Detroit may not be known as a warm weather city, but its seasonal patterns do make for hot summers. These summers can be a great time to enjoy a residential pool, but you don't want to waste a single day of your pool use by letting the quality of your pool water degrade or your filtration system fail. Either of these situations can take several days to a week to remedy and get your pool back up and running. Even perfect pool maintenance in Detroit can't give you a 100 percent guarantee of clean, usable pool water, but if you don't maintain your pool, you can pretty much count on problems arising.
Weekly Detroit Swimming Pool Maintenance
Basic swimming pool maintenance involves checking your pool's chlorine and pH levels, as well as the alkalinity and calcium hardness of your water. By keeping a balanced pH (about 7.0), you keep a majority of the chlorine in your pool active and properly doing its job. Besides the fact that chlorine is the basic chemical that keeps your water sanitary, it's a good idea to maximize its consistency and efficacy. This means, along with balancing your pH, you should add chlorine in the evening when the afternoon sun has no more chance to burn off the chlorine when you add it to the pool. Checking these levels and making small corrections also helps make swimming pool maintenance in Detroit considerably more manageable.
Though many homeowners don't check their basic water quality often enough, some homeowners also backwash their filters too often. You only need to backwash your filter when the pressure gauge begins to rise. Otherwise, you're wasting water and limiting the efficiency of your water filtration. That said, it's never a bad idea to inspect your pool pump and filter system for anything out of the ordinary, such a strange sound or loose hose. As with so many things, early identification of problems usually leads to considerably easier fixes.
Seasonal Detroit Swimming Pool Maintenance
The most important part of swimming pool maintenance, however, has little to do with chlorine and pH levels. Properly closing your pool down for the year is absolutely critical to protect the basic mechanical elements of your pool. The water must be completely cleared from the filter, pump, hoses, etc. to prevent freezing and cracking. This includes draining the pool past the point of the skimmer and sealing the filter assembly. In fact, depending on the type of pool you own, you may also need to put some pillows or tires in the pool to protect the basin itself. You'll also want to add winterizing chemicals to keep the water as clean as possible and make opening your pool that much easier next year. Finally, you'll want to affix a semi-permanent pool cover to keep debris from getting in your pool.
Quality and comprehensive pool closing is not as simple as it sounds. It usually takes a full day's work and specific equipment to do it right. With a trip to your local pool supply store, you can probably approximate a decent and safe pool closing. It's entirely possible, however, that if you hire a Detroit swimming pool maintenance company, you'll have another day over the weekend for yourself and have a considerably easier time opening your pool.
Cost of Detroit Swimming Pool Maintenance
The average cost for Detroit swimming pool maintenance is about $300. This average is the same whether you need basic cleaning and maintenance or closing and opening service (which can include either or both services). As you might expect, hiring a professional for opening and closing services is more common than basic pool maintenance services. If you've owned your pool for any number of years or have previously owned a pool, you probably don't need an article such as this or any other online tutorial to have a working knowledge of basic summer maintenance. Of course, you also know proper maintenance is a lot more time-consuming than beginners expect. Many homeowners who have some expendable cash decide to hire professional Detroit pool maintenance for the sheer convenience of being able to enjoy their pool without spending this extra time maintaining it. Plus, if you're already planning on hiring someone to close and open your pool, you may find an annual pool maintenance package is not substantially more expensive.

Marcus Pickett is a professional freelance writer for the home remodeling industry. He has published more than 600 articles on both regional and national topics within the home improvement industry.