Swimming pools are always enjoyable places for children, however drownings happen almost every year and it is important for owners to take responsibility to ensure pool safety and reduce the risk of tragedy.
The Royal Glass team works with homeowners, builders and landscapers to design frameless glass pool fence solutions for hundreds of pools each year, providing advice on pool fence design from concept to completion.
Working with industry leaders Metro glass, Viridian Glass and Glass Vice, Royal Glass is a specialist in frameless barrier solutions including concept design and producer statement – something not many glazing teams offer.
Top reasons for inspection failures
Usually, a Local Council inspects a pool barrier every three years and will give the owner three weeks to book another assessment if there’s a failure during the first inspection. So, it can save a lot of frustration if you know the problems that may cause inspection failure in advance.
In New Zealand, you will be charged for each assessment you fail, while the penalty of non-compliant pool may result in up to $5500 AUD in some states of Australia.
- So, what are the most common problems for a pool barrier.
A faulty gate which has lost its self-closing feature, or gate hinge not releasing in some positions. - Climbable items close to the fence, such as tree branches, garden pots, fixed benches etc.
- Latch not high enough to be out of young children’s reach. The latch must be at least 1500mm above the ground level, so, in frameless glass pool fence design, it’s best to place the latch on the side closest to the pool to achieve the 1500mm.
In addition to the main factors above, here are couple of points that need attention.
- If a window faces the pool area, is the window must be fitted with restrictors with an opening maximum no more than 100mm
- Is the gate hinge rust free, with tension-adjustable hinges?
- Does the pool gate open away from the pool?
- Is the pool fence a constant 1.2 m high above the ground/deck?
- Are gaps between the vertical component less than 100mm? And no gaps under the pool fence larger than 100mm?
- Is the entire pool fence securely fixed to ground/deck?
- If the pool fence is installed on timber substrate, is the structure of the beam and joists still in good condition? The settling of timber structure is one of the main causes for faulty pool gates!
- Is there barrier to prevent people falling from height if the drop is more than 1000mm? If you use glass as barrier material, you will most likely need an interlink rail on the glass.
- Does the neighbour’s boundary fence have climbable rails to the pool area?
- Is there damage or missing panels on the existing pool fence?
If you answer No to any of the questions above, you need to sit down and check with professional advisor to get help.
And if you’re about to buy a house with a pool, it’s better to have a qualified inspector to perform a check if the last inspection was done not recently, or you should require the last inspection report from the vendor, as the cost to rectify sometimes may cost $tens of thousands.
The Royal Glass team pool fence advisor team is available to help you to design your pool barrier. They offer 30 mins of free consultation for each project. The Royal Glass team also provides frameless glass solutions for decks, stair balustrades, bathroom shower glass etc.
Services include concept design and producer statement for each project that needs to be submitted when lodging the building consent application.
Contact Royal Glass by email: [email protected]
Or phone: 0800 769 254