Pool Alarms For inspections

[NCPoolOwner]

I have a two level house, with basement walkout to pool. There are two sliding doors and set of French doors on both basement and main level. Main level of house walks out to balcony with stairs down to pool level. We added sliding doors to leave open during the agreeable NC weather months - over half the year. We do not have any small children. I have fenced the yard and have the required latches. Are EVERY set of sliding doors and set of French doors required to have a separate UL 2017 alarm? Also, how can I leave these doors open to enjoy the good weather months? Based on requirements, the alarm can only be deactivated for "no more than 15 seconds," which seems to eliminate the possibility of leaving these alarms activated after the inspection if we want to leave the sliders open for the afternoon. I feel like I have to install half a dozen alarms, and then deactivate/uninstall after inspection. Do any commercial alarm companies (ADT, Simplisafe, etc.) have a compliant system? I'm at a loss here.

 

[ajw22]

What is “required” depends on your local jurisdiction and inspector.

I have not heard of any commercial alarm systems wanting to deal with pool safety. Likely too much liability for them.

 

[Newdude]

My inspector wanted to see the alarm work on the French door. Then he told me I'd need another alarm for the screen door, so we could have the solid doors open when it was nice out.

But the screen doors aren't an approved barrier or I would have put the alarm on them from the start. A small child or dog could push right through the screen and not trip the alarm. He didn't care about the reasoning and persisted I needed a 2nd alarm.


He only relented when I pointed out that the alarm on the French doors couldn't be disabled and needed to be reset every 15 seconds or it would go off so we effectively could never have the doors open using the screen door instead.

But yeah. It all comes down to the reasoning of the inspector standing on front of you, even if they contradict themself.

Alarm the doors and have an explanation ready that you or your wife can't deal with the humidity so you are AC people and the screens are never used.

 

[darkrider]

We also had to do 2 full levels, because of our daylight basement and deck. Our PB provided our alarms, as he knew exactly what would pass and what would not in our jurisdiction. The inspector did ask to see the UL Paperwork for the alarms, and tested some but not all of them. All were battery operated, and not hard wired. We don't have young kids, so I did remove some of the more annoying ones after inspection, and also removed batteries in some of the windows we open often, but otherwise I left most of ours in place.