Why It's Important to Keep Your Pool Area Clean During the Winter Months
The swimming pool can be your family's favourite place to hang out during the summer months. You're likely to find people splashing water, enjoying themselves, and having fun during the sunny days of summer. But this can change drastically as soon as the winter months appear.
If winter has set in, there’s nothing to worry about since summer will arrive soon enough. But before summer comes back, you need to ensure that the fibreglass pool is clean, healthy, and ready for your family members to use. This is why it’s necessary to clean your pool from time to time, even when it’s offseason. Your pool will still need attention from you.
Why Maintaining Your Pool Is Important
If you neglect your swimming pool during the winter months, then you’ll find that this is a mistake that turns out to be costly later on. When you keep your fibreglass pool water clean, you ensure that:
The water health of the pool is maintained
Health-related issues from swimming in the water can be avoided
Expensive repairs can be avoided
Pool toys can be safely stored
The pool can be protected from damage
Pool cleaning is both necessary and can help you protect your fibreglass pool. That way, as soon as summer arrives, using the pool is no problem. When your fibreglass pool is clean, you’ll find minimal growth of algae, as well as low debris accumulation. There are many other benefits to maintaining your pool as well.
Cleaning your pool isn’t important just for the pool itself but also for the garden adjacent to it. You also ensure that the pool toys are maintained, as well as the trees that are close to the pool.
Here is how you can keep your fibreglass pool clean during the winter months.
Safely Storing Pool Accessories and Toys
The first thing you should do is gather all the pool accessories and toys that won’t be used during the winter months. Children love their pool toys, and can spend hours entertained with them by the pool. You don’t want to have to buy new pool toys every summer, so safely storing the old pool toys is a good idea.
You can also reduce incidents related to tripping over the toys and protect the toys from sun damage by safely storing them. Keep in mind that there are proper ways of storing these toys. If a toy is wet or has moisture, then it may develop mould and mildew. These are unhealthy for kids and bad for the toys as well. This is why pool toys should be stored in covered areas, such as a garage or a basement. This can also protect them from gathering dust or exposure to the snow.
You can also consider using talcum powder as a way to protect inflatables from sticking together. This prevents damage as well. Store them in airtight containers. You can also think about cleaning the fences next to the pool. All pool accessories like umbrellas, chairs etc should be safely stored away as well.
Maintaining the Garden
If you want to keep your fibreglass pool clean during the winter months, then you’ll also need to care for the garden area adjacent to it. The trees will need to be trimmed. Falling leaves can also lead to a mess forming in a pool that is uncovered. If you cover your pool, then these leaves can gather on top of the pool cover and gather moisture. If you now your lawn and prime your trees, then you can prevent this from happening.
Note that wet, rotting or soggy leaves have a tendency of being perfect for algae. You wouldn’t want an algae bloom in your pool, so keep the area around your pool clean.
Taking Stock of Pool Chemicals
Pool chemicals are needed to maintain the water health of your fibreglass pool. Any containers of pool chemicals you have can become useless upon the onset of the new season for swimming. This is why you should take stock to note what is useful and what isn’t. If any chemicals have become redundant, then you’ll need to discard them. Useful chemicals should be locked carefully so that kids and pets cannot access them.
If you clean your pool area before the winter season starts, then this can save you a lot of work later on.
Maintaining the Water Chemistry
Chemicals used for pool closing are essential for keeping the water in the pool clean during the winter season. You’ll need to analyse the level of pool chemicals to determine the pH, the alkalinity, as well as the water hardness. You’ll also need to know how much free chlorine is in your pool before you can add chemicals to it.
There are also winter algaecides that you can consider, as well as pool enzymes. These help maintain the water in the pool during the winter months. You can also visit a nearby pool store to learn what the best chemical options for balancing the pool water are.
Cleaning the Pool Water
Even if you and your family don’t use the pool during the winter months, algae have no such preferences. This is why you’ll need to maintain the water health of your fibreglass pool in the winter months as well. You can drain out some of the water and keep the pool covered during the winter. If you clean your pool thoroughly, then you can save effort when opening the pool during summer again.
Consider giving your fibreglass pool a good scrub before you close it. Scrub the walls as well as the floor to remove any trace of algae. You can also think about making use of a leaf net so that debris can be removed before making your pool ready for winter. You’ll need to run filters as well so that tiny particles that could lead to the growth of algae can be cleaned out.
Covering Your Pool
If you cover your fibreglass pool, then you can ensure that the water is clean and that a lot of effort isn’t required when reopening your pool. You can also prevent problems like debris accumulating in the pool, algae, and even accidental falls. Having a pool cover also ensures that the rate of evaporation of the pool water is reduced and pool chemicals aren’t diluted.
Conclusion
Taking care of your fibreglass swimming pool during the winter months is important, and it can help ensure that the water health of your pool is maintained. Use this guide to properly take care of your fibreglass pool during winter.
