How to prepare your yard and family for a pool build

Think about the path a skid steer, an excavator, dump trucks and a shell on a trailer will take from the street to the pool site, plus the pool area itself and a place for materials. We map that path on the site visit. Anything on it that you want to keep should be moved before work starts.

• Play sets, trampolines, sheds on skids and outdoor furniture.
• Planters, garden ornaments, bird baths and loose pavers.
• Grills, fire pits and anything stored along the side of the house.
• Shrubs or perennials you want to save. Dig and pot them, or ask a landscaper to move them.
• Sections of fence where the access path passes, if we have agreed they will come down. Know where your pets will be while that fence is open.

If a tree needs to come down for the pool or the access route, have it removed before the dig so the crew is not working around a stump. Stumps and big roots in the pool area need grinding or removal too.

Before any digging, Ohio law requires the excavator to notify OHIO811 at least two working days in advance so utilities can mark their lines. What surprises many homeowners is what does not get marked. OHIO811 is clear that privately owned lines are the homeowner's responsibility. Utilities mark what they own and operate. Lines you own may not be marked at all.

Common private lines in Northeast Ohio yards include these.

• Electrical feeds to a detached garage, shed, barn or yard lighting.
• Irrigation and sprinkler lines.
• Gas lines to a grill, fire pit, pool heater or detached building.
• Septic tanks, leach fields and lines on rural lots, and well lines.
• Invisible dog fence wire.
• Downspout drains and sump pump discharge lines.

Tell us about everything you know is buried, and dig out any old plans or photos. If you are unsure, OHIO811 recommends a private locating company for lines that are not registered. Shut off and cap irrigation zones that cross the work area, and plan to have them rerouted after the pool is in.

Be realistic here. Heavy equipment leaves tracks. Expect ruts along the access path, compacted soil where material was staged and bare dirt around the pool until the deck and grading are finished. In wet weather, Northeast Ohio clay turns soft quickly, which is one reason we try to keep equipment off saturated ground. Grading and seeding or sod come at the end, and a lawn that was driven over usually needs some repair.

Driveways carry the heaviest loads: loaded dump trucks, concrete trucks and sometimes a crane. Ask about protecting the driveway where it matters and about parking for the crew. If the crane will set up in the street, let the neighbors on either side know ahead of time.

Where the spoils go is part of the plan. Heavy wet clay makes poor fill, so a lot of it usually leaves the site. If you have a low spot that needs grading, some material may stay. Spoils haul-off is priced as an extra outside the package, so you know that cost before the dig.

A pool job needs some room to work beyond the pool itself. Gravel for the base and backfill arrives by the truckload and gets dumped near the hole. Pipe, fittings and forms for the deck need a spot. The excavator and skid steer park on site overnight for part of the job, and a portable toilet is common on longer builds. On the site visit we agree where each of these goes, usually on a part of the lawn that will be regraded anyway or on the driveway edge.

If you have a spot you would rather keep untouched, such as a vegetable garden, a new sod area or a septic field, say so early. Septic tanks and leach fields in particular should never be driven over, because heavy equipment can crush lines and compact the soil they need to drain. Those areas should be marked off before work starts, and it is worth pointing them out to the crew yourself on the first morning.

This is the part to take most seriously. A pool under construction is more dangerous for a child than a finished pool with a fence. There is an open excavation with steep sides, heavy equipment coming and going, and in our clay soils, often water standing in the hole after rain. The permanent barrier your town requires usually goes in near the end of the job, so for much of the build the site is open.

A few household rules help.

• No children in the work area, ever, including evenings and weekends when the crew is gone.
• Lock or secure the doors and gates that lead toward the site, and add door alarms if you have young children.
• Keep kids indoors or well away when equipment is running and on lift day.
• Tell babysitters, grandparents and visiting friends about the rules.
• Walk the site with older children so they understand what is off limits and why.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission's advice for finished pools applies here too: never leave a child unattended near water, including buckets and standing water, and use layers of protection such as barriers, door alarms and self-latching gates.

Dogs are curious and construction sites are interesting. Keep them away from the work area and off the site in the evenings, when a hole full of water can trap a dog that cannot climb out. If a section of fence comes down for access, plan leash-only yard time until it is back up. Noisy equipment days can stress some pets, so a quiet room or a day with a friend may help.

A pool build is noisy for a few days and busy for a few weeks. Excavation and the concrete pour are the loudest. If you work from home, plan your calls around them. Expect trucks, early starts and a crane on lift day.

A quick note or conversation with the neighbors goes a long way. Let them know roughly when the dig and the lift are, whether a crane will be on the street, and who to talk to if a truck blocks their driveway. If your HOA requires notice before construction starts, handle that early.

Also think about water. A fiberglass pool is filled while it is backfilled, so the fill has to start on install day. Most homes fill from the house supply with hoses. If you are on a well, ask us about filling, because a well may not keep up and well water can carry iron or other minerals that affect water chemistry.

Use the build weeks to get the family ready for owning a pool. The permanent barrier your town requires will be inspected, but a fence is one layer, not the whole plan.

• Sign children up for swim lessons. CPSC and its Pool Safely campaign encourage lessons for kids, and many YMCAs and parks departments offer them.
• Pick a Water Watcher rule: whenever kids are in the pool, one adult watches with no phone or book, and hands the job off explicitly.
• Learn CPR. The American Red Cross offers courses across Ohio.
• Decide on door alarms, a pool alarm or a safety cover as extra layers.
• Agree on rules: no swimming alone, no running on the deck, no diving in shallow water.

The American Red Cross points out that a four-sided isolation fence, which separates the pool from both the house and the yard, reduces a child's drowning risk by 83 percent compared with three-sided property-line fencing. If you have young children, that is worth considering when we plan the barrier.

Take before photos of the yard, the driveway and the house exterior near the access path. Mark sprinkler heads and anything else you want to protect with flags. Keep a phone number for the project handy and a simple list of questions for each stage. And plan something for the week the pool is filled. After a few weeks of dirt and trucks, the first time the water goes clear is a good moment to mark.