How to Prepare Your Pool or Spa for a Hurricane

We are in the midst of an aggressive hurricane season. Please follow these steps to ensure that you have safely prepared your pool and/or spa for severe weather:

1. Lower the water level slightly to accommodate excessive amounts of rain.  Do NOT lower your water level more than approximately 4-6” to the edge of the skimmer and do not drain the pool below the bottom edge of the skimmer.
   • IMPORTANT: The lower the water level the more chance that the liner in a vinyl lined inground pool can “float or bubble” or that a fiberglass pool can be damaged due to groundwater pressure.  A liner can float as well if the pool overflows so try to keep the water below the edge of the pool/decking if at all possible.
   • If you have no power you can still lower the water level by creating a siphon with a garden hose or if you have a generator but do not want to use your pool pump you can use a sump or submersible pump to lower the water level if we have excessive rains.
   • IMPORTANT: overflow lines in in-ground pools may not be able to keep up with the amount of rain we get so you may need to waste/backwash or use a pump to lower your water level throughout the rain event.
2. Shock or super-chlorinate your pool for a few days in advance of the storm.  Keep some liquid chlorine or shock on hand in case of a power outage so you may add it every few days to keep your pool clear.
3. If your pool is running and you have excessive debris in the pool make sure and check and empty your skimmers and pump baskets often. When these become clogged the pump can run dry and can cause damage to your equipment.
4. Secure or remove all patio furniture, make sure this includes all umbrellas, glass tables, deck boxes, toys, and floats. Also make sure to remove cleaning equipment, such as poles and anything else that can damage the surface of the pool.
5. If your pool is already winterized you do not need to do anything except to remove items from around the pool that could cause damage by being blown onto or through your winter cover. Covers can rip too!
   • Try to pump off any solid covers as much as possible throughout the rain event, covers can become heavy with rainwater and then can collapse into the pool.
   • Do NOT use bricks or cinder blocks to hold your cover down, use only soft water tubes or pliable Aqua Blocks to keep your cover in place.
   • Heavy solid objects like bricks/block/wood can fall into the pool along with your heavy saturated cover and can cause a lot of damage to your pool surface.
6. Aboveground pools: make sure the water level is up to the skimmers, the more water in the pool, the more water pressure and the less likely there is to be wind damage.  Ensure your cover is installed properly and secure if your pool is winterized.
7. SPAS – you have a few options:  you can either remove the spa cover and store it in a safe place and either leave your spa full or drain your spa in advance of the storm.
   1. If you leave it full I would recommend turning it off so your filters don’t clog.
   2. If you leave your cover on the spa I would recommend securing it to the spa with the cover clips so it doesn’t fly off the tub.
   3. You can also use small sandbags ONLY on the corners of the tub to help keep it in place, your inserts can crack if the weight is too much to the middle or not placed properly.

Service and Maintenance Customers: We will make every attempt to repair and/or clean pools that are going to be affected by severe weather. We will try to schedule our weekly customers for cleanings after it is safe to put our staff on the roads.  We will prioritize accordingly for repairs depending on severity. We ask that everyone be patient with return calls and scheduling confirmation for the first week.  We will be delayed in getting back to everyone depending on the severity of the damage to our area.

Please visit our Facebook page for closings or updates on our operations. We hope everyone stays safe.