Safety Options for Your Home Pool

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Having one’s own swimming pool in the backyard is all part of living the dream. They add value to one’s property, and provide a source of endless potential recreation and fun for the whole family, not to mention friends and neighbours who you can invite over for pool parties. It’s all in good fun…until something goes wrong. Pool safety has consistently been high on local government agendas as they reflect on past tragedies involving children and others drowning in home pools.

It has all sparked the government and families alike to take action and make home pools safer for all. If you’ve just got your pool built, or have just moved into a new home with a pool and it’s your first own owning one, then here are some of the many options you have when it comes to strengthening safety.

  1. Follow Up Safety Measures with a Pool Inspection

Whichever of the measures you take up below, you can always know if it’s enough — at least in the eyes of the law — when you look for pool safety inspections in Melbourne, Sydney, or wherever you’re based. A proper pool inspection will clarify whether or not you meet required guidelines, and can offer advice on how to further boost safety depending on your individual circumstances.

  1. Get a Pool Fence

Pool fences and barriers come in many forms, some of them movable and others fixed in place depending on the design and style. Most people opt for removable fencing that they can put in place when the pool isn’t being used or at least isn’t supervised, but then be removed for the sake of family pool time or a pool party. These fences are likely to be required by your local council, so it’s the best place to start when enhancing your pool safety.

These barriers need to be high enough to prevent children from climbing or scaling them. They also need to be lockable, and demonstrably too heavy for any child under a typical swimming age to remove alone. Gate latches also need to be well out of reach for children.

  1. Get a Pool Cover

After you’ve installed a pool fence, investing in an additional pool covering is a great idea. Just in case one very clever or crafty youngster does get past the fence, a mesh cover or safety net should at least prevent the worst from happening. These coverings need to be strong enough to support the weight of not just a child (or perhaps a household pet) who falls into the pool, but also for at least 2 adults so that there’s enough support for whoever has fallen in and whoever goes in to rescue them.

Vinyl pool covers with automatic open and closing functions are the safest and most secure kind since they can’t be removed by a child by hand, and also usually provide the strongest level of support.

  1. Install a Pool Alarm

If you have a sturdy fence and a good cover in place, then chances are you won’t need additional protections, but an alarm can be a reassuring final step. These alarms are essentially proximity alert devices that will indicate when others have gained unauthorised access to your pool. You can install them on your fence which alert whenever the gate is opened, and you can install them in your pool at the edges where they will detect waves being created by anything falling into the pool.

If you do invest in a pool alarm, look into ones that have a sound that is distinct from things like your dishwasher or smoke alarms. A pool alarm going could indicate a dangerous situation in which every second counts. A distinct sound is therefore imperative to ensure action is taken immediately.

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