The only thing worse than not having a pool in this heat is having one that you can't use.

[Xithras]

So, it's been 100+ outside of my house for days. It will be 108-109 today, and is supposed to hit 112 tomorrow. My kids are melting, and the 20 foot by 4.5 foot above ground pool that I bought over two weeks ago is sitting inside my garage in it's unopened boxes. Why? Because I hired a contractor to set it up, and it's now too hot for his guys to work outside.

Too hot to set up a pool...there's a certain crappy irony to that.

[Chan790]

1. I'd call the contractor...

and tell him that if he can't come out and set up the pool today, you'll have to find someone else. I'm sure there's 2 or 3 guys standing outside of Home Depot that will do it cheaply, happily and correctly.

[Xithras]

3. There's a bit more to it than that.

I've set up small above ground pools myself, but in this case we're not only dealing with leveling a serious slope (10" over 23 feet), but we have to pull permits because of the size, build a safety fence around it, trench and run a new electrical circuit to support the equipment, and deal with some drainage problems (french drains under the pool pad).

I just wanted one of those cheapie pools with the blow up rings on top. I got outvoted by everyone else in the family who wanted a "real" pool that they could swim in. The logistics of putting that in, it turns out, are fairly involved.

Hiring a day laborer outside of the Home Depot isn't going to get it done.

[EdwardSmith74]

2. A few years ago our above ground pool was filled with algae in the hottest part of the summer.

It took about a gallon of algaecide and a hell of a lot of chlorine to get it back to a useable state. Then it rained for like two weeks straight. God hates me.

[valerief]

4. No, god hates pools. nt

[EdwardSmith74]

5. Well he let Moses split one open, and I bet there was algae in there too.

[Xithras]

6. I've always wondered about the health of swimming in one of those

I mean, the algae isn't all that appealing to look at, but will swimming in a green pool actually HURT you? You dumped in all that chlorine and algaecide to get it clear, but was there a real need to do that in order to be "safe", or did you fill it with chemicals simply because we have some unreasonable dislike of green water?

I'm curious now. I think I may have to go Google that...

[EdwardSmith74]

7. I have a wife and daughters. Algae is a, well, a "problem" for female parts. Polite as I can put it.

Besides, I had to let it sit for another week just to filter out the extra chemicals. It wasn't our best summer pool experience. I even drained out about half of the water and refilled it. The water bill wasn't pretty that month.

And I've gone skinny dipping in some pretty rude river water. Then again, I was usually drunk at the time, but at least the water was moving. Pools are different. They collect gross stuff and fester and unless you stir it up five times a day and clean out the filter at least twice a day you aren't going to rid it of the nasties. I finally gave up on the pool. It was just too much work. A sprinkler in the back yard is more fun anyway.

[Xithras]

8. Never thought about that...

...and we're nudists, so that could be a big deal for the girl parts.

My Googling of the subject turned up a number of pages saying that the algae itself isn't harmful. The problem tends to be that algae filled pools reflect a lack of maintenance, which often allows plenty of OTHER unfriendly life forms to grow in the water alongside the algae. The green water itself isn't a problem, but it is a warning.