Month: June 2018

This beautiful new pool in Chippenham, Wiltshire, was built from scratch by Cambridgeshire pool specialists, Aqualeaf, using Certikin equipment
from top to bottom. With two young grandchildren, safety was of paramount importance. Fortunately, the multi-tasking Walu safety cover met all the customer’s requirements, including great value for money and stylish good looks.

It was just eight weeks from excavation to the completion of this beautiful new pool. Certikin supplied all the filtration in the plant room including ABS pipe work, all connectors, unions, ball valves and pipe clips, an Aquaspeed circulation pump, a Vision filter with glass media and Rainbow in line chlorine feeder with non-return valve.

Aqualeaf also turned to Certikin to supply a Calorex heat pump for heating the pool in the summer months and a 180 BTU oil fired boiler with outdoor flue for the winter months so that the pool maintains a constant temperature of 30 degrees for the owners to swim in all year round. The pool shell features a Certikin light grey bag liner, plus two LED PU6 lights. All fittings are grey to give a contemporary finish and all pipe work is Quadrapool flexible piping with compression fittings for maximum durability. The pool surround includes a Certikin four tread stainless steel ladder with hinge plate adaption kit so that the customer doesn’t need to remove the ladder each time the pool is covered and uncovered.

Wahey the Walu!

Adorning the pool is a Walu. Aqualeaf Director, Paul Carman says: “Our customer chose the pale grey Walu Starlight manual safety cover, firstly, because there’s two young children in the family and, secondly, because of its contemporary sleek appearance. It comes with the added bonus of requiring no roller on the pool deck. The Walu sits snugly on the poolside rather than floating like a solar blanket, so large debris is kept out of the pool. From a cost point of view, it is considerably cheaper than other automatic safety covers on the market, while also getting rid of the need for both a winter debris and solar/heat retention blanket because the Walu does both jobs!”

Scoring a hit with the customer, Mrs Jones says of the Walu: “We love its appearance and it’s super easy to use.” Turning to the installation she added: “It went very smoothly indeed. Aqualeaf carried out the project to schedule, completing it just in time for an early summer heatwave! Overall, an excellent job.”

Walu: When three becomes one

The hard working Walu offers three covers for the price of one: installing a Walu means you can dispense with a solar bubble cover and reel system, a winter debris cover and all other safety systems as the Walu will do it all for you!

First and foremost, the Walu is a safety cover. Manufactured to the stringent French NF P90-308 safety standard, it comfortably holds the required test weight of 100kg (approx.15.5 stone). In addition, the Walu offers solar and heat retention benefits and acts as a first class winter cover.

The most unique feature of the Walu cover range is its modular design. Unlike other safety covers, where the whole system needs to be replaced if it is damaged, all individual parts on the Walu cover are replaceable. The cover’s panels and anodised aluminium tubes can easily be exchanged on site for new pieces, restoring the cover to its original standard.

Walu covers all bases

The best-selling Walu Evolution is suitable for all pool shapes up to 11m x 5m and the lower profile Walu Starlight for rectangular pools up to 11m by 5m.For in-ground pools, the lighter weight, lower cost Walu-Eco will cover almost any pool up to 10m x 5m.

For in-ground pools, the lighter weight, lower cost Walu-Eco will cover almost any pool up to 10m x 5m.

Shaping for ladders and step sections can be accommodated on all models without any compromise to safety.

For above ground timber pools, the uniqueWalu-Woodstar offers all of the safety and operational features of the in-ground Walu covers, but is specifically modelled to fit the timber frame of an above ground pool.

The Walu range is available in a series of opaque colours which shut out light. This slows down the growth of algae and pathogenic micro-organisms which considerably reduces the need for chemicals.

The Evolution and Starlight also come in asemi-translucent white fabric which offers solargain benefits.

High wind anchor straps are supplied as standard High wind anchor straps are supplied as standard(excluding the Walu-Eco) and the Evolution and Starlight models come with a unique, easy use, quick release system as standard. All fabrics are of a reinforced flexible composite with an anti-abrasion treatment and all fittings are stainless steel.

The Walu is easy to install and operate. It weighs just 1.250 kg per sq metre (1.15kg per sq metre for Eco and Woodstar) and can be rolled by just one person using a 4:1 ratio geared down manual crank (or two people using two cranks for pools sizes over 50 sqm). Covering the pool usually takes less than three minutes and the cover takes up very little space. Alternatively, you can purchase a Walu-Power motorised winding system which makes removing the cover effortless. The Walu-Power is a fully rechargeable system which needs no maintenance and is suitable for all in-ground pool cover sizes.

Aqualeaf Limited | 01223 930291 | aqualeaf.co.uk

Recognising that aside from academic rigor, high quality sports facilities top most parents’ wish list when choosing schools, Bethany School in Goudhurst Kent, recently invested in the installation of an award winning 25m pool. Involving West-Sussex based Fowler Swimming Pools and Reading-based Norwegian Log Buildings, it was no surprise that the impressive £1.35 million project featured a plethora of Certikin equipment.

Illustrating how independent schools have grasped the nettle when recognising the importance of providing top quality sports facilities, is Bethany School in Kent. Set in the stunning Kent Weald countryside, Bethany is a co-educational school for pupils aged 11 to 18. The school, and others like it, serve to increase the great divide between the fee paying and public sector, where sadly more and more swimming pools are closing out of financial exigency.

The school’s brief to the main contractor, Fowler Swimming Pools, was to replace a tired old 1930s outdoor pool and build a high quality, indoor 25m x 11.6m deck level, fully tiled pool with depths of 1m to 1.8m. Fowler and Norwegian Log Buildings designed the complex and were able to achieve planning permission in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Fowler identified and specified the pool’s key ingredients to meet the school’s exacting energy saving requirements.

Tom Holman, MD of Fowlers says: “We had no hesitation in turning to Certikin for the full kit, which included filters, pumps, flow control fittings, pipework, Delta 14 AHU environmental control unit, Certikin DU4 commercial UV and automatic chemical dosing.

“Fowler Swimming Pools has been a Certikin customer for well over 35 years. We like Certikin’s one stop shop facility and, working on a project of this size, we particularly appreciated Steve Nelson and his Commercial team’s technical assistance. Certikin is a reliable and efficient supply chain and its goods are of the highest quality. The company’s excellent after-service back-up is reassuring and it means we buy with total confidence.”

Housed in a bespoke solid log building, built by Reading-based Norwegian Log, with changing rooms and an office, the pool boasts underwater lighting, spectator seating and starting blocks. The install, including external works, access paths and retaining walls, took 16 months to complete.  Despite extremely challenging ground conditions and harsh winter weather, Fowler Swimming Pools delivered the project with minimum disruption to the school.

Tom says: “This was the wettest site we had worked on for a long time. We had to install a new ground drainage system and instead of conventional foundations, had to pile. But once that had been done it was straightforward. The log building and pool definitely have the ‘wow factor’ and will benefit the school and pupils for many years to come.”

Headmaster, Francie Healy says: “We are delighted with our six lane 25m swimming pool; it is a first-class facility and has certainly raised sporting aspirations at Bethany.They did a superb job in very difficult circumstances and we are thrilled with it. The pool has widened our sporting profile, allowing swimming to be part of our sports programme all year round; we are now hosting swimming galas and meets with other schools and the pool is also used as part of the PE curriculum for all year groups, teaching lifesaving and fitness training within the Sports Scholarship programme.”

Pictured at the opening of the school pool is double Olympic Gold medallist, Rebecca Adlington, flanked on the left by MD of Fowler Swimming Pools, Tom Holman and on the right Nick Forrester, MD of Norwegian Log Buildings Ltd.

Fowler Swimming Pools Ltd |  01403 864373 |  fowlerswimmingpools.co.uk

Norwegian Log | 01189 669 236 | norwegianlog.co.uk