| Never, mainly in case a neighborhood kid gets in your yard, at least you would have done all you legally could if that child / teenager drowns. |
| +1000. This. Hopefully this will never happen at your house, but at some point you might need to demonstrate that you took reasonable safety precautions. |
| Keep it unless you are replacing it with an automatic safety cover. |
| Never |
So sorry for your loss. How horrible. |
While swimming, drunk, with friends after his parents went to bed. |
this. A friend of mine has the exact same fence you are describing but her main fence is a split rail style so doesn’t count as a pool fence. If you only have an 8yo who can swim I would take it down. If you have younger kids over though I would prob get a door alarm for the door that goes into the yard. |
so a fence would not have helped in this case. |
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If children can open the regular gate fence, e.g. the fence gate latches are low and not child safety gates, then you leave the child safety gates up. If the regular gate latches are high or locked then you can take down the safety gates. Just remember that it is your responsibility to ensure that neighbors children cannot get into your pool area. That's the responsibility of the pool owner, to keep the pool off-limits to children.
I have had pools in the past and that is one of those rules you have to learn to be a responsible pool owner. |
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Please understand..this gate is not for your kid only. It's for other kids. That's why it is a law. Surely you understood that when you bought the house. There are lots of private pool regulations in Md, DC and Va.
Start looking them up! Many drownings occur from children entering your yard. Not to minimize the death of children...but also dogs, animals... |
Nope ! This is completely inaccurate! Read up on the laws, please. I feel like if only one person learns something here today, maybe one or more lives could be saved. |
I am quite sure the pool is required to have it's own fence within a space even if that's fenced. Check your jurisdiction..it may have something to do with the size of the overall yard. |
Not sure a fence would have prevented that. It was his house, he could have gotten in regardless any number of ways. It's for random access, mostly, and for kids, animals. If I were a pool owner, safety and liability would be first priorities over anything. Don't second guess that. |
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Check with your insurance before you do anything.
But as a former lifeguard and pool manager, I’d say leave it up. Even kids who can swim can get into trouble if they hit their heads diving in, or crack their head on the side falling off a float. And if your kid has friends over, 8 is old enough that you don’t need to have eyes on them all the time. But you can’t guarantee they won’t decide to flout your house rules and go swimming. |
It would if it was complicated enough that he’d be too drunk to work it. |