We have installed a large above ground swimming pool, so thought I would share the best way to get it setup and some tips we learnt along the way.

The swimming pool is by home leisure it is a 18ft circular pool that is 42′ deep, the top is made up of a inflatable ring, the sides are made of a tough 3-ply laminate made of 2 sheets of heavy PVC Laminate with a inner grid sheet made of nylon & polyester, it is very solid, it has to be to take the amount of water in it at over 4000 gallons. It came complete with a external filter pump, pool cover, ladder and a maintenance kit, This pool has a RRP of £299.  The picture above is from the advertising from the retailer we brought from. This is classed as a easy up pool, the box shows 5 simple steps, but isn’t as easy as makes out if your ground isn’t perfectly level.

Where I was installing it the ground wasn’t by no means level and not really good solid grass, so the first thing that had to be done is to mark out the area needed and take up the turf. This was done by measuring the to the centre of where the pool was going to go and putting a stick into the centre with rope measured out to half the diameter ie 9ft in this case and painting a line by rotating the string to give a 18ft diameter circle shape, Then the hard work started of taking up the turf. On this ground was harder than i expected as in some major parts there was a lot of large stones/bricks under the turf.

Once all the turf was up, it is then the job of leveling out as much as the soil as possible, the best way I found to do this was to but some stakes around and then some string across, think of slicing up a pizza, once the string was attached I leveled the string with a spirit level. the string was approx 2 inch of the soil level, so you could see the level. Then you remove the larger bumps in the soil and fill in the low points. This doesn’t have to be perfect as we was putting sand on top of the soil to make perfectly level. But the more you can get this level the better as you wouldn’t need as much sand.

Once we had leveled the soil as much as possible and taken all of the stones of the surface and that are protruding out of the soil, This is particularly important that all sharp objects are removed. It was then time to put the sand down, now because we did this over the bank holiday weekend, didn’t have time to get sand delivered, so we got bags of sand from a local supplier, now we used approx 35 bags of building sand. If would have thought in advance definitely would have got the sand delivered as would have been cheaper and easier.

I started putting the sand down and leveling off, this is best done by starting one side, putting sand down as you go and with a large spirit level pulling the sand and checking the level as you go. And making sure the level was correct from left to right and top to bottom. This is very important that this is level as this is the last base for the pool to sit on.

Now the sand was level was the time to start getting the pool setup, the pool comes with a ground sheet to go underneath the pool, so once the we was happy the sand was level the ground sheet goes down over the sand and then the pool on the top.  We started to set the pool on on not really a warm day, but still was ok to stretch it out.  I would Recommend doing this on a warm day so that the pool liner is more flexible. We stretched out the pool and flattened the base of the pool as much as possible. Once this was done the top need inflating with approx 75% of air. Then the water started to go in, at this point we had to try and get the bottom of the pool as flat as possible, by gently kicking the liner to the sides by getting in the pool without shoes and socks on.

Then we just had to leave it filling up for the start of filling up approx 10hrs we put some plastic garden chairs inside to the pool to hold up the inflatable ring, this was just until the pool gained its shape and to make sure water wouldn’t run over the ring. It took around 2 days to fill up to a good level of water. Once most of the water was in we then fully inflated the top ring.

The external pump filter attached to two pipes that connect to valves on the side of the pool. Be warned that the cable on this pump / filter has only a 1.5mtr lead, so we had to get electrics down by the pool, I had to use 25mtrs of electric cable that was feed through a solid plastic pipe and buried into the found with 2 eternal sockets around 3mtrs away from the pool.  This was then connected to a RCD circuit breaker into the existing outdoor electrics.

This was all the hard work done and then all we had to do is treat the pool water with the chemicals that we had brought to get the chlorine and pH levels correct, this is easily done with a water kit that contains all the chemical treatments you need and test strips to keep checking the water. We found that it is worth running the filter for around 2hrs before you are going to use the pool Don’t use the filter while you are in the pool. Cleaning the pool of debris is easy with the supplied net and water vacuum to clean the bottom of the pool.

We used to the pool for the first time a few weeks after it was all up and running and because we had amazing weather the pool was really warm all through out the day. It is a great pool and once all the effort is done getting it right will give you loads of pleasure throughout the summer, that is as long as we have good weather throughout the summer

TIP

We had the pool up for a good few weeks and used it a few times, but we then hadn’t used it for a week or so and the water was completely pea green. It went like this for a few reasons : we hadn’t topped up the chlorine levels (hadn’t done this as the level was bit low but because we wasn’t using it I didnt think it mattered) We had a good down pour of rain over a few days, so introduced fresh water and another reason we hadn’t put in the algaecide chemical.

Now because was so green, the water couldn’t be cleared up using chemicals, so the best thing to do was to empty it fully and clean, now the outlet valve at the bottom is there to drain the pool, you would attach a hosepipe and let it drain using gravity to your drain, but because I service fish pools for a living, I put one of my powerful pumps in so could empty quicker, then using pressure wash cleaned it fully out then filled back up again.

So as you can see from the above, it is very important to keep up with the chemical levels even if you think you arn’t going to use it for a few weeks, as if you don’t you have the hassle of cleaning it fully.

Hope anyone reading this find this information informative and helpful, if you have any comments please leave them.

Just had the chance to upload and organize more photo albums on picasa, I have uploaded over 200 photos from the fast year or some on various subjects please have a look and see what you think. I will be also uploading these to my flickr account soon.  All the pics have been re-sized to a lower resolution so can keep on expand all my albums within a reasonable size.

I am using picasa instead of putting the albums direct on here as easier to maintain the albums, goto the following link to see my new photo albums

http://picasaweb.google.com/kswebdesign.co.uk

When I moved into one of my old houses the garden was just grass and no real plants in the garden, and at the time i moved in the grass was over a foot tall, so took me ages to get it tidy ish so I completely redesigned the garden and over time had to change so the kids could make use of the space.

Here are some pictures of my old garden – not that special really but the main feature is the fish pool in the right corner which is 18ft by 4 ft and about 4ft deep, it mainly had small goldfish and small koi.

The water fall was a nice feature as well it hid the uv, there was a under-gravel filter in the bottom of the pond by the waterfall to keep it clean, it took me about 3 days to build with the help of my father who run pond and pool services. I now look after the PPS business for fish pond servicing only now, no real rebuilds, but if anyone does have a fish pond in their garden and need a clean get in contact with me either through here or go to the website. There was also some decking at the bottom right of the garden this was nice in the summer as there is shade from the sun because of the apple tree in the garden. In the end we had took out the apple tree to make more room for the kids to play in the garden, as well as extensively re-planted the borders.

as this site is just abit of fun for me this is just for reference really, as i know the pictures aren’t that good really lol.

Photography is a kind of hobby I have. I enjoy taking photos like anyone else take photos of the kids, days out and family stuff.  Though my main interest in photography is architectural and landscapes i.e. like churches, old building, nice scenic views etc.  Just find this kind of picture interesting as one of the college course’s I did was in architecture.

I learnt photography in college when I did a 3D design course and one of the parts of the course was photography, this was before digital and used 35mm slr cameras.  I learnt how to develop film in darkroom.  This was sometimes difficult as you had to keep in the photo in the different types of developing liquid for just the right amount of the to get the exposure that you wanted. Though now it is a lot easier with a digital camera and basic pc editing software.

Ive had a few digital camera’s over the years started with a samsung digimax camera, and don’t laugh was only 2mp and the size of a brick, then to be honest lost bit of interest in photography, so then was a fair few years before buying the Casio ex-s600, this is a very compact 6mp digital camera it is only 19mm thick at the thickest point, with a three times optical zoom.  I chose this camera because of the size so is easy to slip into pocket and take anywhere. Like most people now I have a 2.1mp camera on my phone but there is no substitute for a good digital camera, as the Casio has got as got 34 different scene modes for use when taking different types of photos by adjusting shutter speed and aperture. This can make it easy to take the perfect picture without any knowledge of camera settings, ie taking a picture of a waterfall the camera has two modes useful for this one is fast flowing water, this uses a slow shutter speed, this keeps the shutter open longer to take the picture so the effect on the water would be of the water being like a blur.  There is also the mode splashing water this opens the shutter for a shorted periods of time, this captures the water droplets etc.

Then I upgraded to the panasonic dmc-fz18, this at the time was the best bridge type camera, had a great 18x optical zoom, full manual control, very good battery life from the rechargeable battery pack, video wasn’t to bad could capture 640×480 @ 30fps, though only with mono sound, I mainly chose this camera as was the best of the bunch of superzoom bridge cameras available at the time i brought it.  also i wanted a bit more control over what kind of pictures i could take and this offered this over the casio, though I still have the casio as still a great camera to keep in your pocket as still a very compact camera.  I did take some great photos withe the fz18, have a look at my photo website or the link to my picasa or flickr sites from the links on the right.

In 2009 i decided to upgrade my camera again, but still stayed with panasonic and upgraded to the DMC-FZ38, as i meant i could carry on using the extra telephoto and macro lenses i had, aswell as the extra battery and car charger for the fz18. I really only upgraded as the fz38 could do 720p avchd video with dolby stereo sound, and also could use the full zoom range in video mode that the fz18 couldn’t do, and just a slight jump in resolution to 12mp.

Have a look at some of the pictures taken with all these cameras on my photo website or the link to my picasa or flickr pages on the links to the right. I am also planning to add some tip for taking photos and tip and information on software to edit and organise your photos.

I enjoy art in all form from computer artwork to drawing, Drawing was my main interest when I was at school, mainly was technical drawing, when I was at school always wanted to be in the car design industry, but after doing a few years in college got a job in the computer retail industry so unfortunately like a lot of things my doing drawings gets put to the side I then started getting involved with computer graphics.

My main medium for my artwork is pencil and ink drawings, not really that good at still life, but I am good a drawing objects and scenes with a lot of detail. I will be added a small gallery of my drawing from when I was at school and college soon.

The computerised of my artwork includes really all the graphics that you see on my website and my client’s websites. I really do enjoy taking a idea for a website and designing all of the graphics, like logo’s, Borders, buttons, animations etc. One thing that I used to be asked to do is touch up old photos from taking a picture of someone and putting them on other backgrounds etc, I know this is not really classed as your own artwork, but this is a form of artwork.

I have just recently got back into 3D modelling. I have started using a program that is free and is now by Google called sketchup. This makes 3D modelling very easy with great results.

Like with any form of artwork like drawing, computer art it is pointless me taking about my artwork it is best for you to have a look at some of my examples of my work. As soon as I can I will be adding gallery on this section of all the different forms of artwork that I have done over the years.

So please check back soon to see my artwork gallery.



In 2005 I went to Malta to be honest I went on holiday on my own just needed a break rang up the travel agents on one morning and was on a plane from east midlands airport that afternoon.

I am writing this to tell you about my experience in Malta and some of the places I visited. I stopped in the resort of bugibba, which is in the north of the island in the main resort of st paul’s bay This is a good resort if you are going as a family as is pretty quiet, there is a main square with a few bars, The bars close pretty early compared to other resorts. For me going on my own wasn’t the best resort and no real night life. But was a really relaxing holiday. I stopped in a hotel that just out of the town, thought wasn’t that far walk to the main parade and beach.

There is a good salsa club a few miles down the coast, I only found out about this place when I was in the town one night and meet 2 girls that had been to the resort before and knew of this place. We walked from the main centre of bugibba along the sea front down to the club, the name of the club was fuego, it was a very good night there.

I went on a trip that was organized by the company that I went away with, was a trip all around the island visiting different places. The trip went to valetta, which is the old city of the island, was a great place to wonder around and see the old building. As the old city had so much great architecture. Also we visited the Mosta Dome this cathedral was bombed in world war 2 while there was people in there but the bomb didn’t explode. There is a replica of the bomb there.

As well on the trip as it was going around the island and stopping off in different places. We went to a place that is known as the blue lagoon. This is where the old Cadbury’s milk tray advert was filmed where the guy jumped off the cliff into the ocean. We went on a boat trip around the caves the water was that clear and reflected the light that if you put your hands in the water your hand looked a very deep blue.

While I was in malta there was filming going on, it was filming of the steven Spielberg film munich. The one night i went into town and they had closed the main parade and was filming a car chase scene, id didn’t get to see that much, but was interesting as the amount of equipment and the time it takes to set up the shot. Another time when I was out lots of roads where closed again beacuse they were filming different parts of the film.

At the end of April 2006 I went to Majorca, I booked a all inclusive holiday to Palma Nova, staying in the hotel Honolulu. We flew from Manchester around midday, I had arrange for car parking just a short distance away from the airport, I would defiantly recommend parking your car instead of getting family/friends to drop you off as for the small cost of the parking is a lot easier for when you get back to get straight into your own car and get back home.

I have never been to Majorca before and the main thing we noticed when getting off the plane is that Palma airport is massive it took about 15mins to get from getting into the airport to get to the luggage collection.

The hotel Honolulu is a pretty good hotel, after checking in got to our room, the room was a standard twin room, pretty basic but not too bad the view that we had from our balcony was looking out from the back of the hotel down to the beach. The picture to the right is of gthe hotel from the front view. The swimming pool was really nice with alot of room and the bar right by the pool.

Because of getting there early evening, got everything unpacked and then went for some food in the restaurant, as like any other all inclusive package the food was on a help yourself basis, the food was ok a lot of choice, though not as good as going out to a restaurant, but cause all inc cant complain. As soon as finishing food got changed and went down to the bar / entertainment in the hotel, to be honest the entertainment wasn’t that good so went out on the town.

Like when you go on holiday to a place you have never been to before, not sure of where to go, but because we was in palma nova this bordered onto Magaluf, so loads of pubs clubs. As going down the street there are the people trying to incise you into each of the pubs offering free drinks and shots etc. We went to loads of pubs and because they open really late, did get a bit drunk. The only thing with the Hotel that we stopped in is that it is at the top of a big hill, not good when you had a few to drink.

To be honest because we went in late april the weather wasn’t that amazing temps were around 22-25C, though was a bit of a wind so not amazingly warm, so really couldn’t relax on beach or by the pool for too long.

The one day did go to a dolphin and aquatic park. Called marineland it is located about 5miles out of palma nova. There are daily show with the dolphins and sea lions. We got to sit right next to the pool to see the dolphins perform this was really great as being so close to the dolphins but did get really really wet , I took a video of the dolphins have a look in my gallery section for a short clip of the dolphins. There was also a tropical house and exotic birds there. There was also a very nice tropical aquarium. The weather was really good on this day and the was a great day out.

On the second day there we did get caught out with the timeshare scammers, though didn’t realize as someone in the street caught us gave us some scratch cards and I had won the star prize but to collect this had to go to somewhere to go though a sales pitch, so went, was promised bout 40 euros and 2 bottles of vodka, so though would go, but they really tried pushing us to sign up for this discount club to get cheap hols, in the end after over an hour and half I walked out, though they tried to get the person I was with to stay behind. Did get out of there in the end with 40 euros and the vodka, so that night the money paid for most of the drink so was ok.

Hi my name is Kevin Simon, I’m 36 and now live back in brownhills, For anyone that doesn’t know the area its by the M6 toll junction T6. have moved around alot the last few years including living in chasetown and then Chaseterrace in Staffordshire. I Have a daughter named Chloe who is now aged 9, my daughter now lives up in lancaster after my divorced.

I am a self-employed computer consultant and web designer, I mainly work from home though the consultancy side of my job requires me to visit customers on-site and sort whatever computer problems they have.

I have been working in the computer industry for 18 years now and still enjoy working with computers, though they can be a pain to sort sometimes

Not sure what else to put about me in this part, though I did live in Northfield, birmingham for a while not that far away from the ex longbridge rover works.

The main reason for doing this site is because I do web design as a business, and I enjoy doing it, I though would put a site together with things that interest me, and hope anyone looking at this site finds some of the information useful and interesting. If you have any comments about the site or the content I would be interested in anything you have to say.

If you would like to visit my company web site to see some of the other sites I have done please click on my company logo below to go to my business site.

I also do sell on ebay, the items I put on are all different kinds of things from computer equipment to ornaments, if you would like to have a look at the items that I currently have on ebay click the link below.

If you would like to contact me please go to my contact page for contact details, I do use both yahoo and msn messanger, and also on facebook, if you would like my user name for these please e-mail me first and will send you the relevant user details.

I do hope you enjoy looking at my site and I thank you for your time looking.

Kevin Simon