New pool cover designs provide safety while creating landscape unity

by Sally Bouorm | June 1, 2014 3:49 pm

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By Mike Preuit

Safety covers were developed to keep pools safe when they are not in use, or closed for the season. In some parts of North America, pools are closed for the same length or sometimes longer than the actual swimming season (i.e. the 2013-14 winter/spring). That being said, many of today’s backyard landscapes are designed with the swimming pool serving as the focal point. During the offseason, homeowners are forced to look at their closed pool for many months and the last thing they want to see is an unsightly cover or nasty swamp that does not co-ordinate with the theme or style of the backyard. As a result, more consumers are asking about safety cover colour options and savvy retailers are picking up on this and altering their sales approach by focusing on having the safety cover complement the backyard décor—even when the pool is closed for the season.

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Not only do these new colours help sell more covers, the profits for retailers can be much higher when selling designer safety covers, which have become extremely popular over the last few years.

When safety covers first hit the market, there were only two colour options—green and blue—and one fabric type. Today, manufacturers not only offer various colour options, but also different fabric types—mesh and solid—which offer different benefits to the end user. Black and tan, grey and blue, and now patterned fabrics that combine black and tan mesh are available to give consumers a choice when co-ordinating the safety cover with other backyard décor.

A changing attitude

Jeff Simmons from Sandollar Pools in Brewer, Me., is one example of a pool professional that has altered his safety cover sales pitch with a new emphasis on the benefits of year-long backyard beautification with the purchase and installation of a designer safety cover.

“In this area, swimming pools are closed and covered for up to eight months of the year. In this regard, homeowners still want the pool area to look nice during this time,” says Simmons. “Most people are familiar with or had a tarp-style cover, which uses water bags to keep it in place. These covers are not particularly attractive as they become a basin for leaves and water, creating an untidy eyesore in the backyard.”

As a result, Simmons says it is easy to convince people to put a safety cover on their pool simply by explaining the virtues of a cover that will look terrific when their pool is closed.

“These covers fit tight and straight, and as an added bonus they will make their pool area safer in the winter,” he adds.

Mike Mancini of Fox Pool and Spa Leisure Centre in Burlington, Ont., agrees. He says there is definitely a trend toward upselling customers into purchasing a safety cover over a standard vinyl tarp and the new colours manufacturers are making available are helping the sale.

“We always include a standard vinyl safety cover in our new pool construction package with an additional cost to upgrade to a safety cover, but today’s pool designs don’t really lend themselves to standard winter covers,” says Mancini. “Water features and retaining walls alone make it virtually impossible to use a standard winter tarp.”

Mancini finds his customers who are interested in having a safety cover want it to co-ordinate with their backyard.

“It started with tan colours, which looks great with natural stone and interlocking pavers,” he adds. “Now we are seeing an increase in demand for grey mesh safety covers in backyards where the home has similar colours and tones.”

For many consumers, it is not just the colour that is important, it is the simple fact the cover looks good and does not become a vessel that accumulates water and debris.

“We find customers who had a standard vinyl winter cover installed when they first had their pool built are interested in a safety cover when it comes time to replace the cover,” says Mancini. “They have seen their neighbours’ pools which have safety covers and realize how much cleaner the pool looks and how the entire backyard is more esthetically pleasing when a cover that matches the backyard’s colour-scheme is used.”

Most of the pools Sandollar Pools builds or services are designed with ‘natural’ colours—in the immediate pool area as well as throughout the landscape, which has made them quite successful when selling new safety cover fabric colours.

“Black and tan shades, and now new patterned fabric, are very attractive and easy to sell,” says Simmons, who helps guide his customers toward the colours he thinks will look best. “I discourage blue because they don’t want to emphasize the pool in their backyard during the winter, but instead have a cohesive looking backyard landscape.”

He also often recommends green covers, especially when the customer has a heavily landscaped backyard in which this colour will look most attractive. Selling backyard beautification allows pool retailers to get away from selling covers as a commodity, but rather as a custom product that can command a higher price tag.

Retailers benefit from offering options

By offering a variety of colours and designs to match almost any backyard décor, safety cover manufacturers have responded to consumer demand.

“Pool owners are now looking for covers which blend into the environment; they want them to look as natural as their pools,” says Dan Rookard of Rookard Custom Pools, in eastern Washington State. “I recommend new designer colours because they look terrific. Every consumer wants something different, so I like to have an option for everyone.”

Pool owners want unique looking backyards, which has made custom-shaped pools with various poolside features (e.g. slides, waterfalls, rock features, etc.) the norm. All of these custom features can be challenging to cover when the pool needs to be closed in the winter—especially in areas where temperatures can range from -16 C (2 F) in the winter (with anywhere from 0.4 to 0.6 m [1.3 to 1.9 ft] of snow) and 32 C (92 F) in the summer.

“The best way to cover these pools is with a safety cover,” says Rookard, who adds selling safety covers has never been difficult for him, but having more colours to offer definitely sets him apart from his competitors, including those selling covers on the Internet.

“The more colour options I have to offer, the better. No one wants to feel limited. If they do, they might go somewhere else; therefore, I highly recommend carrying the new designer colours as you never know what the customer may have in mind.”

Mancini agrees. It is important to offer a variety of colour options to consumers, just as it is important to offer a variety of vinyl liner patterns. In the end, it is the client who needs to select the colour they will see when the pool is closed. Further, consumers like to have choice.

Rookard notes, safety is still very important, too—having an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)-certified pool cover to protect kids and pets is important—but having a good looking safety cover is an added bonus.

What determines the colour?

Much about safety cover colour selection depends on the landscape. For example, a lot of swimming pools today are built with stone and rock water features, which co-ordinates nicely with tan and grey cover materials—especially since the cover fastens right up next to the rock without leaving any gaps or exposed areas.

In many cases, the safety cover colour palette the dealer offers will reflect the dominant colours of the natural landscape.

“Only one in 100 customers choose the old aqua colour that was available back in 1962,” says Nicolas White of Cascade Pools & Spas in Lake Oswego, Ore. “I sell a lot of tan and grey covers to match the flagstone used around the pool area and on the decking. It goes hand-in-hand with the fact many homeowners are no longer using white plaster on pool deck surfaces, nor blue tiles around the pool.”

Richard Deakin of Hollandia Gardens in London, Ont., has been installing safety covers since they first came to market more than 30 years ago. He corroborates with White and says his consumers are no longer choosing blue either as it rarely complements the backyard décor.

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“Black is still at the top of the list in terms of the colours we sell in our area, followed by green, tan and grey,” says Deakin.

Black safety covers are also a top-seller for Phil Paquette at Paquette Pools in Hooksett, N.H., as it has a lot to do with the other accessories that are popular in the area, he says.

“Pool owners are often trying to co-ordinate the cover with the fencing,” says Paquette. “Black fencing (e.g. chain link, powder-coated aluminum, etc.) is common in this area. We also do a lot of dark grey or slate stamped-concrete decks for our customers, and the black safety cover matches nicely with this type of deck. Homeowners are definitely more aware of colour co-ordinating all aspects of their backyard today than in the past.”

Other influential factors

Design specialists and landscape architects have also changed the way pool covers are being selected. For instance, Kent Schillinger, owner of IN2H2O, in Douglasville, Ga., finds an increasing number of his clients come to him after they have paid and consulted with a landscape architect. In these cases, they already have a drawing of the pool produced by the architect and they know what they want to do with their backyard, right down to the colour scheme.

White has also noticed the same trend, where design professionals are also suggesting the colour of the safety cover as part of the overall plan for the backyard.

“These designers typically like grey covers as they look nice with the stamped-concrete colours available today. They make sure everything matches because oftentimes the pool is the focal point of the backyard and it needs to look good year-round,” says White, who often adds some practical advice to go along with the designer’s artistic notions. “We recommend grey and tan covers the most—not only because they co-ordinate well in the backyard, but also because these colours hold up better to fading caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. Also, they don’t show dirt and generally look better in most backyards.”

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For some retailers like H2O2, which have not made a point of heavily promoting new safety cover colours, their customers have been coming to them with specific colour requests simply due to Internet exposure. Homeowners can find photos and literature online for inspiration and ideas on how they want their backyard to look.

“If the homeowner has the budget for a safety cover, they really want it to integrate seamlessly with the rest of their backyard landscape,” says Mancini, noting he gets a lot of feedback from customers after installing mesh tan or grey covers because of how they look in the winter. “Safety cover sales continue to rise from year to year. Thirty-five to 40 per cent of all our cover sales are safety covers.”

Safety and savings are still important

No matter how much customers like the various colours and patterns that are now available, swimming pool safety covers are first and foremost about backyard security. The appeal to style is just a way to make this crucial safety item more appealing, which in turn helps make the selling process a little easier.

For many retailers, the safety aspect these covers offer is still the primary selling feature; however, selling covers with unique colours gives them something else to talk about and, at the same time, distinguishes them from their competition.

“If I design and build a complete backyard landscape with a swimming pool as the focal point, which becomes more esthetically pleasing because I use a coloured safety cover, I will increasingly get more referrals,” says Schillinger. “Manufacturers are doing the right thing to bring in higher-end, higher-quality fabrics and colours. It’s a trend that consumers want, and we as pool builders and installers need to be able to offer these products to remain competitive.”

In addition to backyard security and beautification, safety covers—no matter the colour—also save pool owners money. A safety cover will last a minimum of 10 years and they are easy to install and remove, but more importantly, they also help to reduce the length of time it takes to open a pool.

“We charge $150 per hour to open a pool and with the old tarp covers we can easily spend at least 30 minutes pumping water off the top of the cover,” says Simmons. “Plus, the water bags need to be replaced frequently—five years is a long life for a water bag. Therefore, when everything is said and done, installing a safety cover can represent considerable annual savings for the pool owner.”

This past winter was one of the worst he has seen in the Halton Region in 35 years, adds Mancini.

“Winter covers have taken a beating, so we will likely see a lot of interest in upgrading to designer safety covers in 2014,” he says.

 

[6]Mike Preuit is the national sales manager for Plastimayd LLC’s CoverLogix^® brand of safety covers. He started with the Oregon City, Ore.-based company in 1998 in inside sales and customer service and has been working as the company’s western region outside sales manager for 14 years. He can be reached via e-mail at mikep@coverlogix.com[7].

 

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/new-pool-cover-designs-provide-safety-while-creating-landscape-unity/

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