Did you know that chemical hazards associated with typical pool maintenance can be mitigated with an indoor pool structure? Covering swimming pools, even Olympic sized pools, can make a sizeable difference in pool maintenance and chemical costs.
Pool chemicals can be hazardous.
Everyone knows that chlorine is a skin irritant. Some swimmers suffer an allergic reaction to the chlorine that is used to disinfect pools, leaving them with red, splotchy skin and irritated eyes.
Even swimmers who are not allergic to chlorine may suffer negative side effects of swimming in a large municipal pool. That is because there are dangerous by-products of pool chemicals that affect swimmers.
In fact, public swimming pool disinfectants have been linked to bladder cancer and asthma in some swimmers. Competitive swimmers are more likely to suffer eroded tooth enamel, just from swimming in chlorine pools.
Chlorine and other chemicals used in pool maintenance, such as cyanuric acid, can also be hazardous to your employees. Unless storage and handling procedures are properly maintained, these chemicals pose considerable risk to employees who take care of your swimming facility.
How can an indoor pool structure help with that?
As you will see below, housing your private, municipal, or resort facility pool under cover may mean lower levels of harsh chemicals are needed in order to maintain pool sanitation. It all comes down to protecting your pool from UV rays.
UV rays will degrade the chlorine in your pool.
UV rays remove chlorine from water. When the sun’s rays hit a swimming pool, the chlorine begins to dissipate, leaving your pool unprotected and un-sterile.
On sunny days, chlorine levels can drop dramatically. Your pool chlorine levels may become unacceptable after just one full day of sun. Bacteria can flourish under those conditions.
UV rays are so efficient and effective at dissipating chlorine, in fact, that municipalities make use of this principle, harnessing UV rays from the sun to remove residual chlorine from public drinking water supplies.
An indoor pool structure protects your pool from the sun.
Most UV rays do not get through the PVC-coated fabric that is used in the manufacture of Allsite’s Tensioned Fabric Structures (TFS). That translates into less chlorine degradation, which in turn may mean over-chlorination is no longer necessary.
Since less chlorine may be needed in an indoor pool, less cyanuric acid may also be needed. Cyanuric Acid (CA) is added to swimming pools to strengthen the chlorine against UV rays. Remove the UV rays, reduce the chlorine, and reduce the CA as well.
Cyanuric acid, by the way, poses yet another threat to health, according to the CDC. It can cause redness in the eyes. Inhaled, it may cause coughing and a sore throat. The CDC recommends wearing gloves and safety goggles when handling this chemical.
Customize your TFS with Allsite’s pool-friendly options.
We make customization of your indoor pool structure easy. Retractable doors and removable sidewalls can be implemented in nice weather to let air flow through the structure. Interior wall structures can provide separate areas for changing rooms, team meetings, and offices.
There are several options for ventilation alone: exhaust fans, louvers, or HVAC can all be supported in Allsite’s TFS. For your employees, your swimmers, and anyone who enters your facility, an indoor pool structure from Allsite may mean a safer environment for them all.
The sturdy aluminum frame can handle the weight of signs, halogen lights, and speaker systems. Even skylights and translucent fabric are options for our indoor pool structures.
An additional benefit is that we can have a fabric structure ready to go in a matter of weeks, not months. There is generally no need for a foundation or building permits, letting installation begin very quickly.
Would you like to know more about how an indoor pool structure can help you run a safer facility? Just give us a call or drop us a line. We are here to answer all your questions and more.
