POOL SAFETY ACT 2018 (SB-442)
In 2018, the State of California enacted a new law, Senate Bill 442, that requires all home owners to have their residential pools inspected for safety features to prevent drownings.
As a Buyer or Seller, you should be aware of this new law so you can comply. You home inspector should also be aware and guide you about this new law. Click here for a page on the new law, Pool Safety Act 2018
Below are the safety features that comply with the new law, as outlined in Senate Bill 442:
1. An enclosure that 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 selflatching
and can accommodate a key lockable device.
3. An approved safety pool cover
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).