Safety Requirements for New Swimming Pools in California

California swimming pools and spas built or remodeled starting in 2018 must have a second safety feature to protect children from drowning.

That’s the main requirement in a new law that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and aims to boost safety.

Safety features that comply with the new law, as outlined in Senate Bill 442:

1. An enclosure that meets the requirements of Section 115923 and isolates the swimming pool or spa from the private single-family home.
2. Removable mesh fencing that meets American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Specifications F2286 standards in conjunction with a gate that is self-closing and self-latching and can accommodate a key lockable device.
3. An approved safety pool cover, as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 115921.
4. Exit alarms on the private single-family home’s doors that provide direct access to the swimming pool or spa. The exit alarm may cause either an alarm noise or a verbal warning, such as a repeating notification that “the door to the pool is open.”
5. A self-closing, self-latching device with a release mechanism placed no lower than 54 inches above the floor on the private single-family home’s doors providing direct access to the swimming pool or spa.
6. An alarm that, when placed in a swimming pool or spa, will sound upon detection of accidental or unauthorized entrance into the water. The alarm shall meet and be independently certified to the ASTM Standard F2208 “Standard Safety Specification for Residential Pool Alarms,” which includes surface motion, pressure, sonar, laser, and infrared type alarms. A swimming protection alarm feature designed for individual use, including an alarm attached to a child that sounds when the child exceeds a certain distance or becomes submerged in water, is not a qualifying drowning prevention safety feature.
7. Other means of protection, if the degree of protection afforded is equal to or greater than that afforded by any of the features set forth above and has been independently verified by an approved testing laboratory as meeting standards for those features established by the ASTM or the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Full article by Chris Nichols here:  Law Expands Safety Requirements