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Silo Swimming Pool
Concrete staves, resurrected from a tornado-ravaged silo, make a dandy swimming pool for the LeRoy Bauer family, Shakopee, Minn.
"People drive in thinking this must be some kind of grain structure, until they see the water inside," says Bauer, who built the "stave silo" pool four years ago. "We had an above grou
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Silo swimming pool CROP STORAGE Silos (50) 12-5-30 Concrete staves, resurrected from a tornado-ravaged silo, make a dandy swimming pool for the LeRoy Bauer family, Shakopee, Minn.
"People drive in thinking this must be some kind of grain structure, until they see the water inside," says Bauer, who built the "stave silo" pool four years ago. "We had an above ground metal swimming pool for 10 years, but it rusted out. Its liner, filter and silica sand base were still in good shape, but it would have cost $500 to replace the tank. A neighbor, whose silo had been damaged by a tornado, gave us the staves for nothing."
To build the 18-ft. dia., 4-ft. high enclosure, Bauer used enough "tongue-andgroove" staves for a 16-ft. dia. enclosure, and then installed a 2by 4 ft. section of the silo's original wood door. "Concrete silos are designed to be either 16 or 20 ft. in diameter, so to make the pool 8 ft. in diameter, we'd have had to split a couple of staves lengthwise to fit the liner we al-ready had," says LeRoy, noting that if you bought a 16 or 20-ft. dia. liner this wouldn't be a problem. "The door is just the right width to complete the enclosure, and it makes the pool look like the bottom 4 ft. of a real silo."
Each block is 2 1/2 ft. high, so to make the sides of the pool 4 ft. high the Bauers cut 1 ft. off half the blocks. Three silo hoops, spaced 1 ft. apart, hold them in place.
To keep the blocks from puncturing the liner, the Bauers lined them with tar paper. His sons built a 12-in. wide red-wood deck around the top of the pool walls. The deck secures the top of the liner.
A 3 by 5 ft. redwood platform serves as a "jumping off" board. The pump and filter mount under the platform. A port-able vacuum can be hooked to the intake valve to clean out the bottom of the pool. "We filter water four hours each day, and vacuum the bottom of the pool every three weeks," says Bauer, noting that in the winter they drain the pool down to 18 in. and cover it with a tarp.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup,Le-Roy Bauer, 1845 W. 130 St., Shakopee, Minn. 55379 (ph 612 496-1703).
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