iOS Applications

There are couple of free iOS mobile applications that might you find useful for landscaping and decking.

One is Green Garden by the Aquarium of the Pacific. This lets you visually plan a garden. It gives you more than several ground covers, shrubs, flowers, and trees to choose from. Using the touch feature of your iPad or iPhone you can add or remove a digital representation of the plant easily. Each plant listed comes with a description and a link to its Wiki page. When you feel satisfied with a design you can simply save it to your iOS camera roll.

The decking related app is called Deck Visualizer. It's not a above ground pool deck app, but it's free and somewhat useful because it gives you a good picture of what different decking colors and styles will look like. The best thing about it is that you can upload a picture of your home or backyard, which gives you a quick visual preview of your future deck in a real setting. It could be useful during your above ground pool deck planning phase.

As always, enjoy your pool.

Regards,

Paul
How to Build a Pool Deck

Mobile apps for building a pool deck?

Well, I haven't found anything specific in the Apple store yet. But there are some apps that you might find useful.

1. DIY Chat Room -- a social networking app that lets you chat and ask questions with other DIY builders.

2. DIY Tool Box

3. Ugly Pools -- an iPhone app that offers tips on how to care for your swimming pool.

I haven't used these apps yet and I make no claims on their function or reliability. These are apps I stumbled across while browsing Apple's app store today. If you've gone mobile it's probably a good idea to see what other decking or DIY apps are out there.

Speaking of mobile, the free eBook "How to Build a Pool Deck" looks great in iBooks!

Enjoy your pool!

Building around a pool deck safely

This was the fourth part of the Createyourdeck.com email series. You'll learn the standard personal safety precautions you must take in order to prevent an accident or injury while building your above ground pool deck.

Before starting your project and during the construction of your pool deck you should always have a "safety first" mentality.

Building an above ground pool deck should be something you really enjoy, but a preventable injury can turn into a bad time quickly.

Here are some standard personal safety precautions to remember:

1. If you don't know how or you're not sure how to do certain tasks or handle certain tools, ask someone who knows.

2. If you need to rent any tools, or buy any power tools, ask a staff member at your local home improvement center for instructions and a demonstration.

3. Wear safety glasses. Especially when using a saw or hammer.

4. Always pay attention to your work. Pay special attention when using a power tool.

5. Wear knee pads when working on one or both knees.

6. Do not leave tools of any sort on top of a ladder.

7. Wear a dust mask when doing any task that raises dust, like sawing.

8. Wear tighter fitting clothes because loose clothes are at risk of tripping you or being caught in machinery.

9. Wear hard-soled work boots, preferably steel toed.

10. Know your ability and your physical limitations. Take breaks.

These are generally accepted personal safety procedures. You might discover more good safety procedures through your own pool deck building experience and research.

Most importantly, by following these general safety rules you will reduce your chances of an accident or injury and go a long way to ensuring that your deck construction remains safe and fun.

There is more on above ground pool deck plans in the free open license ebook "How to Build a Pool Deck".

Create Your Own Wraparound Deck

I'm going to cover a familiar sounding theme but one that is crucial if you're going to build a solid deck around your above ground pool. And that is planning.

I'm sometimes asked to look at a persons pool deck plans and comment on the design. This is a difficult thing to do unless I'm looking at a persons backyard and learning more about what they really want out of the deck.

So I usually ask, "why are you building an above ground pool deck?"

The answer for many people, and perhaps this is true of yourself, is common...

• You just want a simple deck that will make the yard and above ground pool look better.
  

• You want a basic deck so you can watch your kids swim without having to stand on your toes.
  

In other words, many of you just a have a basic need for an above ground pool deck and you want it built relatively quickly so you can enjoy it during the summer, or at least before the summer is over.

If this describes you then I recommend you build a wraparound pool deck on a floating foundation.

This is a common deck that is regarded by many as the easiest to plan and build. It fits around most oval above ground pools and does not require digging for post holes.

It's the deck we use for the step-by-step construction chapter of our eBook How to Build a Pool Deck.

If simplicity is what you want, then a wraparound deck on a floating foundation is the one for you and it will look great too.

As always, enjoy your pool!

Regards,

Paul Ottaviano
Createyourdeck.com