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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.
When I'm doing the dishes, I love the dishwasher-safe ones. I just pop 'em in the dishwasher, run the wash cycle, and move along until they're clean. So easy! Hand-wash-only dishes feel ridiculously high-maintenance in comparison. As I scrub them, I hate them. Sorry, Abraham Lincoln mug. Cleaning dishes is nothing compared to cleaning a pool. How can you make sure your pool is "dishwasher safe"—as low maintenance as it can possibly be? The TYPE of pool you have can make or break your maintenance satisfaction. The interior finish, durability, and more can significantly increase or decrease your to-do list (and your costs).
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Pool Maintenance
In my house, we take turns doing chores, but I’m exclusively in charge of laundry. My favorite (?) part is collecting all the stained clothes so I can apply stain remover and then scrub them like an old-timey washerwoman. It feels as if I should later buy hardened brown sugar in paper bags tied with twine like I live in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. But that’s just washing clothes. How do you feel about being an old-timey washer for your inground fiberglass pool stains?
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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.
Retaining Walls, Fence, and Landscaping | Swimming Pool Design
Few yards are perfectly flat. (Well, maybe in Ohio, which is so flat I can see Cincinnati from Toledo. But in normal places, no.) Some yards have only a teeny-tiny grade (2 ft. or less), so pool builders can grade the dirt off the patio to compensate for the difference. However, not every situation is so simple. When you have a big slope, you need a big solution. How will you keep the water from running onto the pool deck? How will you keep the pool in place? Enter retaining walls, stage left.
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Installation & Construction | Pool Design Guides | Pool Manufacturing Process | Swimming Pool Design
You know something I think is cute about humans in general? Our love for small things. Think about it! Even if we like the thing itself, we love the tiny version. A pig? Kinda gross. A tiny pig? Awww! A teacup? Classy. A tiny teacup? I need it right now! A house? Fine. A tiny house? Perfect! A cat or dog? Beautiful. A kitten or puppy? I want to die of happiness!
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction | Pool Manufacturing Process | Swimming Pool FAQs
When I first visited River Pools in person, the first things I noticed were the...red-orange lumps outside. What kinda yard decorations are those? The answer: Not decorations at all. (Whew!) Turns out, these are pool molds—we make them ourselves and then use them to manufacture our fiberglass pools. Fancy, right? But what does all that really mean? Let's talk about these weird-looking lumps: What a pool mold is, and what it is not How we make a mold for a fiberglass pool How we use a mold for a fiberglass pool How we maintain a mold for a fiberglass pool
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We have some exciting news today, so I'm going to take a brief break from pool costs and maintenance to share it with you!
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Retaining Walls, Fence, and Landscaping | Swimming Pool Design
Some of us (like my friend Ed and my mother) have a green thumb. Some of us (like me) have a black thumb. I either over-water or under-water any houseplants I try to nurture; low-maintenance succulents are the best I can manage, and even that is hit or miss. When you're planning the plants to put around your pool, you'll of course want to pick the prettiest species. But hold your horses! Yes, beauty is important, but there are more strategic elements you need to consider too.
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Is drowning really an issue? Yes! I know it's easy to think, "That only happens to other people." We get lazy. We make assumptions. But this is the absolute worst time to learn what they say about people who assume. Drowning kills children under 5 years old more than anything else besides birth defects. About 1 in 5 people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another 5 receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries. We can prevent these tragedies by knowing both how to prevent potential issues beforehand and what to do if an accident does occur.
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Pools are party central, basically by nature. They're a great opportunity to win over your grumpy neighbors or spend quality time with your extended family. And, bonus, they offer a reprieve for awkward guests like me, who answer three questions about writing or work and then hide behind the refreshments table for ten minutes. Here at River Pools, we've learned that pools bring people together like nothing else. We specialize in fiberglass pools, but we're here to help you regardless of whether or not you buy a pool from us. Whether you have 3 guests or 30 (which seems like a lot to me, but still), we want to help you make the most of this bonding experience. And it's so satisfying to pull off a successful party!
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You've invested so much into your pool. Time. Money. Sweat. Maybe even tears (although I hope not). And now some storm wants to come in and mess up your oasis? Not today, Satan! If a natural disaster is on its way, you can follow these guidelines to storm-proof your pool as much as possible. And this doesn't apply to only a hurricane or tornado per se, but any big storm, especially with high winds.
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