We're closing on our new house tomorrow and for the first time will be living in a house with a pool. We don't move in until July 2nd (rent back situation) but want to get some kind of pool protection before moving in because our three kids are 4 1/2, 2, and 6 months.

Any recommendations? Right now we are leaning toward a gate around it as opposed to the tension net type cover because we will be using it a ton this summer and pulling the net on/off seems like a pain.

We have pool fence. It's removable when we have parties or don't want it up. It has a self closing gate that locks with a key. It works perfectly assuming you lock the gate. Once my kids turned 5 they could reach the gate latch but when it's locked they can't get in. Both my kids are good swimmers now but we keep it up for extra safety. I would hate for a neighbor kid to sneak in and have an accident. Also, even with the pool fence if my kids have friends over and they play out back my wife or I sit out there. That's probably overkill but it makes us feel better.

To make it outdoor related we had a deer get in our backyard last year by jumping our normal wood fence. For what ever reason it couldn't figure out the pool fence. It just walked up and down it getting snot all over it. I went outside and it jumped the wood fence.

So apparently the pool fence protects kids and deer.

Install a one sided dead bolt near the to of the door and keep it locked whenever the kids aren't outside supervised.

Also swimming lessons for every kid. Even the little ones, teach them to float unassisted and not to panic in the water if you're not holding them.

A family in my church had a toddler make its way past the fence around the pool. I guess the gate was left open. The toddler fell in and was drowning when the parent found it. After the toddler was taken to the emergency room, the child died. The doctor said that the toddler was pulled from the water in time, however the chlorine levels in the pool were high enough that the chlorine burned out the child's lungs. I can't remember the exact explanation, but the elevated chlorine levels killed a child that was actually pulled from the water earlier enough to prevent drowning. I have always remembered that lesson.

I had a net (Katch a kid) in my last house and I installed it only during the winter to keep leaves out. They really weren't a pain to put on, but it is if you use the pool often.

There is pool fence that uses the rods and net fencing which is what I think is described above. You insert the rods into sleves in your pool deck. The fence is ususally pretty close to the pool. You can DIY this if you want.

I just did a pool remodel at my house and removed a bunch of old wrought iron. We had a fence around the pool and separating the driveway garage from the pool. I decided to replace the fence between the driveway/garage and pool area and DIY'd it.

I installed about 16' of 4' fence with a 4' gate including autoclose hinges and maglatch.



I bought all of the parts at american fence in league city.

It really depends on what fits with your backyard layout.

Fairview, what brand of fence did you get?

We plan on putting childproof dead bolts on all doors and putting a padlock on the gate so they can't wonder into the back from the front and neighbor kids can't wonder into the backyard.

Here are pictures of the pool if it helps.

We have a fabric fence that goes around the pool. There's no gate, so you have to pull the fence posts up out of the holes in the concrete to access the pool. You can completely remove the fence when you have visitors over. Since there is no gate, you have to be religious about replacing the fence everytime you go in or out of the pool area. I prefer this over the wrought iron fence option because when my youngest is a strong swimmer I don't want a fence around the pool.

Edit: based on the above pics, this option would require the fence to be pretty close to your covered area. But depending on the layout of your house, that may be your only option anyway.



[This message has been edited by RebelE91 (edited 5/7/2013 7:59a).]

Based on the pool pics, I would go with the removable fence.

Katchakid installs them and I think they have dealers in the major cities in Texas.

http://www.katchakid.com/pool-safety-fences.htm

quote:

---

Fairview, what brand of fence did you get?

We plan on putting childproof dead bolts on all doors and putting a padlock on the gate so they can't wonder into the back from the front and neighbor kids can't wonder into the backyard.

---

We have the Katchakid that is linked just above. We can take it out whenever and they give you plugs that fill the holes.

On your house you have a couple of options. You can put the fence around the pool (or just to your back fence line - no reason to cut off your beds unless your yard is much deeper than it looks in the picture) or with the way your patio is, have the fence just go straight across your patio. That would not require much fencing at all but the downside is you have no separation between the pool and your yard for kids to play in. That may not be an issue if the pool takes up most of the yard but could be a pain if you have to let dogs in and out of it all the time and you are keeping the gate locked.

On our fence gate we had installed a second latch near the top. That way it takes two hands to open it and its too high for the kids to reach but it allows your yard guy or whoever to get in and out without you remembering to unlock it.

Yeah we considered just blocking off the patio, but it is a corner lot so the side of the back yard is actually pretty big (pic below), so we want to be able to let them run over there to the playset and play.

That's similar to our situation. I wanted the pool area blocked off but access to the yard and play-set.

I can't speak for the other options but the katchakid fence works great for us. It comes in different colors to help it look better but honestly a safety fence most likely isn't going look as good as no fence but its about safety. It's easy enough to take down though and you can have them install it anyway you want.

Awesome. I'll definately be getting a quote from them.