llosciale
(Lawrence Losciale, HI 83, CBC022116, CPC0573)
21
Jay,
Exactly safety first, but did you know that in Florida it’s a misdemeanor to fail to provide a safety barrier around the pool? That’s law not code.
A point of information: The distance between the pool and the home is dependent on the depth of the pool at it's closest point to the home.
It’s some thing we call the angle of repose, basically one foot out for every foot of depth plus one foot. So a 4 foot deep pool could be as close as 5 feet from the house. Also with proper engineering the pool could be right up against the home. I’ve even seen some that are both inside and outside at the same time.
As for what your electrician says, he quite right the minimum distance between metal and the water before bonding is needed is generally considered to be 5 ft.
Use the internachi site “inspector find” section and find a licensed and ceritified inspector in your area to inspect the pool. A separate pool inspection usually runs about $100.00.
llosciale
(Lawrence Losciale, HI 83, CBC022116, CPC0573)
29
Since it’s not code but law “when” doesn’t really matter. The way it works is if some one gets hurt or drowns in a pool the current owner would be sited. So though a house with a pool may be sold with out the barrier the barrier is still required.
I let all my clients know and let them work it out as to who’s providing it and how. Just like the rest of what we report,right?
Gary,
You are correct, that’s about average and in my opinion way to low for a real inspection with a written report. Look at how we berate lowballers on wind mits and roof certs. There’s a lot of liability in pool inspections, I feel if you’re going to accept that liability you should get paid for it.
Huh?
If someone tells you that you are in violation of Code or Law, then they have to be able to cite the Code (or Law) along with the date is was enacted in order to determine applicability.
llosciale
(Lawrence Losciale, HI 83, CBC022116, CPC0573)
31
The Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act, also known as the Preston de Ibern/McKenzie Merriam Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act, Florida statute 515
When I say “when doesn’t really matter” what I mean is, if some one gets hurt or drowns in a pool in FLORIDA today and the pool has no safety barrier the current owners can be charged no matter when the pool was built.
Unlike reporting on code changes such as GFCIs and AFCIs, lack of those are usualy only concidered defects if not installed when the particular code was in force, though they may still be worth pointing out.
This is another knee-jerk reaction to a child drowning. The fact is that no one was watching the child when he hit his head. Then, no one could find him. Maybe if they were watching their child, this wouldn’t have happened.
The other “victim” would have been spared had someone been paying attention.
As usual, I have the answer to this issue.
The picture below is of my son, in our pool, with no fence or any other safety devices.
By 8 months old he knew how to survival swim, and it came in handy one day when he took a step into the deep end of the pool. I was right there when it happened as the rule here is no child goes in the pool unless an adult is present.
Perhaps, the parents should be prosecuted when their child drowns. Maybe then, they would pay attention to what the children are doing.
I have a Pool…
Always have…
and my Children are always supervised (now 14 & 15)… call me crazy…
but…
I have worked in homes all summer…
where children under 10
are in the pool…
while the Mom is home watching TV or doing whatever…
Makes me nervous…
and scares me
why others do not see the same risk…
llosciale
(Lawrence Losciale, HI 83, CBC022116, CPC0573)
40
Some one should have told that to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, she was the one that pushed this particular law through in the first place.
Going back over the history of the bill, the pool industry fought it for years mostly because of the false security issue. It only passed because it was an election year and DWS was threatening her fellow Representatives with the “baby killer” label. The law was so poorly written that they had to pass a “glitch fix” bill before it could go into effect. DWS had had it so that the dept of health would have been inspecting for the barrier in the original version.
