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River Pools & Spas Blog
The most educational swimming pool blog in the country, providing fiberglass pool articles and videos, as well as information on inground concrete and liner pools.
Concrete Pool Information | Pool Maintenance
Close your eyes and picture the sidewalk on your street. I myself live on an ominous back road—no sidewalk or concrete, just loose gravel and abandoned houses. But it branches off the main street, which is paved and has a sidewalk. Fancy. This sidewalk features trip hazards and aesthetic issues: multiple cracks, salt stains, little holes and etching, and (bonus) a set of footprints from a small dog. Concrete has its own set of issues, but let’s think about those salt stains and etches for a moment. That’s just from the occasional weather maintenance, like the trucks that spray salt all over the road and the sidewalks (and your car if you’re driving behind them). Water in a concrete pool wears at the plaster all day every day. Now add a salt chlorine generator to that mix. Salt + water + concrete. See how that might be an issue?
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Installation & Construction | Pool Manufacturing Process | Swimming Pool FAQs
A fiberglass pool installation can will be messy. There's no way around it. Inground pool installations, regardless of the type of pool you choose, require giant machinery to rip out a ton of earth and put in your beautiful new pool. It's not a clean, tidy process. There tends to be a rose-colored-glasses assumption that there won't be that many machines, and they won't make that much of a mess. We hear of comments all the time from homeowners saying, "I didn't know my yard was gonna be such a mess. No one told me." Although we don't install pools, that's done by the independently owned and operated company you purchase your River Pools fiberglass pool from; we do have team members with LOTS of installation experience. On behalf of them and their years of experience, we're here to tell you it's going to be messy.
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Don't blindly wonder if a fiberglass, concrete, or vinyl liner pool is right for you. Our educational ebook does a deep-dive comparison of the 3 types, all while noting the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Options and Accessories | Pool Maintenance | Swimming Pool Accessories
I've lost count of the times I've addressed my parents' Amazon Echo with "Hey Google." There are just so many virtual assistants, it's hard to keep them all straight. Alexa, Siri, Google Home/Assistant, and Cortana (wait, who?)... If I can barely remember which one I'm addressing, I certainly can't keep track of all the things they automate or simplify for us. A pool automation system creates this convenience for handling your pool and its features, without the multi-brand confusion. (But hey, some of them can also connect to Alexa and co.! Score!)
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Options and Accessories | Pool Maintenance | Swimming Pool Accessories | Swimming Pool FAQs
Technology is hard. It's even worse when you can't pick the equipment out of a lineup. But we're here to make your life easier, in every way we can. So today... let's talk filter systems.
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You designed your dream backyard. The pool, the landscaping, the patio. So much effort, and so worth it. You’ve finally crafted a place that not only looks fantastic, but brings a feeling of togetherness for the ones who matter most to you. It's a beautiful thing. Except you didn't design the aggressive bubbles shooting out of the returns on the pool walls. So what's up with that? Why are you getting air bubbles in your swimming pool? This is a common problem, especially when you're first opening your pool for the season. A few bubbles in the pool or the pump is normal, but noisy churning and lots of bubbles indicate that you likely have a problem.
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Options and Accessories | Swimming Pool Accessories
Did you ever swim in the ocean, get a mouthful of seawater, and think, “Yum, I wish my pool at home tasted like this”? Yeah, probably not. Lucky for you and your taste buds, that’s not what a saltwater pool is.
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Options and Accessories | Swimming Pool Accessories | Swimming Pool Design
My mom is big on interior design, and her most recent project is redoing the tile on her kitchen wall. It wasn’t old-fashioned or broken, but she likes everything to be up-to-date and looking its best. In the same way, for fiberglass pools, tile is a matter of taste, not necessity. Here at River Pools, it’s important to us that you get the pool you want. Some customers love tile, and we’re happy to put it on. Others choose to save the money toward other features and accessories. There’s no wrong option!
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Pool Design Guides | Swimming Pool Design
One of the big concerns about fiberglass pools is that they aren't "customizable" the way vinyl liner and concrete pools are—the pool shell itself is pre-made in a factory, and you're limited to existing designs. But in reality? Everything else is customizable, even down to the pool color and features. What you do with color, tile, elevation, water features, and more will dramatically change the look of your pool. At River Pools, we specialize in fiberglass swimming pools, so we know quite a bit about this. Our designers work with each client to create a unique aesthetic that's perfect for that family.
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Cost and Pricing | Options and Accessories | Pool Design Guides | Swimming Pool Accessories | Swimming Pool Design
Take a deep breath with me, and think back on the last time you had extra money left over in your budget. Wasn't it great? For me, it was when I had euros left over at the end of my Scotland trip—can't use them here in the US, so I ran around the Glasgow airport with my girlfriend and spent them on overpriced souvenirs. The memory alone warms my heart. The spare money is especially great when your budget is for a big purchase, such as a house or, hey, a pool. Let's be real: when you're first nailing down the project, you pass on a few things that you secretly want, for the sake of Responsibility And Budgeting. But happy day! You can use this newfound wiggle room to pick up those super awesome things. Pools are a big investment, so we're discussing proportionally affordable add-ons—about $2,000 or less.
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Fiberglass vs Concrete vs Vinyl Liner | Swimming Pool FAQs
As any woman in a clothing store will tell you, there's no such thing as "one size fits all." There are too many variables—the length, the fabric, the cut. The same "universal" shirt is too small on one person and too big on another. When you're looking for an inground pool, there's no universal "best" pool type either. Hold on... Shouldn't we at River Pools say that there is? We specialize in fiberglass pools, after all. Well, no. Every person has different goals for their pool, different boundaries, and different families.
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