Are you planning to build your pool at home? Do you have children at home? If both are yes, there are things you must know before starting this project.
Children at a young age are prone to drowning in the pool, especially if there is no adult supervision. To prevent this situation from happening at your own home, making a pool that is a children-friendly space is essential.
How to make a pool safe for children?
These suggestions can help you make your pool much safer for kids. You will never know when the swimming pool dangers will happen, so being safe is important.
Put a fence around the pool
Put a fence around your pool to enclose it. Ensure that only adults have access to the gate, and no furniture is near the fence that they can use to climb up to the wall.
Teach your children how to swim
Giving your children swimming lessons would allow them to be more conscious and mindful of their environment whenever they swim. With this, there is a big chance of preventing your children from drowning incidents.
Use drain covers
Uncovered drains can cause accidents, and it is actually one cause of drowning incidents.
Have a pool cover
Covering your pool prevents your children from having access to the pool as they can’t swim in it with the cover on.
Safe handling of pool chemicals
To keep the water clean in the pool, you need to put some chemicals in it. Ensure that you only put the right amount of chemicals because it can lead to severe injuries and even drowning.
Be prepared for emergencies
Having a private pool requires huge responsibilities. Ensure that everyone at your home takes courses about first aid, CPR, and water safety.
Lastly, make sure that safety equipment such as floating devices and reaching poles are present all the time.
Water safety checklist
Kids are very excited to jump into the pool, and sometimes the negligence of not checking the water first can cause some problems. Check your pool water before letting your children swim, mainly if you haven’t used it for a long time.
The water guidelines universally apply no matter where you are in the world. The importance of following this is to keep a safe and healthy pool environment.
Check the water’s pH level and chlorine concentration
These chemicals are essential in the pool water because they stop germs in the water. Even if you privately own the pool and only your family can swim, chemicals are necessary. Make sure to have the proper amount for everyone’s safety; also, it’s for the reason that the chemical you put in the water does not cause any allergic reaction to your children or anyone that will use the pool.
Make sure that the water is crystal clear
The pool water should be evident that the drain at the bottom part is visible. With the clear water, you can easily see what is happening in the pool, so it will be visible if there is any drowning incident.
The chemicals that you use have a massive role in making the water crystal clear. Stocking the pool for a very long time can result in having dark and dirty water.
Adult’s presence is important
An adult’s presence is a must every time your children are in the pool, especially if they don’t know how to swim yet. Either you or someone related to you, keeping an eye on the children in the water is crucial.
Safe places to build a pool
The backyard is the safest place to build your pool at home. It has an ample space that can accommodate the size of the pool depending on your design where you want to build it.
When building a pool, make sure that the surroundings are children-friendly. Your children will usually go swimming and you don’t want to build the pool in a place where there will be falling debris that could harm them. The outdoor pool can enclose the pool area by installing a fence, like a mesh fence.
Safety types of equipment for swimming pool
Safety equipment is important if you are building a new pool, especially if you have children at home. They are very strict regarding pool safety because of the increasing number of children drowning incidents every year.
Barriers
Barriers are significant when building the pool, especially for domestic pools, to increase the safety measure. A legislation was passed in the year 2019 regarding this matter.
What could happen if your pool fence or barrier is not compliant? You can get fine from it. There are requirements that you need to follow if you want to build a pool on your property.
Pool safety covers
If your family doesn’t use the pool all season, pool covers will prevent the water from evaporating.
It helps you preserve the pool and it can also be a safety measure to keep your children away from the pool.
Anti-entrapment equipment
If a swimmer gets pulled down in the drain, this machine allows the swimmer to get the part in which the drain is sucking.
Pool alarms
Children can be very sneaky, and sometimes having a fence can’t stop them from swimming. A pool alarm can detect movement in the swimming pool and you will quickly know if someone is sneaking in the pool or if any unwanted object gets in it.
Importance of pool safety
Prevention is better than cure; that is why putting safety pieces of equipment and knowing the water checklist is essential. The main priority of pool safety is preventing drowning incidents, especially for children, since its cases rapidly increase each year. Aside from drowning, pool safety is to prevent injuries and drain entrapment.
The law is strict when it comes to pool safety measures and it must be obeyed no matter what. Building a pool is not easy-peasy because of the particular requirements needed for the safety of the children; however, all of these are worth it since the main reason you will do this is for your child’s safety.