Maintaining pool fences and barriers is essential to reduce the number of young children drowning and serious immersion injuries in pools. If you are a pool owner, maintaining your pool includes more than just testing the water. Your pool fence or barrier must also be regularly checked.
All pools, including spas and some portable pools, must now comply with the pool safety standard and in Queensland, must be registered with the QBCC. The standard applies to homes with new or existing pools as well as short and long-term accommodation premises.
The pool safety standard covers such things as the height and strength of barriers, mandatory non-climbable zones, gates, and their latching requirements and preventing direct access from a building into a pool area.
Queensland Government legislation allows Council to issue on-the-spot fines for pool fencing not complying with the standards.
To find out if your pool complies below is a checklist of some of the main areas.
The pool fence is at least 1200mm high
The bottom of the pool fence and gate is no more than 100mm off the ground
The horizontal rails of the pool fence are less than 900mm apart and the gaps between the verticals no more than 100mm wide
All climbable objects are at least 900mm away from the fence on the outside, or within 300mm of my pool fence on the inside e.g. BBQs, trees, garden rocks, shrubs, pot plants and furniture
The pool gate opens outwards away from the pool, self-closes and self-latches from any open position
Latches on the gate must be at least 1500mm high from finished ground level and at least 1400mm above the highest lower horizontal member. If not, the latch must be located inside and be 150mm below the top of the gate or the edge of any hand hole opening.
Pool gate hinges thicker than 10mm must be at least 900mm apart or the lower hinge must have a non-climbable (at least a sixty degree) safety cap fixed to prevent climbing.
There can be no direct access through a door from the house or another building to the pool area.
Generally, any windows opening onto the pool area must not open more than 100mm or must have a security screen fitted.
A compliant CPR sign is prominently displayed in the pool area
A pool safety certificate is required when selling, buying, or leasing a property with a pool. Pool safety certificates are valid for one year for a shared pool and two years for a non-shared pool. If you would like to book your Pool Safety Inspection, contact OneHome Inspections on 07 3369 5231 on visit www.onehomeinspections.com.au
The Inspection Process
At OneHome Inspections, our Inspector, Tom will carry out the Pool Safety Inspection in line with the Pool Safety Standard. From this, the pool will be found to be Compliant or Non-Compliant.
If the pool is deemed fully compliant, our Inspector will issue the relevant Pool Safety Certificate.
If your pool is not deemed compliant, then the owner will be issued with a Non-conformity Notice (Form 26), detailing all the items needing correction and will have 90 days to address all the items. Once all issues have been rectified, we will be able to re-inspect the pool so a Pool Safety Certificate can be issued.
If you need a Pool Safety Inspection or Pool Safety Certificate, please contact OneHome Inspections on 07 3369 5231 on visit www.onehomeinspections.com.au
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