Custom in-ground pool safety covers for Solon — measured on site, and fitted at the right point in the closing sequence rather than bolted on at the end of it. Family-owned since 2012.
A cover is the final step of a close, not an alternative to one. It is worth being blunt about that, because a cover put over a pool that has not been properly closed is five months of unbalanced water sitting in the dark with nobody looking at it.
The order the visit runs in:
1. The water gets balanced and treated for a season of standing still — not for swimming in tomorrow. 2. The level comes down below the skimmer mouths and the returns. 3. Every line gets blown out, and the runs where air alone is not enough get antifreeze. 4. Returns get plugged, the pump and filter are drained, and the equipment that should not spend a winter outdoors comes off. 5. Then the cover goes on, and the straps get tensioned.
Each step depends on the one before it. That is the whole reason the cover is last: you cannot lower the water through a fitted cover, and you certainly cannot blow out a line under one. See pool closing service for what each step actually involves — closings start from $495 plus chemicals, itemised.
A site measure for a made-to-order pool cover
A safety cover is not a lid resting on a rim. It works with the water underneath it.
Snow and ice on a cover push down; the water beneath pushes back. Drop the level too far and there is nothing under the fabric to share the load, so all of it goes into the straps and the anchors.
Mesh drains rain and snowmelt straight into the pool. A pool closed at too high a level takes on a winter's worth of precipitation with nowhere for it to go, and the water rises up over the tile line — which is a freeze problem in the band where you least want one.
Getting it right is part of the close rather than something you adjust afterwards, which is another reason the two jobs belong in the same visit.
And the reason the tile band is the wrong place for standing water is what freezing does to it. Water that rises into the tile line and then freezes expands, and expansion in a confined joint freeze-cracks grout, tile and coping. Then every thaw and refreeze through the winter works the crack a little wider — which is why the damage tends to show up in spring as a line of loose tiles rather than as a single obvious failure.
Solon is in Cuyahoga County, about 13 miles from Lake Erie. That is nearer the water than our own town, and it means the close here runs a little later in October than it does inland.
Which has one practical consequence at cover-on: the trees. A later close often means the leaf drop is already well under way — so the pool is more likely to want clearing before the cover goes on, and the cover itself will take the rest of the leaf fall on top of it rather than in the water. That is the better arrangement of the two, and it is worth aiming for rather than resisting.
Book the date and treat it as movable. A booked close can shift later if the autumn is kind. An unbooked pool in the first hard week of November is competing with every other unbooked pool in Northeast Ohio, and cover-on is not a job to rush in the dark.
The reverse order applies. The cover comes off before anything else can happen, and what you do with it in the next ten minutes decides how long it lasts.
A cover put away wet and folded is a cover growing mildew all summer
In a warm garage. Ours come off, get cleaned, get dried, and get stored dry and loosely rather than crammed. See pool opening service — openings also start from $495 plus chemicals.
A safety cover installed to the manufacturer's instructions and fully fastened is a barrier. It is not a reason to stop watching. No cover replaces supervision of children and pets around water, and a cover that is only half on is a hazard rather than a barrier.
A safety cover anchored and tensioned around a pool perimeter
“After having different companies open and close our pools, and then having M & G Pools, I would never have anyone else! They are extremely professional, kind, efficient, and knowledgeable. They definitely go out of their way to help their customers.”
Tell us about the pool and we will get the measure done before the season closes in.
We install Merlin and GLI, made to your pool. We do not sell or fit stock or standard sizes — a shelf rectangle over a pool with steps and a raised wall leaves the straps landing wrong and the tension uneven.
The measure comes first, and it is its own visit. How that works — what gets recorded, why we will not measure from your old cover, and what the fit involves — is set out on our covers in Twinsburg page rather than repeated here. See also safety cover installation for anchors and deck types, and the pool safety covers hub for the fabric choice.
Cover work is quote-required. Size, shape, the deck and the obstructions move the number too much for a starting price to be meaningful.
For everything else we do here, see Solon pool service and pool openings and closings. The list of towns is on service areas.
Spring-tensioned straps running from a cover to its anchors
We would rather not, and it is not a scheduling preference. A cover over a pool that has not been chemically closed, drained down and blown out is five months of unbalanced water standing in the dark. The cover is the last step of a close, not a substitute for one.
Because you cannot lower the water through a fitted cover, and you cannot blow out a line under one. The steps run in order: balance and treat, lower the level, blow out the lines, plug the returns, drain the equipment, then fit the cover and tension the straps.
More than people expect. The water shares the snow and ice load with the cover — drop the level too far and all of that load goes into the straps and anchors instead. Too high is a problem too, because a mesh cover drains precipitation straight into the pool and the level can rise over the tile line, which is exactly where you do not want a freeze. There is a correct band, and it differs between mesh and solid.
With the close, and that tends to be later here than inland — Solon is about 13 miles from Lake Erie, which buys a little autumn. In practice that means the leaves are often already coming down at cover-on, so the pool wants clearing first and the cover then takes the rest of the leaf fall on top rather than in the water. Book the date and move it later if the weather allows.
Clean it, dry it, and store it dry and loose rather than folded tight. A cover put away damp spends the summer growing mildew in a warm garage, and that is a shorter cover life for no reason. We handle it as part of the opening.
No — custom only, made by Merlin or GLI to measurements taken at your pool. A shelf rectangle stretched over a pool with steps and a raised wall leaves the straps landing wrong and the tension uneven, and the gaps end up where a gap should not be.
