If you have children, the first thing to consider with swimming pool ownership is a pool safety gate. A high quality pool safety gate or a pool safety net are necessary accessories for your swimming pool as soon as your child is mobile. You can never be too safe!
Before your child can crawl, you should have already installed one or the other to keep your child from crawling into your swimming pool. It is easier than you might think for this tragedy to occur. Read our article about child drowning prevention to learn more about how serious this issue is. I must ask you “What is your child worth?” if you are taking this subject lightly with a baby or small child.
The Pool Safety Gate:
You can utilize a pool safety gate several ways. You can box in all the outdoor doors from the house going into the back and side yards, so there is no way to access the swimming pool from these doors. Depending on how many backyard access doors your house has, this plan may or may not work out for you.
You can wrap the pool with a pool safety gate all the way around. You have to remember that you will have to swim in the amount of space within that pool safety gate when using the pool. For example, if you position and plant the pool safety gate 3 foot outside the perimeter of the pool all the way around, you will have no room for lounges and chairs possibly. You have to consider several things with this project, because once the pool safety gate is in, it is expensive to re-design.
If you have a small yard, you may want to try and block off the outdoor entrances from the house with a gate, so once past the gate, you have access to the whole yard. We use A great, local company who can help you plan the design that best fits your yard for your preferences, but it is good for you to think about what you want, so you don’t rush a bad decision.
A Pool Safety Net is Great for Smaller Yards, but More Effort!
Another option is a spider web safety net. This is very strong, water proof chord like rope that intermeshes across the whole pool and hooks to the deck via anchors drilled flush into the deck. This safety net works great for pools in small yards, because they do not take up alot of space.
They do require more effort as you have to take it on and off whenever you use or clean the pool. They can also be risky, because you can get lazy after a pool day and leave the putting back on of the safety net for the next day or later which brings back my question ” What is your child’s life worth?”. My children are challenging, difficult, and alot of work, but they are worth more to me than life itself, so I ask myself this same question with my own pool at times.
In addition to the issue of effort, pool service cleaners frown on these covers. They take almost as much time to pull off and put back on than it takes to clean the swimming pool. You can count on paying more for your pool service cleaner to remove and put back and some may even refuse to deal with the taking off and back on due to the liability like we do. We require our customers to remove these covers and put them back on themselves due to the time and liability. This can be dangerous as the swimming pool or spa will be unsafe until the cover is put back on. This is not a convenient cover, but it is still an option.
There are other covers as well that do not have openings like the net safety cover. They are thick and solid. They totally blanket over the swimming pool or spa and keep it clean to boot. These pool covers are very expensive and far more popular in middle and eastern america where bigger yards with trees and very cold winters are more popular. They are popular for closing down a pool for the winter season.They are very rare in Orange County.
Another product for child safety is a pool alarm and they serve to produce a loud alarm sound when they detect waves or movement in the pool. These products can be used in addition to a cover or fence, but we are not fans of using these on their own. We would rather the child never have the ability to be in the pool in the first place, but there are circumstances where children can climb over those fences and/or the safety net cover is off the pool. A pool alarm could be an extra layer of protection!
One more note to leave you with. If you have a swimming pool and a baby or babies, start planning on getting them in the best swimming classes A.S.A.P. We have classes in Orange County where they specialize in teaching children how to get to safety and/or stay above water in case they fall in. If you have a swimming pool, it is mandatory for everyone living in your home to know how to swim WELL!
My children are excellent swimmers, but I still put our safety net up when they are not swimming. This is just in case they trip and hit their heads or get hurt upon falling in the pool, but I have an advantage and clean my own pool.
Stay Aware and Inspect Your Yard Often!
In conclusion, test and inspect your gate often! Make sure it always latches. Make sure your children are not putting items that help them reach over to unlatch or assist in climbing over. Having these safety accessories is a must and some follow through with inspections and constant awareness could save a precious life.
If you have a swimming pool and are working on having children, please start planning on how you are going to protect your swimming pool from a drowning. Don’t make me ask the question again. Stay safe and enjoy your pool heaven safely!
Call Pool Heaven Today for Information about the Company We Trust to Install Safety Gates and Nets in Orange County!
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