Safety is our utmost priority, especially at home where children are at risk if safety measures aren’t in place within the pool’s premises.

In a harrowing report, a three-year old boy died days after being found unconscious in his family’s pool area. According to news sources, it took some time for the parents of the boy to realise that they haven’t heard from their child in a while.

Had the pool fence been secured, the accident could have been avoided.

Despite efforts to make pool safety a priority, fence breaches in residential pool areas still occur. To ensure compliance, authorities have been cautioning the public of the hefty penalty for pool fence breaches.

What’s important here is the safety and well-being of occupants around the pool area, especially the little ones.

THE NEED FOR POOL FENCE SAFETY CHECKS

Our family’s safety is our primary concern. So we do all that we can to make sure that our home is secure from any breaches. We also make sure that our kids are prevented from going into places alone where they could be in danger, even within the home’s backyard.

Homes with backyard pool deeper than 30cm are required to have fences. They should be regularly inspected to ensure that they are free of any defects that cause children to breach and wander beyond safety in the pool area.

Inspection is required when pools are being installed to make sure they are constructed according to standards. Inspection is also necessary when pools are being modified or to ensure that proper maintenance is observed, gate latches and closers are in place, and that no climbable items are placed too close to the fences.

HOW TO CONDUCT YOUR OWN SAFETY CHECKS

With summer around the corner, now is the time to check your pool area. It’s highly recommended that you do safety checks in your backyard pool area on your own. This should be conducted on a regular basis and right away after the pool has been used, especially by children.

The areas and things you need to keep a lookout for are:

• pool gates
• latches
• the pool barriers or fences
• gaps within the fences
• climbable objects, and
• debris or branches.

Make sure that the following are in place:

• Pool gates open away from the pool and should be self-closing and self-latching from any position with the latches at least 1.5 metres in height
• Pool fences should be 1.2 metres high with a non-climbable section of at least 900mm
• There should be no gaps wider than 100mm anywhere throughout the fence
• Debris and fallen branches should be kept away, as they could be used for climbing
• Any climbable object should be kept farther than 900mm from the outside of the pool fence.

Pool Safe Inspections Victoria can help you insure that your backyard pool is safe and that it complies with state regulations. The company is an accredited and registered building inspector with the Victorian Building Authority (VBA). The company has over 10 years of extensive experience in insuring that any type of spa or pool fences are fully compliant with current regulations.

For more information on our services, visit Pool Safe Inspection Victoria today or call 1800 431 446. We are always happy to have a chat.