New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summer?

[zimm]

We are buying a house with a 42' in ground lap pool. We have two kids, .5 and 2.5 years old. My initial thoughts are to get two safety pool covers made (winter and summer) using the same mounting pins. For a summer cover, I've seen just large webbing, or leaf-proof mesh. The plan would be to cover the pool during the work week with the summer cover to protect against the kids falling in. A pool alarm will also be used.

Ideas? Thoughts? I don't know if an automatic would cover it because of the cut outs. Or just a winter cover and safety fence for summer? We have a lot of trees, so leaf debris is another factor.

 

[harleysilo]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

Nice Pool! Have you considered installing a fence from the corner of the screened in deck (if that is what it is) over to the fence? What else is in backyard not shown in pictures above, meaning is there anything else the kids would need access to or is it just the pool?

My concern is the effort required to install/remove safety cover leading to either lack of pool usage (or lack of cover usage which i doubt would occur).

 

[zimm]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

The stairs in the picture are coming from the Bathroom (pool bath?) that also has a doggie door. Dog will need to go from it to the grass area behind the pool furniture in the photo. On the far side of the pool is just yard and some trees- maybe 50' away to the fence. Kids don't need access, it's on a hill and no grass. The screen porch door also leads to the pool deck. We're worried the kids could crawl out the doggie door and fall in the pool. Maybe fence/gate the bathroom door from the pool deck? It would be easy to deadbolt the porch door up high so the kids can't get out of there.

I don't have a pic of the yard, but here's the inside of the porch.

 

[harleysilo]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

If you did say fence in the pool bathroom/steps from the pool area you would have to fence in an area for the dog, correct? That pool bathroom has an interior door into the house that the dog uses to get into the bathroom to use the dog door to go outside correct?

Maybe change up dogie door arrangement and allow dog access to screened in porch via interior house door dogie door, and then from there via another dogie door to backyard area not shown in photos. A fence could then close off the pool on the end furthest from the bathroom. Is your dog a run-off type, or stay around type? Is the backyard currently fenced in?

 

[zimm]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

If you did say fence in the pool bathroom/steps from the pool area you would have to fence in an area for the dog, correct? That pool bathroom has an interior door into the house that the dog uses to get into the bathroom to use the dog door to go outside correct?

Maybe change up dogie door arrangement and allow dog access to screened in porch via interior house door dogie door, and then from there via another dogie door to backyard area not shown in photos. A fence could then close off the pool on the end furthest from the bathroom. Is your dog a run-off type, or stay around type? Is the backyard currently fenced in?

It's tough to explain and harder without the proper pics. Back yard is fenced. In the "porch" pic you can see the extent of the yard to the left. The little bit of grass ahead will be the doggie "bathroom" area. I plan to remove the fence along that piece of grass and open up the yard- I have .5 acre, most of the woods in the far back that aren't being used. Just need to figure out how to fence the pool from the dog area. Sounds like a safety net isn't the way to go in the summer time?

 

[zimm]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

Oh, and who makes the best pool safety fences? I see I could get a removable one for the summer, and in the winter, take it out and install a safety pool cover.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

I think a mesh fence is the way to go...the posts attach to anchors in the concrete and the fence panels just stretch between them. Some friends of ours just got one, and we will pretty soon too. I like that it can be put up/taken down in just a few minutes.

 

[harleysilo]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

I was just trying to help you exhaust all options before considering a saftey cover that must be manually removed.

As your kids get older you'll still want saftey but they'll want to swim ALL THE TIME.

You too might want to go swimming after kids are in bed.

That will lead to possibly daily removal and installation of said cover, that's a lot of work.

Saftey mesh fence would work.

I like idea of permanent fencing if you can work out a creative attractive design, it will always be there doing its job, no set up take down etc.

 

[zimm]

Re: New owners with small kids- safety covers winter & summe

Well it looks like we'll use permenant fencing to keep the pool off limits from the house and have a lock on the porch door. That and a pool alarm, just in case.

For the winter- what safety cover should we get? Lots of trees around the pool. Local pool place is "leslie" and they have GLI covers. Pro mesh? hyperlite?