The text says should be connected not shall I should do lots of things but if code doesent mandate by the word shall the inspector is wrong

My pool builder installed cheap little alarms on each of our back doors, they were pointless IMO, but required to pass inspection. They were only useful if you remembered to enable them, so we never relied on nor ever used them. Give the inspector what he wants, then install what will work for you. I see a 4 pack of alarms in Amazon for $25.

@GaryBack Exactly! If I went that way, my wife would have those ugly things off our wall as soon as the inspector left. At least with my proposed solution it would be seamlessly integrated into my house and not set aside after the inspector left. What you described is also partially what I mean by archaic. No one I know that has a pool has these devices on their doors anymore.

If she heard even one horror story (and unfortunately, these are real, not fiction) of a kid that drowned in a pool, she would get used to the alarms on the doors/walls very quickly.

@manassehkatz Yea with my solution it is hidden and when we have kids over, I can easily turn on the hidden system from my phone and it will work like the law states with no ugly boxes. When we are alone (95% of the time), it will be off and we don't have to press a button to exit our house. .... and I will NOT forget to enable it, just like I would never forget to replace the batteries in the ugly wall alarms or smoke alarms ;)

To be clear, you are talking about sabotaging mandatory safety systems. View from 30,000 feet here: that seems like a great way to do a turn for manslaughter.

@JFar, I believe this is a valid question for those who are entering the DIY Smart home / connected home scene, especially as it relates to local laws and codes. This can either make or break those who want to enter this realm. I'd be curious to hear what you find out from talking to an inspector or two prior to scheduling the actual inspection. Maybe they have signed off on other homes who implemented a non-ugly, user friendly, and cheap method of meeting these guidelines that you could inquire the owners about. Get some ideas from them too. Please keep us updated. Following.

@EdBeal Unfortunately in most cases, unless you have tens of thousands of dollars and many moons of spare time to spend on a lawsuit, you either do what the inspector says, or you don't get your permits signed. If he thinks you have to weld the doors shut to meet code, doing so is probably your cheapest option to pass inspection.

The Florida state code appears to give you options, of which the alarm is only one of four solutions: m.flsenate.gov/Statutes/515.27 Self-closing, self-latching doors in 515.27(1)(d) would seem to be easier and less fugly.

@JFar You insist that you won't forget to enable it, but good intentions don't qualify as a safety feature. You're significantly better off with something that's on by default.

@mrog I was just joking about forgetting. Of course we all will forget, but it would be just as easy to forget to replace the batteries on the "official" devices.

@JFar Except that smoke detectors will remind you in the most annoying way to replace the batteries. An alarm won't remind you to turn it on. (If it could do that, it may as well turn itself on.)

@mrog I bought an official "pool guard" device on ebay just to see how it works. It takes a 9v battery. I was referring to that when I was talking about the battery dying. Perhaps there is some low battery indicator like the smoke alarms. And it will probably happen at 3am, like the smoke alarms - giving me yet another reason to pull it off the wall... poolguard.com/door.asp

How many people are sneaking into properties, using pools, and suffering injuries that the owners are required by code to install alarms? The whole concept of "it's your property so you're liable if someone breaks in and gets injured" seems so strange to me.

The cheap door alarms they installed had to be switched off in order to pass through the door, then manually switched back on to enable them. I was not comfortable trusting that we remembered to enable them each time passing through the door. We used our home alarms chime feature which was always on when awake and enabled the stay alarm while sleeping to monitor unauthorized exits, which never happened. We were quite diligent about where the kids were in the house and who was available to listen out for them.

Are you sure door alarms are requirements? The document you've linked states it is a guidelines document. Most jurisdictions require you to keep access to the pool locked from the street (so kids can't enter from the neighbours, etc) but I've never heard of a code requirement to have alarms installed on interior doors with access to the pool. That seems a bit excessively paranoid, at least for anyone without toddlers. (I'm not in the US, mind you).

@J... After a bit more research, yes it is indeed a law and I agree very excessively paranoid. I have to press a button to exit my house into my back yard! I live in Florida and I do get several options other than these door alarms. archive.naplesnews.com/news/crime/… leg.state.fl.us/statutes/…

@JMac the alarms are not to protect against unwanted intruders into your home getting into your pool. They're to protect against legitimate guests/residents of your home from entering your pool - specifically, children. Let's say your sister visits with her 4 year old, and the child decides to go jump in the pool when no one's looking. He pushes the door open and the alarm goes off. The adults in the house now know he's in danger. I never met my uncle because he drowned as a child by entering a pool at a relative's house. Well before these codes, but such an alarm may have saved his life.

Install them, get inspected, then remove the batteries or disconnect the power wire. If you need to be inspected in the future, just give them power again. It's what we did at my parents house way back when...

The "archaic building codes" you're trying to circumvent are intended to stop children drowning in backyard pools. Children drowning in backyard pools is a problem, most people would agree. Your children are grown, yes, so soon enough they will start bringing over their little ones to visit. There is no way a "modern" phone or watch notification can ever be as effective as an actual audible alarm.

A young child entering the pool area, requires an IMMEDIATE response, not a slightly delayed (it'll get their eventually) phone notification type response.

@SnakeDoc And of course remember to reconnect the power if a child ever comes to visit. After-all these devices aren't just to keep inspectors happy. They are to prevent children from drowning in pools.

Perhaps we should put alarms around ponds, lakes, rivers... He'll,

Hell, even puddles in the street!

Well.. if you're not wearing your iWatch and your iPhone is dead... so are you.