Our house has an existing deck that is 14 feet wide, 12 feet deep and about 30 inches high. We would like to put our new 16 foot the pool up to the deck so we can use a deck ladder to enter the pool and be able to watch people and children in the pool from the deck. The issues we are having are 1: The difference in elevation between the deck and the pool, and 2: the railings / safety requirement by the city.
1: First I don't think we want to bury the pool to make it even with the deck because it would be much easier for our children to climb into the pool from the yard. If the pool is installed on the ground it is a 52 inch steel barrier. I thought about making a small section of the deck that has step the go up to the top rail of the pool with a small platform so you can climb down the deck ladder into the pool.
2: The second issue is the building codes dealing the railings, fences, alarms ect. We have a few option but my wife and I are having trouble deciding what to do. The safest option it to put a 4 foot railing on the deck by the pool (currently we have a 3 foot railing) and have the pool ladder enclosed with a railing and a self closing self latching gate, and a magna latch (high gate latch so children cant open it). The issue is my wife thinks it will look horrible having the railing by the pool.
Option number two is to use our privacy fence around the back yard as a barrier and install a self closing self latching gate with magna latch and an alarm on the sliding door from the house to the deck. With this option we would not have to have a railing by the pool so it would look better, but the building inspector advised against this option because parents get annoyed with the alarm and end up disabling it and that is how a child drowns in the pool.
Please give me some feed back, suggestion, ideas ect. We need the help from our fellow TFP members to come up with a great plan so we can start construction in a few weeks. Thanks.
1: First I don't think we want to bury the pool to make it even with the deck because it would be much easier for our children to climb into the pool from the yard. If the pool is installed on the ground it is a 52 inch steel barrier. I thought about making a small section of the deck that has step the go up to the top rail of the pool with a small platform so you can climb down the deck ladder into the pool.
2: The second issue is the building codes dealing the railings, fences, alarms ect. We have a few option but my wife and I are having trouble deciding what to do. The safest option it to put a 4 foot railing on the deck by the pool (currently we have a 3 foot railing) and have the pool ladder enclosed with a railing and a self closing self latching gate, and a magna latch (high gate latch so children cant open it). The issue is my wife thinks it will look horrible having the railing by the pool.
Option number two is to use our privacy fence around the back yard as a barrier and install a self closing self latching gate with magna latch and an alarm on the sliding door from the house to the deck. With this option we would not have to have a railing by the pool so it would look better, but the building inspector advised against this option because parents get annoyed with the alarm and end up disabling it and that is how a child drowns in the pool.
Please give me some feed back, suggestion, ideas ect. We need the help from our fellow TFP members to come up with a great plan so we can start construction in a few weeks. Thanks.
