Spring Is the Season for Opening a Pool

If you live in an area with a seasonal swim season, spring is the time to prepare for your pool opening. Although you can always hire a pool cleaning service for help opening a pool, many homeowners take pride and enjoyment in doing it themselves. If you're one of those people, you'll want to keep some tips in mind before you take the plunge.

Pool Opening Checklist

If you're wondering how to open an inground pool this spring, check out this handy checklist for some simple steps to follow for an easy pool opening process.

Clean the deck and cover.

One of the first steps to opening a pool is removing the pool cover, but before you do so, clean the deck area to prevent debris from being swept into the swimming pool. This will also give you some space to prep the pool cover for storage without worrying about sticks and stones puncturing the material. For more intensive swimming pool cleaning services, purchase a small, portable pump to remove standing water from the cover. Of course, you could always just grab a garden hose and broom to sweep the debris and dirt to one side for quick cleanup.

Remove the pool cover and place it in storage.

If you're lucky enough to own an automatic pool cover, you're good to go. If you have a winterizing cover on the other hand, ask someone to help you remove it and lay it on a clean area of your deck. This way, as a part of your pool cleaning service, you can scrub it with a mild detergent, hose it down and let it dry thoroughly before folding and storing it in a clean, dry place. Storing it in a dirty or wet state can cause major damage like rot and mildew.

Remove the plugs.

Hopefully the pool was winterized properly. If so, you should have plastic plugs in the water inlets, keeping water out of the pipes so they don't freeze and crack. Now is the part of the pool cleaning service when you remove them. If you winterized your pool with antifreeze, lower the water level to below these inlets. Next, remove the plugs and drain the antifreeze into a bucket.

Hook up all light fixtures.

Often, companies that offer swimming pool cleaning services recommend lowering the water level for winterizing. When this is the case, they typically remove underwater light fixtures from their housing with the wires still connected to prevent lights from cracking under the freezing conditions. If yours were removed, coil the wire back inside the niche and snap the light fixture into place.

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