D.I.Y. swimming pool fencing

[den1ska]

End result

Just when you think you are done with cleaning the pool, making sure chemical levels are good and you can enjoy your swimming pool, the new regulations came in for the pool fencing in Victoria.

No worries, let's ask a local specialist for a help and get it done.

After a few phone calls and visits over by different tradies, a standard Clark Rubber Pool 8x4m fairly rectangular shape and with flat ground got us to a "GREAT DEAL" quote of $11,000, with asterisk in the quote "the expense potentially go to up to $30,000 without need an approval from the customer".

The answer to this "Yeah, nah". Let's do it ourselves.

First things first, we got a person who can interpret the regulation into rough idea of what needs to be done, where the doors can be, and what needs to be extended. $450 for a 30 mins job here. Thank you.

Then we got a small sketch of the measurements and an idea of how many polls, fences, dynabolts, bracket, latches and so on.

Rough numbers

Rough Sketch

It is time to go to Bunnings website and order all the needed materials + tools needed for the job.

After finding and adding everything to the cart, materials + tools + delivery total ended up being ~$3200. Now we talking

When the goods arrived it was time to free up some weekends and get the project going.

Here is the "Before" photo:

Overview of the project

The first poles get in place as a reference for the rest of the fencing:

First pole done

The easy half of the job is done:

Half of the job is done

Some extra digging and family help required, but nothing to be scared of:

Pole digging

The "After" photos:

Finish from the backFinish from the frontFinish extra extensionFinish from the side

The whole project took about 2 weekends partially due to one of the poles being concreted where there were no bricks/solid ground and also it rained quite a bit.

A week later we got our fence approval and a certificate of compliance ready to be submitted to the council

In the end it was definitely an interesting and fairly easy project in our case as we had mostly flat, brick layered ground to start with.

[KatieC]

Hi @den1ska,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community! It is awesome you have jumped straight in with a fantastic project that compliments your beautiful backyard oasis while remaining compliant. Was it difficult to do the concrete for the post?

Katie

[den1ska]

Good day,

we bought 2 or 3 bags of premixed concrete/rocks/sand from Bunnings.

There is nothing easier to use than this: poor some water (as specified on the packaging), mix well, poor in the hole. It hardens after an hour or two, but it says to wait for 24 hours.

[MitchellMc]

Great work, @den1ska!

You might like to double-check the requirements on internal objects you can have within the fenced area. Not only can you not have objects outside the fence that are climbable within a certain proximity, but at least in N.S.W., you can't have them on the interior of the fence as well. The handrails for the pool ladder might be considered a climbable structure. I just thought it might be worth pointing out in case you can move the ladder away from the fence.

Sensation stuff, and I look forward to your next project!

Mitchell

[den1ska]

Good day Mitchel,

Yes, you are correct, the hand rails for the pool are considered climbable.

We did remove them, however the "finished" photo was taken before the removal.

Thank you