Weighing down Wedding Cake Steps ?

[Bob Norene]

Is there a difference in the Wedding Cake steps I vs II? Also after reading about your troubles with the alfea do you recommend having them? Thanks,

Bob

[AnnaE]

For the past two years, we put regular sand to hold down our stairs. Is there a difference between Play Sand and Filter Sand? Someone told me that Filter Sand is better. Also, how did you put the sand in the pool? We wrapped it in 3 plastic garbage bags each. However, algae still grows. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[JohnnySixString]

We just had a 24' round installed and it comes with similiar steps also requiring sandbags. I was thinking about stacking some weights in there instead. Anyone think this might work or be a bad idea?

[karrde97]

The problem I had was that I didn't want to attach it to the deck since I needed to constantly move it to clean. By not attaching to the deck, the back end floated up. They were nice for the little one. But we have moved to a straight ladder.

[gonefishin]

We've had bad luck with the large sand filled ziplocks and with the weights too. This year I plan to fill some empty bleach and milk jugs with concrete...it should do the trick.

dan

[traceyb]

Hi guys....just an idea to weigh your steps down safely. We got 3 pieces of 3-4 inch pvc capped off one end w/ pvc cleaner and adhesive. Then we filled the tubes with driveway rock and capped off the other end. THis makes for a clean, easy way to weigh down the front end. Easy to remove.....just make sure you glue the ends on well. The rails that you attach to wedding cake steps help hold down the back end, if you need more help there, make a few more and drill small holes through the top part of the back opening and concoct a way to hang a few more. There is a few pix on this site of someone who had done that. Just an FYI.. hope this helps.

[b2001]

I gave up on the sand bags wrapped in plastic bags. Too much of a mess - the bags always leaked and disentigrated. I use three large oval and rounded river boulders - about 20 to 30 pounds each - that I got a a rock supply place.

They do grow algae, but so did the sand bags. I don't see a difference in the algae problem - there is less of a mess, the rocks don't break open and leak sand all over the place when you take them out at pool closing. For this reason, the rocks are easier to take out then the bags were. I might chnage my mind in the future - I've got a 16 yr old helper now ... :-)

The rocks I got are rounded with no nicks or edges. I space them around the bottom of the steps.

[AnnaK]

There is a few pix on this site of someone who had done that. Just an FYI.. hope this helps.

That would be us. I'm glad the idea works for you. The URL is http://www.ellerbach.com/Pool/ .