With high temperatures and summer just around the corner, the sale of inflatable and removable pools has exploded in Madrid , and the rest of Spain, like never before. And it is that the uncertainty that the coronavirus has sown for the holidays has led many Madrid residents to buy one of these portable elements to install it on the balcony, terrace or attic of their home. In this circumstance, experts have stepped up to warn of the risk, own and foreign, that involves installation in places that were not designed for that purpose.

David Arias, a member of the Technological Advisory of the Madrid College of Quantity Surveyors, speaks knowingly when he assures this newspaper that this type of practice is "a danger" not only on flown balconies, which can generally house small swimming pools, but also in attics or terraces with underground garages, where large capacity containers can be installed that can compromise the building .

The newspaper archive reminds us of several accidents due to being overweight , even with fatalities, and in his own experience, Arias says that he has seen how the ever-heavy weight of a full bathtub in an old Madrid apartment "slipped into the ground floor because the forged, of wood, it was deteriorated ».

"You have to be very careful with the pool we put in and where we locate it," says the rigger, because the terrace "can collapse" putting "your own safety, that of your neighbors or passers-by at risk." "A swimming pool for two small children is not the same as a larger one for an entire family," says Arias, who assures that the calculations made when they are built do not usually contemplate such use .

For this reason, he assures that before installing a swimming pool it is "advisable to consult a technician" in addition to taking into account various aspects related "to the type of floor, the year of construction and the regulations in force then, previous pathologies of the building (cracks, humidity ...) ”, as well as the“ size of the pool and the height of the water ”to avoid that an overload compromises the terrace.

In general, these surfaces are prepared, says the expert, to withstand between 200 and 300 kg / m2 , so the pools should be filled, "at most, between 25 and 30 centimeters in more recent constructions and 20-25 in the Older". But in addition to the weight, it is important to take into account the location because "it is not the same at the edge as at the exit from the terrace . "

Sales 'boom'

The warnings come after the boom in sales of inflatable and removable pools . Since May, finding one in Madrid has become an almost impossible task in stores -some are closed or bounded- and also online , where most appear, in large retail stores , under the concept of Temporarily Out of Stock .

The director of the Spanish Association of professionals in the swimming pool sector, Agustín Ferrer, assures that there has been a significant increase because “it allows with very little investment and little time ” to put a swimming pool in spaces like this.

From Leroy Merlin they assure that "they have already broken the sales forecast, with more than 350% progression compared to last year " in Spain -where they have been sold throughout the country in a similar way- and that demand, on the rise in Physical store, online and by phone since the end of April, has been "exceptional." Company sources also indicate that "there are stock problems in the most economical models" , which they are already trying to solve, and that "delivery times are lengthening due to the high demand."

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