Anyone planning a pool at home also wonders how deep it should be and whether the pool depth is restricted by law. This article is intended to provide some information on choosing the right depth.
Legal regulations
There is no general law that specifically regulates the depth in the home pool. However, depending on the federal state and municipality, there are building regulations that regulate the capacity up to which the pool is not subject to approval. Usually the limit is around 100 m³. For larger pools, it may be necessary to comply with certain requirements, including in terms of depth.
Another legal aspect is the requirement that every pool owner must pay attention to road safety. Incidentally, this also applies to much smaller “bodies of water”, such as ponds or rain barrels. Wherever there is water, regardless of the depth, it must be secured so that no one can fall into it. Particular attention is paid to children. These can drown at shallow water.
Suitable pool depths
Babies
It goes without saying that deep pools are unsuitable for babies. In addition, small children are never allowed to be unsupervised in or near the water, regardless of the depth. A paddling pool is generally more suitable for babies than a pool. In this way, you can usually make your first acquaintance with water without risk. Of course, babies can also be taken into a larger pool, provided they are equipped with a suitable swimming aid or are on the arm of the caregiver.
Note: Never leave babies unattended, not even for a few moments. Ingested water can lead to secondary drowning, even after the apparent danger has passed!
Children/Toddler
The bigger the children are, the deeper the pool can be. It is beneficial if you can always feel the ground under your feet.
In order to do justice to the different body sizes, public swimming pools are equipped with different water zones, even a non-swimmer pool often has a slightly sloping bottom, which ensures that the water depth increases steadily from the entrance to the rear area. Non-swimmer pools have a maximum depth of 135 cm.
Different water zones in a pool with normal dimensions are hardly feasible at home. However, if the pool is also to be used by adults, a favorable compromise must be found.
Adults
For adults, choosing the right pool depth is a little different. For one thing, adults are usually taller and for another, they can swim. If this is not the case, the water depth of a non-swimmer pool should be used.
A swimmer’s pool doesn’t have to be very deep either. 150 cm is often sufficient and aqua aerobics with sufficient buoyancy is also possible.
However, in such a pool you cannot jump into the water or only jump from the edge. Every type of diving platform requires an adjusted pool depth so that it does not lead to serious injuries.
Suitable water depths after using the pool
Most pool depths cannot be achieved at home, mostly because there is simply a lack of suitable means to build such a large pool.
- Baby pool: no more than 10 cm
- Kneipp pool, walk-through pool: 20 to 30 cm
- Paddling pool for children: about 60 cm
- Children’s swimming pool: about 80 cm
- Water sports, pool for older children: 100 cm
- normal non-swimmer pool: up to 135 cm
- Water aerobics, shallow jumps from the edge of the pool: up to 150 cm
- Depth for jumping from the 1 m board: 250 to 300 cm
- Depth from 3 m board: at least 350 cm
