The swimming pool at sunset
The swimming pool has now been cleaned by the robot and filled to the correct level.
The pump still has to be started and the fine particles, stirred up by the robot, hopefully cleared by the sand filter.
But I’m getting nearer to the point of being able to go in.
It would have been nice to swim at sunset today and break through those cloud reflections!
View of the pool tarpaulin
At last the weather has become just about warm enough to take the tarpaulin off the outside swimming pool.
The weird landscape in the photo is actually the surface of the tarpaulin. The hillock in the middle is made by one of the ice-expansion-compensators floating on the water underneath. The dark patches are fallen leaves.
When the tarpaulin is rolled back, all the water lying on top of it accumulates and is then too heavy to lift over the rim of the pool. I actually got into the pool and tried pushing it from inside, but it didn’t work. The only thing to do is to drain the water by means of a syphon.
Kepler had a wonderful time playing with the jet of water as it was syphoned off and then dashing in and out of the folds of the tarpaulin where it lay on the ground.
The grouting of the steps was done today.
I find the technique quite extraordinary: a large proportion of the tiled area is covered with grout before it is wiped off.
The pool steps being grouted
The steps have a bit of a ‘Battenburg cake’ look about them, but I think that will calm down when the grout starts to get dusty and chalky like it has on the floor (which has the same colour grout).
The finished article
At least the steps look neat now. All I need to do is tidy up round them!
Just before Easter, I had a phonecall from the man who tiled the floor and the bathroom walls upstairs. He said he had a few days without any scheduled work, and did we have a use for him?
The pool steps after the 'first fix' of tiling
Since he did a very nice job last time, I asked him to quote for tiling the pool steps we had constructed out of blocks. His price was fine.
He started today with 2 sessions, morning and afternoon.
After coating all the surfaces of the blocks with mortar, including embedding some little strips of levelling metal, he laid the treads and the risers though not yet the sides of the steps.
I gave him tiles left over from doing the floor, so the steps will look like an ‘organic’ part of the room, but for the risers he used spare tiles from the kitchen!
There are little coloured spacers sticking out everywhere. Plus some anti-dog measures …
He’s an unbelievably meticulous worker with very strong aesthetic ideas – I’m delighted to let him get on with it!
Categories: Our house, Swimming Pool
Tags: blocks, floor, mortar, pool steps, quote, riser, spacer, tile, tiling, tread
Clive had another bathe in the pool today, and despite the slightly higher temperature of the water, found it just as cold as before.
He was the whole day getting warm again.
Since the pool pump has been going much more often, plus condensation on windows has lasted longer, I took the thermostat back down 2 degrees. I might as well.
The steps in their raw state
I spent some of the day plotting how to cover the steps.
The honeycomb structure visible on the risers is a challenge seeing as I don’t have the skill to plaster over it. At the moment I’m thinking of gluing on ceramic tiles.
We may order some grippy black rubber which would deal with the treads.
For the sides, I fancy embedding stones in mortar so as to simulate a mini stone wall, but Clive doesn’t think I’d be able to pull it off.
We shall see.
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