Keeping Kids and Pets Safe While Your Pool Is Being Built

Almost everything written about pool safety assumes the pool is finished.

Barriers, gates, alarms, layered protection, swim lessons, all of it matters, and all of it describes a pool with water in it and a fence around it.

But the most dangerous stage of a pool project isn't the finished pool. It's the six to twelve weeks before it comes into existence.

During construction, your backyard contains an open excavation, exposed steel, power tools, temporary electrical, heavy equipment, and, after any decent North Texas thunderstorm, several feet of standing water in a hole with slick clay walls. There's no fence yet, because it's being installed near the end.

This is the part of a build nobody writes about, and it's the part with the shortest margin for error.

What the city actually requires

Here's something most homeowners don't know: construction fencing during a pool build isn't just good practice in some North Texas cities, it's required.

The City of McKinney's residential pool construction requirements state that in-ground pool and spa construction sites must be provided with construction fencing surrounding the site from the time any excavation occurs until the permanent barrier is complete.

The city gives its reasoning plainly. An unattended hole in the ground presents two distinct hazards: the potential for a cave-in, and the potential for drowning if water accumulates.

That's a city building department, not a safety campaign, identifying drowning risk in a hole that doesn't have a pool in it yet.

Requirements vary by municipality, so confirm what applies to your address with your city's building department. But treat McKinney's reasoning as the baseline regardless of what your city requires on paper. The hazard exists whether or not an ordinance names it.

Ask your builder directly: who is providing construction fencing, when does it go up, and who maintains it if a section comes down? If the answer is vague, that's worth knowing before excavation, not after.

The hazards, in order of seriousness

Standing water. This is the one people underestimate most. It doesn't take a full pool to drown a child. Rainwater collects fast in an excavation, the clay walls become slick, and the sides are too steep and too soft to climb out of. A partially filled hole is more dangerous than an empty one, not less; it looks shallower than it is, and the bottom is unstable.

Cave-in. Expansive clay doesn't hold a clean vertical face. Excavation walls slough, especially after rain, and a soil collapse onto a child or an animal is not survivable in the way people imagine. Keep everyone away from the edge, not just out of the hole.

Exposed steel. A rebar cage is a field of upward-pointing steel. A fall onto it is catastrophic. This hazard exists for a matter of days, but they're days when the excavation looks stable enough to approach.

Temporary electrical and equipment. Cords, panels, and tools on a wet site. Assume anything on the ground is live and reachable.

The gate that gets left open. Access is the most common single failure. Crews come and go through your side gate all day, and a gate that's propped open for a wheelbarrow is a gate that's open when a toddler wanders out.

What to do while the build runs

Treat the backyard as off-limits, full stop. Not "supervised access" off-limits. Children negotiate; a rule with exceptions has no force. Announce it once, at the start, and hold it.

Do a gate check every single evening. After the crew leaves, before dark. Walk out and physically confirm every gate is closed and latched, and that construction fencing is intact where it should be. This takes ninety seconds, and it is the highest-value thing you will do during the entire build.

Lock interior doors that lead outside. Sliding doors, back doors, dog doors. Anything a small child can operate independently should not open onto a construction site. If you have a dog door leading to the backyard, close it off for the duration.

Brief every adult in the house and everyone who visits. Grandparents, babysitters, and friends' parents are doing school pickup. The people who don't live with the situation daily are the ones who forget it exists.

Talk to your neighbours. Their children may be as curious as yours and considerably less informed. A one-minute conversation with the family behind you is worth more than a sign.

Watch the pets. Dogs go into excavations after balls and struggle to get out of a slick clay pit. Cats find rebar cages interesting. Neither has any sense of the risk.

Take photos as work progresses. Useful for your records, useful for any warranty or insurance question later, and useful if the site condition is ever disputed.

What changes once the pool is finished

Construction safety and finished-pool safety are different problems, and the second one begins the day the first ends.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidance centres on layers of protection, the principle that no single measure is sufficient, and that barriers, self-closing and self-latching gates, door alarms, and adult supervision are meant to work together, each one catching what the others miss.

Your permanent barrier will be inspected as part of your final pool inspection, and in most North Texas cities, the pool cannot pass without a compliant one. That inspection is a minimum standard, not a finish line; the layers you add beyond it are what actually protect a child.

Barrier requirements are set locally and vary between cities and HOAs, so what applies at your address is worth understanding properly before your build ends.

Frequently asked questions

Is construction fencing required during a pool build in Texas? There's no single statewide rule for single-family homes; it's set locally. The City of McKinney requires construction fencing from the start of excavation until the permanent barrier is finished, citing both cave-in and drowning risk. Confirm your own city's requirement with its building department, and put fencing up regardless of the answer.

How dangerous is an unfinished pool excavation? Dangerous enough that a city building department names drowning as a specific hazard of an empty hole. Rainwater collects quickly, clay walls become slick and unclimbable, and the soil can collapse. It is meaningfully more hazardous than a finished, fenced pool.

When does the permanent pool barrier go in? Near the end of the build, after decking and hardscape. That's the gap construction fencing exists to cover, so that most of the project can happen before the permanent barrier is possible.

Can my kids watch the excavation? From inside the house, through a window, yes dig day is genuinely interesting. Not from the yard, and not at the edge of the hole. Excavation walls are least stable exactly when they look most solid.

What about my dog? Keep dogs indoors or in a separate, secured area for the duration, and close off any dog door leading to the backyard. Dogs enter excavations readily and often can't climb out of wet clay.

Who is responsible for site safety during construction? Your builder manages the site, but the property is yours, and the risk falls on your household. Agree explicitly with your builder who provides and maintains construction fencing, and do your own evening gate check regardless.

The short version

For the weeks your pool is being built, your backyard is a construction site with a drowning hazard in the middle of it.

Fence it. Lock the doors that lead to it. Check the gates every night. Tell the neighbours.

Then, when it's finished and full and beautiful, start again with the layers that protect a finished pool because the barrier that passes inspection is the floor, not the ceiling.

Who You Build With Matters®, and part of that is a builder who talks to you about this before excavation rather than handing you a warranty folder at the end. If you have questions about how we handle site safety on a build, ask us. It's a fair thing to want answered before you sign.