Pool fencing
Pool fences that pass, and keep passing
A pool barrier has a job the rest of your fence does not. It has to be right on the day it is inspected, and it has to still be right in five years, when the gate has been swung ten thousand times.
What actually matters on a pool fence
Florida sets requirements for the barrier height, the gaps between pickets, the clearance at the bottom, and the gate hardware. Any fence company can hit those on installation day. The part people do not think about is whether it still holds later.
That is a hardware and a frame question. Self closing hinges and a self latching latch go on every pool gate we build. The gate itself is a welded steel frame, powder coated, so it cannot slowly rack out of square and stop catching the latch. On a garden gate that is an annoyance. On a pool gate it is the whole point of the fence.
Straight answer
We are not going to quote you code numbers off a web page
You will find plenty of sites that will. Most of them are repeating each other, and the requirements turn on details of your property that a web page cannot know.
We will come and look, tell you what your installation needs, and put it in the written specification with everything else. That is slower than a number in a blog post. It is also the version that passes.
Questions
Pool fencing, answered
Does Florida actually require a fence around a pool?
Yes. Florida sets specific requirements for barriers around residential pools, covering the height of the barrier, the gaps between pickets, the clearance at ground level, and the hardware on any gate that opens into the pool area.
We build to those requirements and we will walk you through what your particular installation needs. What we will not do is quote you numbers off a website. The requirements turn on details of your property, and getting them wrong is the one mistake on a pool fence that actually matters.
What kind of fence works best around a pool?
Powder coated aluminum, in most cases. It does not rot, it does not need staining, and it does not move the way wood does, which matters more here than almost anywhere. It also keeps the sightline open, so the pool still feels like part of the yard rather than a room.
Where a pool sits against a property line, people often want a solid privacy run on that side and aluminum on the rest. That is a normal thing to ask for and we build it that way often.
What about the gate?
Self closing hinges and a self latching latch on every pool gate. That is not an upgrade, it is the part of a pool barrier that does the actual work, because a gate propped open is the same as no barrier at all.
Gates are also the first thing to fail on any fence, which is why ours are built on welded steel frames rather than wood. A wood gate frame slowly pulls out of square and stops latching. A pool gate that stops latching is a problem you cannot leave.
Can you match what my HOA allows?
Usually. Several communities here specify aluminum, sometimes down to the brand and the colour, and SouthWood is the strictest we work in. We handle the approval submissions.
Tell us the neighbourhood when you call and we will tell you what we already know about it.
Getting a pool put in?
Call before the deck goes down if you can. It is a great deal easier to run a barrier and a gate where they should go than to work around finished hardscape.