Home Buyers Consider Pool Safety

Each year several hundred people, mostly children drown in public or private pools and thousands are injured. These numbers can be drastically reduced if pool safety becomes a top priority for everyone who owns a swimming pool. Home buyers should consider these safety issues when seeking to buy a home with a swimming pool.

Good Fences Produce Pool Safety

The importance of a properly built swimming pool fence to keep children out of the pool area cannot be overstated. States with large numbers of properties with swimming pools have higher than normal rates of child drowning. Although lawmakers have recognized the problem and have begun to address it with fencing ordinances, many older properties are grandfathered in. The laws are specific and your real estate agent should be well informed on the requirements and should be able to recommend fencing companies to correct problems. Simply substituting a pool cover for a fence is not adequate and can lead to a false feeling of safety.

Lifesaving Safety Precautions

A good pool fence will have vertical bars space not more than four inches apart and will have a self-closing and self-locking gate. Keep furniture away from the outside fences so that children can't climb in. House walls should not be included in the enclosure as non-swimmers can then enter the pool area through windows and doors.

Besides keeping your own children safe, fences also keep out pets and neighborhood children who may wander into your yard. Know where your kids are at all times and be sure to ask for help in keeping tabs on all the swimmers as the numbers become greater. Too often, everyone thinks someone else was watching the kids. If you are the sole supervisor and the phone rings, take the kids in the house with you or, just let it ring. This is one of the most common times of child drowning.

Every pool should have safety equipment such as a hook or a flotation device to use in case of emergency. Make sure that pool chemicals are kept at the proper levels and that they are locked up when not being administered as they are poisonous materials.

first time home buyers