- in a pool is very bad news. To avoid getting any broken glass in your pool keep all glassware - that's bottles, glasses, salad-bowls, candle-holders, ash-trays, etc. - well away from the pool area
By 'well away' I mean not near the pool and not in the pool area. Buy unbreakable Polycarbonate bar-ware and plates for use around the Pool, Deck or Terrace
Clear glass is almost invisible when it's in the pool (although it does fluoresce under a bright 'black-light' source) and represents a very real danger to swimmers, which is why I'm forever advising our clients and subscribers to keep all and any glass items away from the pool to reduce the chances of any broken glass getting into the water
Pool Safety goes a lot further than installing a security barrier to prevent kids falling in the pool - you should also plan ahead to prevent accidents from happening, like this one . . .
In the summer of 2006 we were called out to a pool where an accident had taken place
There had been a pool party the previous evening and, somehow, a glass had been left on the steps. When the pump started up on the timer in the morning the jets washed the glass off the steps and it rolled into the pool
About 11a.m. the teenage son dragged himself from his bed, jumped into the shallow end and landed on the broken glass. The glass shattered under his foot, lacerating his sole and slicing the tendons of his foot
He was hospitalised for emergency surgery, spent the rest of the summer hopping about and is (possibly) still limping from the experience. Like so many ex-pats he was not covered by Medical Insurance. That was just the start of their financial troubles
As mentioned above, clear glass is invisible in water and so, wishing to avoid further accidents, the parents agreed over the phone that the pool should be emptied to ensure that all remnants of the broken glass were removed. (Draining the pool and sweeping the floor is the only 100% sure way to remove all the glass)
The pool was on an Urbanisation without main drains and so the pool had to be emptied by tanker trucks; at a cost of €520
The tanker company could not begin the work for a few days and in that time the pool went green (all Chlorine had been depleted by the blood in the water), the pH rose and the walls of the pool and the sand-filter became badly calcified
We carried out the repairs to the pool; we acid-washed the walls, replaced the Silex in the filter with Zeolite and arranged for the pool to be re-filled by the same chuckling tanker driver – at a further cost of €660 for the water
We then supplied the start-up pool-chemicals, etc, etc. Perhaps in total the whole affair cost the family somewhere around €5-6000 including the private medical bills. Quite an expensive party, all in all!
In early February 2007 I attended the Spatex Pool Exhibition in Brighton and found, amongst other pool-related items, an elegant collection of Polycarbonate Barware; something for which I had been searching for quite some time
The advantage of Polycarbonate is that it is unbreakable in normal use and is therefore safe to use around the pool, it looks and feels like traditional glass, is microwave-safe and good for 2000 dishwasher cycles. The manufacturers, who are in New Zealand, guarantee their hand-finished products for 5 years.
(It's cunningly called Click-Clack; for the noise they make when you 'clink' glasses!)
Please visit http://www.poolschool.eu
who carry a stock of Click-Clack
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Ken Walker - MyPoolGuru©