Our pool builder had to install alarms for our final pool inspection. Now we were having an automatic cover installed but at the time of the inspection it was not on yet, so the door alarms were necessary to pass code. Thank goodness for the cover because the alarms are unbelievable. They are put on ALL doors and are very ugly and very LOUD. You have to press a button each time you go out to keep alarm off, but no way to do it going back in. So every time you open a door to come in the alarm goes off! Drove my pets insane. They sort of connect like the old chain locks way up high on each door.

As the above poster said we also had to install door and window alarms for our barrier inspection but pulled them down immediately after as we don't have any small children in the house. One of my friends has small grandchildren and she got an expensive pool cover. It even requires a special key to open it up and seems very secure. I think it was rather pricey but when it's the safety of a child involved you can't put a price on that.

Automatic pool covers that exceed the ASTM standard are the single best safety device there is! While an alarm may alert you, getting to the pool can involve precious time that you may not have (if you're on the otherside of the house, garage, upstairs, basement etc), whereas the automatic cover keeps children, pets and adults OUT of the water!

Everything you need to know about automatic swimming pool and spa safety covers can be found here, www.aquamatic.com

I have a bag of alarms that I had to install when having my pool replastered (because the fence had to be dismantled to do the work). They are not nice but if you used them just when the grandkids were over, they would be tolerable. (Another option, depending on the door type, is to put little slide bolts on the doors up high to prevent escapes.)

A door alarm tells you when someone goes outside, not when someone falls in the pool, so the almost ad above isn't entirely accurate about how the alarm is too late. (I think there are splash ones but they really do seem impractical.) If you can do an automatic cover at this stage in your project, it would be the best option because a pool is just nicer when it's been covered and you're killing two birds with one stone and all that. And a fence is always good. Baby Barrier type fences aren't that pretty but they are functional and inexpensive and removable (with more effort than they'll admit).

It surprises me how we often see homeowners that are allowed to get far along on a new build before addressing safety options--it seems like it should be part of the pool builder's planning! A pool can be positioned to that a fence won't look like it was tacked on, or have an automatic cover mounted nicely but so often they aren't...