How to make a wooden pool pump cover?

[lbell]

Hi I am looking for instructions to make a wooden pool pump cover. Can you help?

Community manager's note: Check out How to build a pool pump cover for expert advice.

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @lbell. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

Did you have some photos or dimensions of the pool pump in question? Were you looking to create something similar to the below image?  You could certainly use the SpecRite 1800 x 600 x 33mm Merbau Garden Fence Panel or SpecRite 1800 x 902mm Merbau Slat Screen Panel to save you from building it from scratch. You would simply need to build a frame around the pump with Treated Pine Outdoor Timber Framing 90 x 45mm and then clad it with the Merbau panels.

Let me mention a few of our expert woodworkers @woodenwookie, @r23on and @woodalwaysworks to see if they could advise some construction methods.

You might also be interested in reading these discussions-

• Hidden pool pump and filter by @ProjectPete

• Pool equipment cover by @Calli

Please let me know if you need further assistance or had questions.

Mitchell

[TroyB]

I’m really interested in creating something similar.. what do you think would be best to construct a roof out of.. looking to protect the pump from the weather.. I love the idea of the timber panels as walls .. what could I use for a roof .

cheers

TroyB 

[Jason]

Thanks for joining in the discussion @TroyB and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's great to have you with us. 

I'm sure @MitchellMc will be more than happy to assist with your pump cover project. Unfortunately he's taking a well-earned break at the moment and will be back at the end of the week to help you. Let me know if you need a response urgently and I can tag other helpful community members who might like to share their thoughts on how to approach this project. 

Thanks again,

Jason

[MitchellMc]

Hi @TroyB,

You could use marine-grade plywood either by itself or as cladding on the inside of one of the timber panels. An alternative might be corrugated iron or polycarbonate sheeting.  

I look forward to following along with your project; please keep us updated on your progress.

Mitchell

[Paiger]

This is exactly what I need to build but anyone come across any plans for the framing section?

[Jason]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Paiger. It's fantastic to have you join the community. I'm sure you will find it very useful for all your projects as we have so many clever and creative members sharing advice and inspiration on the site.

I will ask the ever-helpful @MitchellMc to assist you with some designs when he is back on the site on Friday. In the meantime, could you please give us the dimensions of the cover that you want to build?

Let me also tag @ProjectPete as he might be able to assist with links to plans he might have seen when he was building his fantastic hidden pool pump and filter.

Please let me know if you ever need assistance getting the most from Bunnings Workshop, or ever have any feedback about how we can make the site even more useful to you.

Jason

[Paiger]

Thank you for your reply. i may have found a new obsession and a lot more work for my husband!!!

The slab around the pool is 800 x 2400. Thanks in advance!!

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Paiger.

I've put together a rendering that should better illustrate how to construct the pool cover above. I'd suggest you use some solid uprights shown in red. These can be concreted into the ground outside your slab. A suitable material would be 90 x 90mm 2.4m F7 KD H4 RH Treated Pine Premium Wrapped.

For the frame shown in green, I'd recommend Treated Pine Outdoor Timber Framing 90 x 45mm.

This SpecRite Pre-Oiled Merbau FJ Screening 42mm x 18mm x 2.7m would be perfect for the slatting. You'll notice the sides of the lid are not shown in the image. I'd suggest this is because they found it difficult to add slats to the side. This could be done, although you might find it easier to clad the sides of the lid with Marine plywood.

Treated Pine timber screws can be used to join the frame and timber slats.

I look forward to following along with your project and providing any assistance you need. Please let me know if you need help or had any questions.

Mitchell

[pdugar]

This is perfect and something I was ringing around trying to find someone to do it for me but looks like I could give it a crack!

Just to add to the last post, I would like to be able to open the pool cover for which I'm thinking it would be best if I use Marine Ply as was recommended earlier. What could I use to attach it to the frame. Hinges and some kind of a hydraulic arm?

Also, I dont have any cutting tools at home, does Bunnings cut the timber slats or garden fence panel to size?

Finally, I had already requested my pool company to build a timber frame using sleepers around the pool pumps. Can I just screw the frame to the sleepers or would you still recommending putting up the 90x90 timber pine concreted to the ground? The existing frame is just on the ground to corden off the area. I can attach some pictures later today/tomorrow.