<p>Pool is in HI, so no need to winterized. Thanks for suggestions so far. Don’t see them wanting to convert it to a pool garden with fish and chickens, which I saw elsewhere on web. </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“YouTube”>YouTube]YouTube[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Would love other suggestions.</p>
<p>I am familiar with the covers sportsmom is talking about, I work in insurance and see them in home inspections all the time. So far as we are concerned, a pool with one of those covers is almost as good as a house that does not have a pool-- especially if it’s a dormant pool that will always be covered. Those covers are top of the line. Sometimes a small amount of water can accumulate on top of them but I’ve never seen so much that it wouldn’t evaporate by itself.</p>
<p>I personally would not want this in my yard if I was not going to use it, but if it is not in the budget to remove it and they don’t care to pay to maintain it, I see this as their only viable option.</p>
<p>You’ll want to do SOMETHING with it. One of the homes we looked at when we were house hunting had a pool that had been left alone too long, and it became filled with literally thousands of tadpoles. If it’s expensive to get rid of or maintain the pool now, it is only going to get worse if a situation like that arises.</p>
<p>One of our neighbors filled in their pool with dirt…they’re eccentrics and we thought they were crazy filling it in. Your best bet in the long run probably is to clean up your pool and maintain it. When you someday sell your house the pool might be what pushes someone over fence to buy your home…house buyers will say they don’t want a swimming pool but they really do!</p>
<p>Or, convert pool into a backyard catfish farm for fun and profit. You’d have fresh fish for eating, and you could rent out fishing poles to customers and let them fish for a few dollars in your old swimming pool.</p>
<p>Here is a link to a pool safety cover so you can see the type of covering that may work:</p>
<p>[Defender</a> Mesh Safety Pool Covers | Mesh Swimming Pool Cover | Custom Mesh Pool Covers | Anchor Inc](<a href=“http://anchorinc.com/products/safety-pool-covers/safety-pool-covers/defender-mesh-safety-pool-covers]Defender”>http://anchorinc.com/products/safety-pool-covers/safety-pool-covers/defender-mesh-safety-pool-covers)</p>
<p>There are a variety of manufacturers of these types of covers. There are also a variety of grades of covers.</p>
<p>^ I’m not familiar with that Defender Mesh cover shown in link photo, but it looks like a curious small child could slip under it and not be seen while under it. I’d rather install something like steel concrete reinforcing mesh that I could see through and could fasten tight all along border.</p>
<p>Good point lizard however at the bottom of the cover description you will the following:</p>
<p>“Manufactured to meet ASTM F1346-91 Safety Standards”</p>
<p>To further described, here is some information about the ASTM:</p>
<p>“All safety covers must conform to the Standard Performance Specification set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). According to the ASTM, a safety cover must be able to support a certain amount of weight, not permit gaps that a child or pet could squeeze through, and remove standing water.”</p>
<p>There are actually covers that exceed these standards.</p>
<p>Maybe the best solution is to sell this house and move into one without a pool.</p>
<p>We have a safety cover similar to the one noted above. If it’s fitted properly (and these can be made to any dimensions or shape), no animal or small child is going to be able to get under it. They are fit tightly to the pool deck and cannot be lifted. Water does not accumulate on top because it’s mesh so any rainwater goes through into the pool, which might be a concern when you’re in an area where it rains year round. The level of the water in the pool will rise, obviously.</p>
<p>The reality is that if you have a pool, you should be maintaining it and not leaving it empty or with untreated water. Pool equipment needs to be maintained also and if it is not winterized, should be turned on regularly.</p>
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<p>If rain water goes through the cover into the pool, that means maintenance in a bigger way. Eventually, dirt will accumulate and it must be cleaned up. No matter what, if you have a pool, you just cannot put some thing up and forget about it. Closing a pool would be the ultimate relieve, but at a steep upfront cost.</p>
<p>dstark</p>
<p>I was thinking in addition to the liability insurance, home warranty that will cover pool equipment breakage. However, I am skeptical on the coverage, under what circumstance they will pay for the breakages, any breakages for that matter. Has anyone tried to collect on the warranties?</p>
<p>That’s right. These covers are meant as winter covers in areas where pools are closed for the winter months. In the spring, when the pool is opened, the water has to be treated. As I said, pools need to/should be maintained, whether they’re in use or not.</p>
<p>Artloversplus, I did not have warranty coverage on equipment.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this whole thread, but I never understand why people think it is so expensive and so much trouble to maintain a pool. My parents put in a pool when I was a kid. We never had a pool service. It was a minor thing to test the water and add the chemicals. It never had a cover, and was never heated. They drained it most of the way in the fall using a hose and gravity. They filled it slowly in the spring using a hose. Every few years, IIRC, it needed to be acid washed, which we did ourselves. Running the vacuum thing around it was minor. We all used it constantly in the summer, and got great pleasure out of it. I guess it depends whether your family is inclined towards DIY and whether your family is really going to use it.</p>
<p>My parents pool was inexpensive to maintain and easy to take care of. I always just assumed that’s because theirs was an above ground and in grounds were different. We’re having one put in and the only really significant cost after installation will be the water to top it off when we open each summer, and removing it will be easy if we decide to sell someday. I don’t even live there anymore and I drive to use my parents pool every weekend, we’ll use ours daily for the few months it’s warm enough.</p>
<p>The cover I was thinking of isn’t mesh, water doesn’t go through them. They’re pulled over top of the pool and you could walk across if you wanted to. I think it is better to maintain the pool or remove it as I think this will become a pain one way or the other, but at minimum I think you need a good cover.</p>
<p>If the owners are neglecting the maintenance of the pool and just letting it get green with slime and filled with tadpoles, then likely they are neglecting the safety for the pool. It only takes a few seconds for a child to fall in a pool and drown. Use the pool or lose the pool…fill it in if for no other reason than safety and to reduce liability exposure from getting sued for injuries or death occurring in the neglected swimming pool!</p>
<p>^ A three year old in our town recently climbed through an opening in a fence and drowned in a neglected swimming pool at an apartment complex near his home. It took a long time to find him because the water in the pool was so murky that no one could see the bottom.</p>
<p>There is a picture at our local pool supply store of a home in the area that had left their pool empty. After a heavy rainstorm the pool jacked itself 6 feet out of the ground.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is an option to modify the size to something smaller, more manageable.</p>
<p>I know a person whose 3 yr old drowned in their own well-cared for pool, having gotten out through a door that was usually locked amid the hubbub of visitors. It can happen to anyone. (I actually had to jump fully clothed for work into our pool to fish out a toddler niece, who fell in right in front of our eyes.)</p>
<p>We had an above-ground pool for about 8 years. It was a pain to maintain and cost about $800-1000/year in chemicals. We had a solar cover for it in the summer that heated the water up to bath water temperature and allowed us to use it earlier and later than we otherwise would have. Heavenly, going for a swim after dark. We had a winter cover that was a thick, woven, tarp-like cover. It had grommets around the outside, and we weighted it down with gallon milk jugs filled with water. We had it taken out after the summer when we only used it twice = $400-500 a swim. It only cost us about $500 to have the pool company remove it and another $300-400 for a landscaper to fill in part of the area with dirt and reseed the grass. I used to think I would like an in-ground pool, but don’t think so anymore. We never put a ladder on the outside, although we kept the inside one. We were all tall enough (5 ft. pool) to not need it, and we though that that (and our dog) dissuaded neighbor kids from sneaking in.</p>
<p>On this issue, however, I’m of the maintain it or remove it opinion. Letting it fill in with slime, frogs, etc. has to be some kind of health hazard, if not mosquitoes, not to mention the danger of someone falling in.</p>
<p>I have not read all the posts, but if the relatives (I am presuming they are in HI) want to sell their home, will NOT having a pool be considered a negative? In parts of Florida and other states, it can be.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is time to sell the home, if the market is improving? We have older relatives with a pool and part of the reason they are ready to move is the pool. But having the pool makes the house much more marketable…</p>