; and it is one which will continue to erode over time. If any of the surrounding structures cause flooding into your pool, you will want that addressed professionally. There are myriad solutions depending on the origin of the problem: the way the land slopes and the deck is constructed. A French drain, which is a perforated pipe buried and topped with gravel, is often very effective. It is also used around a home’s perimeter if flooding threatens the foundation, breaching its integrity. Water outside is bad enough. Water inside is an entirely expensive story!
Rain
You certainly can’t be running for that pool cover every time there’s a storm brewing, but even a gentle, innocent-looking rain is flushing impurities and algae off everything it touches for deposit into your pool. A preemptive storm strike entails adding an algaecide.
Sun
When that sun shines again, conduct all your normal pH tests, clean the pool, super-chlorinate if need be, and let the filter do its magic to get you back in the splash!
