Paddling pools for kids

[OhToBeCool]

Ok so I’m a bit dim especially when it comes to working out measurements, so please help 😄

I usually put a pool out for my dc on our balcony as we have no garden, the one we’ve had for years got caught on a bike and ripped in the winter, so I got them a new one thinking it was the same size and clearly it is too big.
Ive had a look online and seen a round one, but as I’ve explained I’m not very good with knowing sizes.
I don’t have a tape measure so wondering if any of you smart mumsnetters would know just by looking if it will fit before I go and buy it.

The 3 pictures are of the pool I have now and I was going to get a 1.83m round pool from eurocar parts.

thank you

yeah slippery pool + kids + balcony , just no doesn't seem safe to me at all

Just because she's buying a deep pool it doesn't mean she will fill it. We have that one she's just bought and we don't even fill it half way. The kids like having it just over ankle deep.

Just watch out for them climbing on the side next to edge of the balcony. You don't want them falling over. But I'm sure you've thought of that since you had one previously anyway.

It's not fun having a heatwave with just a balcony and kids. A little paddling pool would be ideal. And a freezer full of cheap ice lollies.

I see in your second picture you have the pool standing on its side. Go back to the package check the height of the pool in cm. See how many times across the balcony you can stand the pool and add it up. E.g. it looks to me like the pool wall is 1/3 the width of your balcony. So if the pool wall is 50cm multiply by 3 and your balcony is 1.5 metres across. If you want a less cumbersome method cut a piece of string the height of the pool wall and use that as a known length.

My dc are far too big for one of the tiny pools it never gets fully filled, just enough to have a proper splash.

we have had pools out here for many years I checked before if I was allowed one.

As it’s round it would be a man laying in a circle wouldn’t it not straight?

Op this is completely incorrect and the root cause of your issues. The measurement will be the diameter, NOT the circumference. So 1.83m in a straight line through the middle of the pool. So no, it will definitely not fit on your balcony as your current 1.73m pool doesn't fit

They have more chance of falling out of the bedroom windows than do of falling off the balcony.
There are no gaps, it is a solid concrete balcony, they will be fine.

Right I’m going to look for a smaller pool.
Thank you for all your help. 😊

Former Property underwriter here - a balcony should not have a paddling pool of that size on it filled with water under any circumstances. Bearing in mind you don't own a tape measure so I can't imagine you do too much building work, I struggle to know how you're so sure of its structural integrity?

My 4 year old loves to get in a paddling pool and spend his entire time pouring water out of it in various means. Fun and games in a garden, but one dodgy bit of mortar underneath you and you're in trouble. This is a disaster waiting to happen and it's frankly reckless.

There's also the small matter of what the lease says - I very much doubt you're allowed to put them on the balcony at all, and even if 'paddling pools' aren't specified, you not usually allowed to put anything of weight on them (the leases are all written in old english so they normally talk about 'hundredweights' etc? If they do talk about weight, then yes a much smaller paddling pool would be ok.

If you're in breach of the lease you won't be insured if something does happen, you'll be liable for not only the costs of repair but also any third party injury or damage... if there's anyone below you if it collapses you're potentially looking at a multimillion pound legal challenge.

Sorry, cross post - a much smaller pool is a VERY good idea!

If you also read my previous comments, I have had a pool on the balcony every year for the last 7 years.
I am more than aware of the reasons as to why they aren’t generally allowed, which is why before doing so I sought out permission and found at what weight was allowed before doing I placed one out there.

I also performed my own risk assessment for my children as to wether they would be safe to be out there and what to do with the water as to not waste too much.

I also said that the pool we had out there has been the same one I have had for 7 years and would have been used again this year if I hadn’t had ripped it.
It is completely my own mistake for buying the size pool I have now, as I really didn’t read the box nor look at the dimensions because looking at it, it is exactly the same pool we had only bigger. It never gets filled to full capacity as that is what I was advised not to do.

I didn’t ask anyone for a risk assessment or what I should or should not be doing, I asked for advice on a size issue as I have dyscalculia, which means I find it very hard to read numbers.

So again thank you very much for everyone’s help.

If you could calculate the number of litres and weight of the water in your last pool like you say you did I'm very surprised that you can't figure out the size of pool that would fit.

There isn’t any need to be surprised.

So you can calculate weight by volume, but don't know how to work out measurements in cm?

Really?

Just because you've done it for 7 years doesn't make it right though? If anything it means the structural integrity is more strained?

And if you can't read numbers, how did you work out the weight of a full pool despite not knowing the dimensions (something I'll admit I'd find hard to do without scales because assessing the mass of liquid is quite complex)? I believe I actually have the same paddling pool, certainly very similar, and even at a third full it's ludicrously heavy.

I appreciate you didn't ask anyone for a risk assessment, I'm sorry if you feel patronised. But you did send a picture of a ridiculously oversized pool squashed into a tiny space: the pool isn't designed to be used there and the balcony clearly isn't designed to have large paddling pools on it. It's not 'solid concrete' as the photos clearly show bricks. I happen to have experience of balconies collapsing so thought I'd offer my professional expertise... up to you if you wish to ignore it.

I understand you maybe a professional, however I know where I live.
The structure is sound and is filled with concrete from ground up to the first floor, it is not a hanging plinth.

Did I say I calculated the weight?
I was shown how much to fill it and that’s what I have done.

@OhToBeCool Do you have an iPhone? One of the preinstalled apps is called 'Measure' - by some magic it can use the camera to measure things.

Thank you very much, wasn’t aware of that will have a look now.

My dc are far too big for one of the tiny pools

Are u sure OP, did you do your own measurements?

If that was meant to be sarcasm, it really wasn’t funny.

If someone had said they had dyslexia would you all be questioning them, making jokes and being bitchy? No I doubt that very much.

You have a pool that doesn't fit when the width is 1.75m so logic dictates that one which is 1.83m in diameter isn't going to either!

I've got one from Tesco that might be a better size. 200 x150cm.

Thats amazing!

Op I’m worried about your paddling pool and also the amount of stuff on the balcony wall which has the potential to be knocked off onto people below.
water is so heavy. You could be weakening your balcony.
please yoke care

Take care