Water chemistry is the part of a holiday house that punishes absence fastest. A pool left alone for three weeks in July does not slowly drift. It turns green, and getting it back costs a fortnight of dosing and a filter clean.
Over the winter the risk is different but the principle is the same: what state the pool is in when you arrive in May was decided in October. Two visits a year matter more than all the others.
Closing in autumn
The aim of closing is not to make the pool look tidy. It is to leave the water, the pipework and the plant in a state that can stand for months without anybody attending to it, and to know exactly what that state was.
Lower the level below the skimmers. Water standing in the skimmer throats and the lines just behind them is what cracks fittings when temperatures drop, and on this coast the bura brings nights cold enough to do it even where the days are mild.
Blow out and plug the lines. Water left in the return and suction lines has nowhere to go. Blown through and plugged, the lines stay empty until spring.
Drain the pump and the filter. The plant room is usually the coldest and dampest corner of the property over winter. A pump housing or filter vessel left full is the most common expensive surprise at start-up.
Set the chemistry for a standing winter. The water is balanced for months without circulation, not for a week of swimming. Balanced water in October is much easier to recover in spring than water that went into winter already off.
Secure the cover against the wind. A cover that lifts in a bura fills the pool with leaves, needles and whatever the garden gives up, and can tear. Fixings are checked, and the cover is cleaned and dried before it goes on rather than stored wet.
Photograph all of it. The water level, the plugged lines, the drained plant, the cover in place. Spring then starts from a known state rather than from a disagreement about whether something was already broken.
Opening in spring
Opening is the closing in reverse, with one rule: it happens before your first arrival, not during it.
Cover off, cleaned and stored properly. Folded wet and left in a corner, a cover does not last many seasons.
Top up and rebalance. Winter rain and evaporation both move the water. It is tested, dosed and tested again before anybody swims.
Restart the plant and run it under load. A pump that starts is not the same as a pump that runs for an hour without noise, weeping seals or a drop in pressure. Problems found now can still be fixed by a pool specialist before the season fills their diary.
Vacuum and let it clear. A pool opened the morning guests arrive is a pool they watch being cleaned.
When the pool is losing water
Every spring somebody finds the level lower than it should be. Before anybody talks about digging, a bucket test separates evaporation from a leak. After that come the fittings, the light housing, the skimmer throat and the plant, and only then the shell or the pipework. The order matters, because the cheap causes are far more common than the expensive ones.
Where the caretaker stops
Anything on the electrical side of a plant room, heater installation and bonding belongs to a licensed specialist firm. That boundary is not caution for its own sake. It is what keeps the owner’s insurance intact.
How we handle it
For pools we look after, the closing and the opening are part of the plan rather than separate bookings, with the readings and photographs in the report so you can see the water without being there. Specialist work is quoted by a pool firm from our partner list, supervised, and the invoice checked before it reaches you. Details are on the page for pool care, and the rest of the house over winter is in winterising a holiday home.