IPD POOL & SPA
Pool Care Tips & Advice
Designing the Perfect Florida Poolside Oasis
Imagine this: a tranquil retreat in your Florida backyard, where your pool becomes the focal point of a peaceful outdoor sanctuary. Crafting the perfect poolside haven isn't just a task; it's an art. Explore these practical tips to transform your outdoor area into a...
Swim for your Life: The Therapeutic Benefits of Swimming
The advantages of owning a swimming pool extend far beyond the pleasure of having your own private oasis in which to relax, spend time with your family, cool off on a hot day or entertain friends. Swimming is also exceptionally good for your health. As it turns out,...
Does a Swimming Pool Add Value to Your Home?
The debate is at least as ancient as Rome, where the first heated swimming pool was built for Gaius Maecenas—an adviser to Emperor Augustus Caesar—sometime between 38 and 8 BC. The question under debate: Does a swimming pool add value to your house? (Or palazzo, as ...
Cycling Through the Seasons: How Changing Weather Impacts Your Pool
Now that autumn is finally chipping away at Florida’s long season of heat and humidity, we’re all feeling a bit lighter. And less grumpy. But even as the changing weather lifts our spirits it can also spell trouble for our swimming pools. Seasonal changes in the...
Wait. What? There’s an App for That?
I am no stranger to pool care. I have cleaned, maintained, and yes, even painted swimming pools on and off since I was a kid. Now, decades later, I am living the dream in Southwest Florida. But still managing my own pool. It’s not that I can’t afford a pool service,...
Smart Ways to Enjoy the Pool During an Excessive Heat
Whoever coined the literary saying, "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" undoubtedly spent a summer or two in Florida. For only the craziest of canines, or a perennially sun-starved Brit, would dare venture out into Florida’s midday heat for any...
How to Make Swimming More Interesting for Your Kids
If you can pry your kids from their phones for more than a split second this summer, they might discover much better ways to use their time off from school. One of those ways is swimming, an especially welcome form of recreation given Florida’s famously hot summers....
How to Prepare Your Swimming Pool for a Hurricane
Scientists believe that a combination of geographic and atmospheric variables helps explain why hurricanes never seem to draw a bead on Sarasota. Local folklore, on the other hand, suggests our good fortune at avoiding “the big one” is the result of an old Indian...
The Cost of Cleaning Your Swimming Pool: Doing it Yourself vs. Hiring a Pro
I am no stranger to pool care. Indeed, pool and lawn maintenance were a large part of my life growing up. Failure to perform one or both of these assigned weekly tasks could result in a dramatic loss of income (aka, allowance); or worse, the withholding of dad’s car...
Interview Questions for a Pool Service Technician
Where I came from up north, there were far fewer backyard swimming pools dotting the residential landscape than the huge number I encountered upon resettling in Southwest Florida. Up there, fewer pools meant fewer choices of pool service technicians. But thanks to our...
Ask Me About My Dream Swimming Pool: Questions Your Pool Builder Should Ask Before Designing Your Pool
These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find an architect or custom home builder worth their salt who doesn’t begin the design process without first learning as much as possible about their client’s lifestyle habits and aspirations. Gathering such intelligence makes for...
The Pros and Cons of Saltwater Pools
The first time I ever heard of a saltwater pool, my mind immediately pictured my own swimming pool, but with rolling, sea-green water and foamy whitecaps, just like the ocean. Surely, I thought, this must be some newfangled way to purify your pool water without using...