Swimming Pool Safety Checklist

By August 19, 2019Uncategorized

Swimming Pool Safety Checklist Tips

“How do I ensure my pool fence is compliant?”

This is a question we are often asked by many of our clients.  Whilst we endeavour to provide as much information as we can to anyone in need of a safety certificate there can be areas of non compliance which are not as obvious as others.

That is where a swimming pool safety checklist can come in handy. A good swimming pool safety checklist should clearly demonstrate most if not all the areas your pool barrier needs to pass in order to ensure you will be issued a pool safety certificate in the fastest time possible, avoiding the additional costs of re-inspection fees and unnecessary delays which may hinder the sale or lease of your property.

How To Ensure Your Pool Fence Gate is Compliant:

swimming pool safety checklistThe pool fence gate is one of the most critical aspects of the overall compliance of your barrier. A non compliant pool gate can lead to fines which may exceed $20,000 or worse still the drowning of a young child.

The most important aspect is that the gate is self closing and self latching from all positions. This includes fully open to simply resting on the latch. That’s right resting on the latch. The good new is that most gate hinges are adjustable so you can easily increase the tension with a flat head screwdriver in order to get the gate closing properly from all positions.

The next thing to check is the hinges. The distance from the top of the top hinge to the top of the bottom hinge must be a minimum of 900mm. Unless the bottom hinge has an angled safety cap which can usually be purchased from Bunnings separately or are sold included with a set of new hinges. Hinges are very easy to be relocated on aluminium pool barriers and usually should not take more than 5-10mins to do this if obtaining an angled safety cap to make it non climbable proves difficult for you. As long as they have the minimum 900mm distance apart you are good.

The following diagram is provided courtesy of the QBCC Queensland Building & Construction Commission.

You will notice from the diagram above that the bottom of the knob of the pool latch must be a minimum of 1500mm from the ground level. So its not 1500mm to the very top of the latch.

If this is not the case you should be able to relocate the latch to a higher position by removing a screw which is generally used to hold it in position.  This may require you to also repositon the latching mechanism which may know be out of alignment.

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