There is a profound need for a specialized perimeter overflow pool service in Encino. A perimeter overflow pool is designed to be full ‘to the brim’, with a small grille-covered trench that circumscribes the pool. Water comes up over the edge of the pool and falls into the grill, from whence simple gravity pulls it through the filtration system.

There are certain advantages to maintaining a perimeter overflow pool, but there are some distinct complications as well. On the good side, things like dirt and leaves flow naturally onto the perimeter where they can be swept away rather than skimmed off. On the down side, the catchment — the part that collects the muck and grime that is small enough to get through the grate but that you don’t want to reach and clog the filter — needs regular cleaning which can be a real pain.

Some pool cleaning Los Angeles businesses suggest that such pools be designed to minimize the amount of water that flows over the edge of the pool, but that’s part of the problem. A slightly higher flow rate will help direct unwanted material over the edge and into the gutter. The other end of the same stick is that you’ll get a little bit more evaporation, so the pool will require slightly more chemicals to achieve the right pH and chlorine balances, but the improved cleanliness is well worth it.

Similarly, few pool services in the Encino area bring pressure washers with them, which are a regular necessity when it comes to cleaning a perimeter overflow pool. That’s because the gutters can easily get clogged with various forms of organic gunk (often twigs play a large role), and a regular garden hose doesn’t have the power to blast it away and clean it out. A pool service smart enough to have and bring a pressure washer would be a great addition to the area’s repertoire.

There are a lot of top quality pool cleaning and repair services in the Encino area, don’t get me wrong — but a few professional devoted exclusively to the art of perimeter overflow service would be nice.

There aren’t all that many reasons why you might need to call up a pool repair Los Angeles company. Most commonly, you’ll need help with:

• Maintaining the water balance
• Repairing holes or tears in the vinyl or liner of your pool
• Unclogging the filters that take flotsam and gunk out of your pool water
• Fixing a malfunctioning pump

Each of these issues can be and often is cared for by a pool service. (Agoura generally has the least expensive pool services in the LA area, so if you leave near that area, call someone over from Agoura to do your pool service and you can save a few bucks.)

Water balance generally means maintaining enough chlorine in the pool to keep it safe to swim in without having so much chlorine in the pool that it makes it unsafe to swim in. Chlorination is mandated by the State of California at the minimum level of 1 part per million, but too much chlorine can cause skin irritation, chemical burns, and even blindness. The pH of the water also needs to be kept above 7.0.

The vinyl liner of a swimming pool can get brittle if the water balance isn’t maintained, and once brittle, it can tear or puncture easily. If the pH of the water does fall below 7.0, a series of complex chemical reactions in the water can cause the liner to expand, develop wrinkles, and eventually degrade and wear through. Too much chlorine can have a similar effect. The end result is that the water trickles out of your pool, not only getting chlorine into the earth beneath your yard, but requiring constant refilling and more regular chemical treatments to maintain the proper water balance.

The pool filter is very important for making sure that the pool remains free of not only debris but microscopic living things as well. If the filter becomes clogged or simply fills up, it can lead to waterborne diseases living in your pool and waiting to take advantage of you when you swim.

The pump is necessary to move the water through the filter — without the pump, the filter can’t do it’s job, and all of the problems of a bad filter can happen even though the filter is just fine.

It can be difficult, especially for a newbie pool owner, to pick out the right one out of dozens of services for your Woodland Hills swimming pool. In large part, that’s because there is more than one pool service in Woodland Hills, and they all claim to be the best.

With several competing services to choose between, what’s the best way to determine the best one to work on your family’s favorite water feature? Well, as it happens, there are a few questions that even someone with no knowledge of the craft can ask to separate the pool-cleaning men from the pool-cleaning boys.

The Basics
Are they licensed? This is obvious: if they can’t prove that the State of California will vouch for their ability to clean a pool, you don’t want to let them near yours.

Are they bonded? Equally important, if they don’t have insurance that will fix any mistakes they do make, you don’t want to give them the chance to make a mistake in the first place.

Are they insured? Any time anyone works on anything at your house, they need to provide proof of liability and proof of worker’s compensation insurance. If they don’t have both, you could end up being liable for their medical bills if they injure themselves, and no one needs that.

The Important Stuff
Do they have experience with your pool? Asking a company that normally only cleans hot tubs or hotel swimming pools to come deal with your backyard pool isn’t a guarantee of failure, but it’s kind of silly when Woodland Hills has companies clearly able and willing to deal with the precise kind of pool you have in your yard.

Do they provide the materials? There are several pool services in the WH that bring their own chemicals, testing supplies, filter cartridges, and other accoutrements. If the one you’re talking to doesn’t offer that service, call another.

Do they give references? This accomplishes two goals at once: first, to demonstrate that they’ve been in business for a while, and second, to establish that they have happy customers. Talk to each company’s references and don’t stop until you find some that satisfy you.

When you talk about kinds of pool service, Northridge has several varieties — but there’s a caveat. Some companies offer only one kind of pool service, whereas others offer a full panoply of pool services.

From major swimming pool companies all the way down to the independent contractors that are available through Craigslist and the newspapers, pool people can take the guesswork out of pool maintenance. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a standalone backyard pool or a giant Olympic-level pool and associated diving pool — all pools follow the same basic rules.

Northridge has professionals that can service any and all of those pools. Pools of all sizes need to be vacuumed, skimmed, chemically balanced, and algaecided. Filtration systems need to be back flushed, cleaned, and maintained. Pump motors need to be oiled, inspected, and occasionally repaired. Experienced pool owners can do some to most of this, but even the most experienced owners should call out a relevant pool service at least once each year — at the beginning of the hot season, before heavy use starts. Commonly, such a service will come with a warranty that will ensure that the pool service handles the cost of the repairs if something breaks down after they visit.

That once a year visit is an important asset if for no other reason that — even if you’re planning on maintaining your pool more or less on your own — the pool service can properly test your water, give you suggestions on where to inexpensively maintain (and how to store) your pool chemicals, and otherwise update your pool maintenance routine. Many of them will be happy to sell you the chemicals you need at a great price; some will even deliver them to your home. Any other supplies you need to keep your pool in good repair — like new filters –are generally also available through the relevant kind of pool service.

Generally, it doesn’t matter if you run with a service that specializes in your specific type pool (for example, ‘specific’ might refer to a hotel-only pool cleaning Los Angeles business), or you choose a pool place that services all kinds of pools — the rules are the same, so run with the one that feels the most personable to you.

We received this email from a man who used our pool service. Van Nuys‘ branch of our Woodland Hills swimming pool service company has a reputation for being very customer-friendly, and this note — well, it says it all.

* * *

Last winter, I purchased my dream house in Van Nuys — a gorgeous place. I’ve always been one of those people who wanted a pool, so of course my dream house had to have one. When the weather started to get warm, I couldn’t wait to get my pool running so my wife and kid could enjoy the water. That’s when I realized that I had no idea what it took to make a pool good to swim in.

I looked around online and I got totally confused — there’s a lot of jargon. I thought at first that pH balancing was what the chlorine did, and I wanted to know why you’d try to run electricity through your pool (‘shocking’ it). I was a complete doofus about it. So, I looked around for a pool service, thinking I’d ask them what I had to do, and then do it.

I called My Pool Pro, and they sent a guy out within 48 hours. The rep was really chill and calm, and made me relax about the pool He took a look at it and told me that there were several little things, but that it was mostly OK. He suggested that I get it professionally cleaned and cared for, but he wasn’t pushy about it. I asked if he could do it right then and there, and he said yes!

I watched him do all of the steps, and I must have asked about a thousand questions — most of them were ‘can I do this myself? What do I need?’. He was extraordinarily helpful. He showed me how to handle the more dangerous chemicals (never add chemicals to water, always add water to chemicals!) and gave me the name of a place I could get them myself.

Having the My Pool Pro man come over was the best thing that ever happened to the relationship between me and my pool. Thanks!

It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, because there are some groups out there who have the knowledge and expertise (and time and money) to maintain their own pool — but by and large, if you have a pool, you should have a pool service. Tarzana has several to choose between, and they all provide necessary services to maintain your pool effectively.

Swimming pools exist in sizes and purposes that range from the small kidney-bean pools alongside some residences to massive Olympic swimming pools in professional swim teams’ facilities. Large municipal or resort operations frequently possess multiple pools in the same structure. Some pools are maintained by a homeowner, others by a staff of experts who know every detail of the fluid entity they keep perfectly swim-ready.

The one thing that binds nearly all of these groups is the need to have a Tarzana pool cleaner come in and take care of the various details that have, over possibly months of use, fallen by the wayside.

An individual homeowner might believe that a pool service is overkill, and that he can maintain his pool just fine on his own because it doesn’t see that much use. A professional group such as a swim team might similarly believe that they don’t need a pool service because they have people on staff who are supposed to take care of everything. Both of them are wrong, for one simple reason: being next to a pool 24/7 makes you blind to the slow, subtle changes in a pool.

Calling in a pool service once a year — or once a season if your pool sees year-round use — gives you a chance to get a set of expert eyes on the potential problems. Eyes that haven’t been inured by the slow changes to the pool — eyes that will take the time to do all of the necessary tests that can inform them of how the pool is doing on the atomic level. Without that essential separation, you never know what might develop due to small gaps in your routine or knowledge – and that’s why every Tarzana pool owner should have a pool service.

In Part I of The Critical Importance of Pool Cleaning in Los Angeles, we explored the reasons why it’s extremely crucial that a pool owner engage in a little bit of basic maintenance in addition to having a pool service come out and do the difficult stuff. What follows is a simple four-step system for performing monthly maintenance on your pool. It’s not designed to keep a pool perfect year-round, but it is designed to be the easiest way to minimize the cost of your pool repair. Los Angeles, as mentioned in part I, isn’t the most expensive place for pool repair, but that’s no reason to shirk your duties as a pool owner, especially when they’re this easy:

Step 1: Maintaining the Chemistry
Pool water must be at a specific chemical balance in order to accomplish two difficult-to-balance goals. The first is to keep the pool safe to swim in health-wise, and the second is to maximize the lifespan of your pool equipment. The first step is to make sure that the chlorine tablets (or sticks or what have you) are visible in the chlorine reservoir at all times. Once each month (once per week during the high-use period of the summer), you’ll want to shock the pool using granular chlorine. This process temporarily but dramatically raises the chlorine balance in the water, eliminating all biological life forms that may be growing in the pool.

Step 2: Preventing Algae
Algae can start to grow with incredible speed under the right conditions — and unfortunately, those conditions tend to be exactly the conditions that humans like to swim in. Warm air, windless weather, and water that isn’t over-chlorinated all contribute to algae growth. Once a month, or any time you notice the water is cloudy or greenish, use a quality algaecide to keep it from becoming a problem.

Step 3: Balancing pH
If the acidity or alkalinity of the water in your pool becomes too extreme, the water becomes unsafe to swim in. Improper pH can cause skin irritation and even blisters as well as cloudy pool water. Once a month (again, once per week in the summer), use a litmus tester to check the pH of your pool and add balancing chemicals as required.

Step 4: Balancing Calcium
In modern fiberglass and other fixed-liner pools, the lining of the pool uses calcium to remain flexible. Water that is too low in calcium will leech the calcium out of your pool’s liner and make it fragile. Once a month, check the pool’s calcium and add some granular calcium if necessary.

It’s undeniable that, especially in a climate like LA’s, there are a lot of great reasons to own a swimming pool — but they do come with some great responsibilities, one of which is pool cleaning. Los Angeles pools are even more in need of regular cleaning than similar pools in places like Phoenix or Las Vegas, if for no other reason than that the atmosphere around LA isn’t as clean.

It can be easy to discard this need — after all, your pool is a place of peace. Exercise, socialization, relaxation, and freedom are the hallmarks of pool ownership, and it’s so tempting to just let that be that and not engage in the basic maintenance that pools require. But if you don’t, you risk more than just a clogged drain.

When you don’t maintain your pool, your first loss is either your pool itself or your health — because if you don’t use your pool, you might as well not have it, but swimming in an unclean pool is a recipe for ear infections, eye infections, and much worse. It might sometimes seem that it takes an inordinate amount of time and energy to maintain a pool, but the results of not doing so are even more wasteful.

Fortunately, it’s not difficult to hire a pool service. Los Angeles pool cleaners tend to run toward the middle of the pack when it comes to price, but you can generally keep that down by doing a bit of work yourself. If you perform the most basic maintenance on a regular basis — keeping the pool free of leaves and gunk, ensuring the filters are unclogged and the chlorine or other cleaning tablets haven’t completely dissolved — the pool service will find it’s job easier, which means less expense for you.

In Part II, we will explore four simple ways that you can keep your pool clean and swim-worthy between visits from the pool cleaner — four ways to keep your maintenance costs down without overworking yourself along the way.