Hurricane prep: Stabilizing the pool cage

Here in Florida, if one has a swimming pool, one often has the pool area within a screen enclosure.  Folks typically refer to the encosure as a pool cage. The idea is to keep leaves and debris from falling in the pool, keep mosquitos and other bugs and little critters out, and help provide a little more safety. We've heard stories from several people about pool cages blowing away in hurricanes, including one person who described seeing a pool cage wrapped around a telephone pole and pretty much just flapping in the wind.

So with these stories, and after having read from multiple sources that it is recommended to increase the bracing of one's pool cage beyond the minimum that building codes require, we decided to add a lot more bracing to our pool cage. Our hurricane insurance deductible is between $5,000 and $6,000, so if we were to lose the cage, we would quite possibly have to forgo replacing it for a while.

As built, our pool cage had one guy wire at each end. Each of these is a steel cable, secured at a top corner of the cage, and running diagonally down and secured into the cement with a metal plate and a couple of masonry screws. Today we added 4 more tie downs, and we plan to add yet another 4 (2 on each of the end walls of the enclosure). One of the gents where Shirley used to work has a business replacing pool screens, and we were able to order the tie downs from him at US$24 each. We figure the roughly $200 and a bunch of sweat is pretty good insurance. There's some more bracing we'll be doing, and we'll post pics of that work also, but for now, here's the pics from today's work:

Comments

[Volker Weber]

vowe has a masters in mechanical engineering (and ba), and vowe says you need to run a few wires across. Your current setup is only good for winds coming from the left (as you look out the backdoor).

[Joe Litton]

Volker, Thank you for having a look! Currently (as one looks out the back door), we have 3 wires running from the top diagonally down to the left; these are from the top right corner, and from the top of each of the next 2 vertical supports in from the right. We have another 3 wires running from the top diagonally down to the right (from the top left corner, and from the top of each of the next 2 vertical supports in from the left). Our next action will be to run 2 wires from the top right diagonally down towards the house, and another 2 wires from the top left diagonally down toward the house. Once that is completed, we will have a total of 8 wires, intended to add stability against winds that come from the left (north), the right (south) and from the front of the house (west). I'm still considering ways to brace the roof of the enclosure. I'll post more pictures after we add the other wires and may impose on you to have a look.Thanks!

[Justin]

Sorry to tell you,You are on the right track, but those extra tie downs won't do alot for you when the wind bends the hollow aluminum.If you want to make a cage stronger you need to ad cross-bracing in the roof of the cage and in the wall that dosn't attach to the house.Also if you are sure the storm is going to hit you ,you should cut the screen to allow the wind to go through the structure.A rescreen is cheaper that a new cage. I would be happy to show you if you get back to me.I build aluminum structures for a living.Hope I can help Justinhattandsons@comcast.net

[Nick Nicolaides]

My company, Cage Works, cage-works.com, has developed a system that does not require tools or ladders that allows the homeowner to remove selected screen panels from your cage before a storm. Works the same as cutting your screen but does not damage the fabric. After the storm, just put them back in. We also reinforce cages with other types of bracing as mentioned above. We try to bring cages as close to the new codes as possible and above code in the case of lateral bracing.