Custom in-ground pool safety covers for Bath Township — and a straight explanation of what makes one a safety cover, which is not the same as a cover that keeps the leaves out. Family-owned since 2012.
"Pool cover" covers both of these, and they are not versions of the same thing.
A winter cover is a sheet laid over the pool and held down around the edges — usually with water bags or blocks, sometimes with a cable through a hem. It keeps debris and light out. It is not anchored into anything and it is not designed to hold weight. Something that goes onto it goes into the water with it, and the cover then closes over the top.
A safety cover is a different object. It is anchored into the deck, held by straps under spring tension, and built to carry a load across the surface rather than sink under one. It is designed so that the surface is a barrier rather than a lid — which is a structural difference, not a fabric one.
The distinction is what a purchase decision should turn on, and it is the reason we only make and fit the second kind.
An anchored variable-speed laid on
Three things follow from anchoring, and none of them are available on a laid-on cover:
Weight on a tensioned, anchored cover is transferred out through the straps into the deck. On a laid-on cover there is nowhere for it to go except down.
Wind gets under an edge, and a water bag is a weight rather than a fixing. An anchored perimeter does not lift.
It cannot be pushed aside. A laid-on cover can be slid, blown or walked off its own edge. An anchored one is fastened at intervals all the way round.
And this is the part that matters more than everything above.
A safety cover is a barrier. It is not a reason to stop watching, and it is not a surface to use.
Bath Township is in Summit County, about 23 miles from Lake Erie — the second-most inland of the towns we serve, after Stow. No lake-effect moderation at all, which means the earliest close and the longest cover-on season in our area.
So a cover here is on the pool for longer, under more sustained cold, than almost anywhere else we go. Whatever compromises were made at purchase get a longer test. It is the place where the difference between a properly anchored cover and a sheet held down with water bags shows up soonest.
A cover made to the wrong outline leaves openings at the edge, straps landing where there is nothing to hold them, and uneven tension across the surface — and a gap at the edge of a pool is exactly where a gap should not be.
Measured on site, and do not sell stock or standard sizes. It is not a positioning choice. A shelf rectangle stretched over a pool with steps and a raised wall is a cover that does not do the one job it is bought for.
Is on our covers in Twinsburg page; anchors and deck types are on safety cover installation; the mesh-or-solid decision is on the pool safety covers hub.
Closings start from $495 plus chemicals — see pool closing service. For the rest of what we do here see Bath Township pool service; the list of towns is on service areas.
A cover only performs as a barrier if it actually fits.
“The crew is super knowledgeable and courteous.”
Tell us about the pool and we will come and measure it.
Structure, not fabric. A winter cover is laid over the pool and held down around the edges with water bags or blocks — it keeps debris and light out, it is not anchored to anything, and it is not built to hold weight. A safety cover is anchored into the deck and held by straps under spring tension, so it carries a load across the surface instead of sinking under one.
No. Nobody should stand, walk or play on any pool cover. The rating exists so that an accident has a better outcome — not so the cover becomes a floor. If something needs doing out on the cover, that is a call to us.
It means there is a barrier over the water, fully fastened, which is a real and worthwhile thing. It does not replace a fence, a gate, a lock or supervision of children and pets around water. And a cover with a strap off or half undone for a look at the water is a hazard rather than a barrier — arguably worse than none, because it looks like protection.
What a given cover is rated for is the manufacturer's statement about their own product, in their own literature. We install Merlin and GLI and we will show you what each says for the cover you are considering. We are not going to make a performance claim on their behalf, and we would be cautious about anyone who does.
Because a cover only works as a barrier if it fits. A cover made to the wrong outline leaves gaps at the edge, straps landing where there is nothing to hold them, and uneven tension — and a gap at the edge of a pool is exactly where a gap should not be. That is a safety argument rather than a sales one, and it is why we do not fit stock sizes.
Because your cover is on for longer than almost anywhere else we serve. Bath Township is about 23 miles from Lake Erie — the second-most inland of our towns — so there is no lake-effect moderation, the close comes early and the spring comes late. Whatever compromises were made at purchase get a longer, colder test here.
