Pond safety - advice needed please.

[tld125]

hello, we are considering putting in a small pond but before we go ahead want to create a child safety cover. Anyone with any advice on how to make it and where to buy from would be great. Thanks in advance.

You need to make a wooden frame that covers the pond area and cover it with a decent grade wire netting. It needs to be strong enough to take a childs weight without giving way.

For the wood i would go for something like this

ttp://www.diy.com/nav/build/timber/sawn-timber/Sawn-Treated-Timber-L-3000-x-W-75-x-T-47mm-9275868

and for the netting

ttp://www.diy.com/nav/garden/fencing-paving-decking/fencing/trellis___screening/-specificproducttype-mesh___netting/Blooma-Galvanised-Wire-Netting-L-25m-x-W-0-9m-x-D-25mm-11987878?skuId=12498584

don't do it. Just don't, have a bog garden or similar. It's only a delay of a few years and for the peace of mind.

However well engineered the cover is you'd still have to have awareness as it could fail /removed /be left off.

we did not cover our pond - or remove it when the children came along

I built a little willow hurdle fence along the front when they were crawling
and then as soon as they were toddling allowed them to pond dip : one hand dunked into v v v cold water in March was all that was needed to make them careful near it.

I took the fence down when DS was 4

statistically, very few children drown in their own pond : they are most at risk when visiting houses with ponds because they do not know what they are.

I agree that kids don't drown so often in their own ponds, but would you risk visiting kids? Or, like my child minders precious DD (after 3 lads) who was found face down as a toddler in next doors freezing pond?

(she survived due to that amazing diving reflex but was briefly not breathing when found)

Theas whereas my child minder made a real point of bringing the kids to my garden so they could stick their hands in the pond, toddle over rough ground, push through foliage in the woodland bit : all the things that had been risk assessed out of her garden but are an essential part of learning about self safety.
And yes, we had lots of other kids round - they were all told to stick a hand in. They remember cold and avoid it actively from age 2 upwards.

Use rebar. You can get a gauge that will take a child's weight easily, even an adult's, so long as the pond isn't a little lake. Secure the rebar with long U-shaped hoops hammered into the ground. In this way, it can't be lifted by accident, will last for years, allows plants to grow through, wildlife to get in and the kids to pond dip without falling in.

I'd have to say a wooden frames will rot.