Pool Fantasy

 POOL REALITY 

Children splashing with  laughter, pure enjoyment on their faces . A tropical heat, an in-pool bar and a (few) cold Bacardi and coke . Relaxation , not a care in the world. That is the picture of the perfect swimming pool. Perhaps possible if the pool is not your own .

 Proprietorship fundamentally changes all that ; pools are an awful lot of work. On holiday the behind-the-scene effort is fortunately  not visible , but with a pool of your own , then you are that effort . 

It starts with construction, which at first thoughts you would think was the major job. Our son’s new pool , albeit not large at 2.6m by 6 m , was  constructed in an incredible three days : 

  Day 1: large lorry mounted digger drops small digger into garden .This excavates for pool , large digger removes spoil onto lorry.

Day 2 : Fibre glass pool arrives , lowered into position by crane lorry ; edges of pool strengthened with concrete . 

Day 3 : Plastic box complete with pump, filter and valves connected to pool pipe work . Pool filled , ready for swimming ! Impressive. 

The team install two pools a day in the summer, with longer daylight hours. There must be a big demand for new pools in this part of France.

A pool requires plenty  of water . A decent sized pool will need the equivalent of 200 days water usage for a family of four . Then there is the need to replace evaporation and water lost through cleaning filters . During periods of drought , that  water may not be available from your water company. For us that is not a problem , or option, as we have no connection to mains water ( too far away). The existing 10 m deep well could not provide enough , so a 100 m deep borehole was required.  

With a drying climate , we still need to be careful with water . So to minimise evaporation, the pool was fitted with a floating cover , which also warms the water. This needs to be unrolled then re-rolled  between pool use. The pool also has a winter cover to exclude leaves during the off season.

To keep the water clean in the summer, a pump and sand filter remove the bits and dissolve chlorine for disinfection. An underwater robot is needed to clean the floor and walls , usually twice a week . Surface debris is partially removed by the pump , but still needs net removal. The sand filter needs weekly backwashing to stay clean. 

All done? ; now I can lie back and enjoy . Ah, not so simple! All this hardware doesn’t last for ever :

... the pump’s water seal needed replacing as did the seal on the multivalve.

... the electric pump timer and it’s capacitor both needed replacing.

... Leaks from  the fibre glass  pool liner  need periodic sealing , and twice substantial repair . 

... A major leak from the outlet pipe work required excavation and repair . 

... Flooding of the house basement from the pool pump was narrowly avoided . So a separate pool house was built , and pump relocated .

 All this work requires a period of recuperation . What better than lying by a pool , in the sun and with drink in hand . Perhaps I can forget all the work that enabled that.

Coordinated digging

Flying Pool