When you own a swimming pool, it’s vital to take precautions to prevent accidents and keep your family safe. These safety precautions include a strong fence, alarms, and regular inspections. Having these precautions in place can help you avoid serious injury or death. Regular inspections of your pool and its equipment can help identify any potential hazards that need to be fixed, ensuring a safe summer for all!
Pools require special attention because of the risk of drowning. In fact, more people die from pool-related incidents than from car accidents and house fires combined. To avoid tragedy, you need to ensure that your swimming pool meets local and state codes. This includes having a properly functioning pool fence that complies with the minimum height requirements.
Depending on your state’s laws, you might have to have a pool fence inspections that is at least four feet high or has a self-closing and self-latching gate. There are also rules for the location and appearance of your pool fence. It must completely surround the pool and obstruct access. There must also be no gaps in the fence that could allow children to reach the pool.
In most cases, you will need to get a permit from your city or county before building a pool fence. The permit process may require an engineer to review the plan and inspect the site. It’s important to hire an experienced engineer so that you don’t have any issues during the permit application process or during construction.
A good inspector will look at the grading of the yard around the pool and make sure it slopes away from the pool. This helps to prevent erosion and keeps water from ponding in the yard or near the pool. He or she will also check to see that the pool drains and route the water effectively.
If you have a concrete or fiberglass pool, the inspector will check that the coping is in good condition. The coping is the area that goes over the edge of the pool and can be made from brick, pre-made stone, or concrete pavers. The inspector will also check to see that there are no cracks in the coping that are larger than a hairline and that the grout is covering all the areas it should be.
In addition to the pool fencing, a good inspector will check that all outdoor furniture is well away from the fence so that it cannot be used as a climbing step by young children. The inspector will also look to see that the fence is at least 1.2 meters tall.
All states and territories have different rules for swimming pool fences. Some have very strict laws and inspection programmes. In Australia, all pool fences need to be 1200 mm high and have a gap of 100 mm or less when squeezing on both sides of the vertical bars. There must be a CPR sign visible from inside the pool area and there must not be any climbable objects within 900 mm of where a fence intersects another fence.