Swimming Pool Fencing Design & Installation, Valuable money saving tips from 2013 Best Pool Design Winner. Cipriano Landscape Design- Bergen County-Northern, NJ
How can you functionally install a fence around a swimming pool design in your yard? It may seem like a simple task but there are definitely some key components you need to think about when planning for a fence installation.
Two of the driving factors, and rightfully so, are safety and privacy. The whole reason you need a fence in the first place with a swimming pool is for safety and liability. The second big reason is to block views in and out of your swimming pool. Most people don’t like their neighbors having a direct view into their backyard where their swimming pool is. These are the two main reasons, but let’s also examine some of the other less forgotten components where mistakes are often made.
First is the actual location of the fence. A big mistake that people make is unknowingly installing a fence on a neighbor’s property. This can happen when the property is not professional staked out by a surveying company. When a fence is installed on a neighbor’s property, a homeowner incurs the cost to remove and reinstall it properly. Also, if the fence is far off the property line on the correct side the homeowner loses valuable space on their property so it’s critical to get the property lines staked.
Maintenance is an important issue for any backyard landscape and adding a fence often limits the access to certain areas of the property. The location of the gates in the design is very important for both the circulation of people but also for the maintenance of your property. Placing a gate in the wrong spot can cause the lawn maintenance company to have to drive their lawnmowers over patio areas which will stain the stone over time.
In the tri state area, this past winter saw a very heavy snow load, and so allocation of snow becomes an important and often forgot about factor. A fence that is too close to a driveway will limit the amount of snow that can be piled up. The fence may even get damaged if there is too much snow pushed up against it. Make this mistake and you may end up having to pay to have the snow removed from the driveway.
That covers some of the design aspects about locating a fence so now let’s talk about some construction mistakes that are made. The posts of the fence are the most critical feature that need to be installed correctly. If the footings for the posts aren’t properly installed the fence may settle over time. When a post near a gate settles this may cause the gate to not open or close properly.
If the slope of the ground isn’t properly prepared in the proposed fence location, you can be left with some gaps underneath the fence as well. This will not only look bad but also might not meet code and, therefore, need to be fixed.
These are just some of the ideas to think about when it comes time to site a fence around your swimming pool. Properly designing and installing a fence to handle these challenges while making it aesthetically and functionally pleasing for circulation through the yard is the key to it all. If you have questions contact a landscape architect that can help