How pool covers change a service stop: water, anchors, and what to charge

A cover adds a step at the start and end of every stop. You take it off, look at the water, work the pool, and put it back. A stop with a cover takes longer than one without, and each kind of cover takes a different kind of care.

Customers add covers to save water and heat. The EPA says solid pool covers can cut evaporation by more than 90%, and that on a heated pool they can save 50% to 70% of heating costs. The same EPA guide says only 15% of pool owners have a cover and use it regularly. When one goes on, the pool gets more careful work from you, not less.

The first thing to learn at a new covered pool is which kind of cover it is. The chart shows the three the EPA lists. Only some of them can double as a safety cover.

Solid covers can hold water on top, and a mesh cover can't. The EPA says water can collect on a solid cover and may need a pump to remove it. Mesh covers let some debris and rain through, so no water collects on them.

Standing water is also a safety question. The safety cover standard, ASTM F1346, tests how a cover drains. One county health department's public pool rules say standing water has to drain substantially from the cover within 30 minutes after normal rain stops. If you find a pond on a cover that sits for hours, tell the customer. Don't walk on it, and don't drag the cover off with the water still on it.

The table shows what to look at for each kind of cover before you move it.

A safety cover is a safety device. Treat it like the gate latch.

The EPA says the safety cover standard tests load bearing and drainage, and that there must be no openings between the cover and the pool. One county's rules for public pools put the load at 485 pounds for a pool wider than 8 feet. They also say a safety cover must be fully pulled back when the pool is in use, and that it can't be left partly over the water. Those are public pool rules, so your customer's local rules may differ. Your job is to put the cover back the way the manufacturer built it.

We think the fast way is the wrong way. Skipping a strap or leaving a gap to save a few minutes means the cover isn't doing the job it was bought for. If you can't get a cover back tight, don't leave it half on. Tell the customer the same day, in writing, and say what you found. Check the maker's instructions for the exact anchor layout. If you have a doubt about whether a cover still works as a safety cover, that's a call for the cover maker or the customer's insurer, not for you.

Take a photo of the anchors and straps before you take the cover off. The photo is how you know it went back the same.

Your price may not change when a cover goes on, but the work does. The fix is to time it. Pick three covered stops. Time the cover off, the extra check, and the cover back on. The average is the number to price from.

Hypothetical example: say your timing comes out to 6 extra minutes on a covered stop. Five covered stops a week for 20 weeks is 600 extra minutes, or 10 hours of work nobody pays for. Put your own stopwatch numbers in and you'll see the same thing on your route.

Then use pricing a stop that takes longer as the frame. A cover that comes off and goes on every week costs more per month than one that's off all summer. If a customer adds a cover after you quoted the account, tell them the change and the new price at renewal, not in the middle of the season.

Don't copy a number from another company. Your stops, your trucks, and your customers are different. The stopwatch is the only number that's yours.

An automatic cover rides on a track at the pool edge and runs at the press of a button, according to the EPA. It does the hauling for the customer. It also has a motor and a track, and those are not yours to repair.

Look at the lid for water and debris. Look at the track for leaves. One county's rules say a sub-surface track housing has to drain to an approved disposal system through an air gap, so a clogged drain is worth a note. The same rules say only responsible parties may have the keys to the mechanism, and children may not operate it.

Write down what you see, take a photo, and tell the customer who to call. A licensed specialist for that brand takes it from there.

Add the cover to the equipment check at every visit so you look at it on every visit. If the cover comes off for winter, the water has to be right first. See getting the water right before the cover goes on.

The next tech to cover this route shouldn't have to guess what kind of cover is on a pool or where the straps go.

In PoolBoss, each pool keeps a list of its equipment, and each record holds notes and a photo. Add the cover as a record, with the type, who is allowed to move it, and a photo of the anchor layout. With recording what equipment is on each pool, the person covering your route reads it on the phone before touching the cover.

PoolBoss doesn't time your stops or change a price for a covered pool. Your stopwatch and your quote do that.