Baptistry Lids
23rd July 2020Our standard baptistry lids are 70mm deep and either sit on top of the baptistry…
or in a rebate…
These dimensions keep it a manageable weight and size. These lids are reinforced with timber and a length of box-section tube of compressed fibreglass pultrusion (pultrusion for short!). This looks like narrow drainpipe, until you try to pick it up! This ensures that whilst the lid may bend (it is an unsupported 1.5m span after all), it will not break.
We can make the lids stronger still. We would make them 90mm deep (the extra fibreglass helps stiffen the lids. And we would add larger timber and pultrusion.
And the lids can be made stronger still. We can add a 4″ x 2″ piece of pultrusion down the centre of the lid and this sticks out of the underside like a fin (we do cut it so that it will lie flat on the baptistry). This is what we’d do if you were putting a grand piano on the stage (it has happened).
Baptistry lids would be made as a set to lie across the pool. The lids should be now more than 500mm wide to conserve strength. If the pool is 1500mm wide, the lids will be 1700mm long because we make our pools with a 100mm wide flange all the way round for the lids to rest upon. If you wanted a wider bespoke pool, then we would recommend thicker (90-100mm) lids with more reinforcement.
Carpeting and flooring. You can glue carpet, tiles or wood flooring directly onto the lids. We put sunken threads into one (or more) of the lids to accept screw-in lifting eyes so that you can get the lids out. The carpet would just need a hole to make sure you can still get at the sunken thread.
And once made, we test them to check their strength. With weights and measuring.
But also by getting on the pool and walking around, as I’m doing here. They will bend a little (and they creak a bit in the beginning), especially with me on top of them. But the deflection was minuscule (2mm) and I’m 16 stones.
If the lids are to take especially heavy loads, let us know and we’ll make something to suit. If you would like the lids to have insulation in, let us know. If you would like them a different colour to the rest of the baptistry, not a problem.