Patent ID: 8438671

Claim:
A pool-deck lid lift system for below-deck troughs housing pool cover systems for pools, comprising in combination: (i) a pool-deck lid with removable modular deck-lid top plates bridging over a below-deck tough housing, having a front, longitudinal seating structure adapted to rest on pool cover elements of a pool cover system, statically supported on top of a below-deck pool sidewall beneath a pool cover element located between the pool and the below-deck housing trough over which the pool cover elements extend from, and retract back into the below-deck housing for covering and uncovering the pool; (ii) an upwardly movable, cantilever bracket structure secured along a longitudinal back wall of the housing trough having a plurality of extending support arms extending across the trough for supporting the longitudinal lid seating structure and the modular deck-lid top plates, and having a plurality of actuator arms extending vertically downward adjacent the back wall of the housing trough, all fastened to a common longitudinal actuator beam; (iii) hydraulic/pneumatic means mechanically coupled between the common longitudinal actuator beam of the cantilever bracket structure and a solid, static inside surface of the housing trough for lifting the front longitudinal seating structure of the pool-deck lid up off the pool cover element between the longitudinal seating structure and the supporting top of the below-deck pool sidewall beneath the pool cover element to allow extension and retraction of the pool cover elements covering and uncovering the pool; and (iv) a hydraulic/pneumatic actuation control means for powering the deck-lid system and the pool cover system housed in the below-deck housing trough, coupled for sequentially: a. lifting the front, longitudinal seating structure of the pool-deck lid up off the travelling pool cover element between the front longitudinal seating structure and the supporting top of the supporting below-deck pool sidewall beneath the pool cover element, then b. energizing the pool cover system for extending and retracting the pool cover elements covering and uncovering the pool; then c. stopping extension and retraction of the pool cover elements between, and at extension and retraction end points, and d. allowing the lifted front longitudinal seating structure of the deck-lid supported by the cantilever bracket structure of the pool-deck lid lift system to re-seat on the pool cover element and the top of the below-deck pool sidewall beneath the pool cover element for support after travel of the pool cover elements has been stopped.