Water Safety in Flower Mound, Lewisville and Denton County

Drowning prevention does not rest on one thing. The National Drowning Prevention Alliance describes five layers of protection, and the point of the model is that no single layer is enough on its own — they work together.

We are a pool service company. We are responsible for one of those five layers, and we are good at it. This page explains what we check, and points you to the people who handle the other four.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state it plainly: drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in the United States.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services records every child drowning in the state, case by case. As of 17 September 2026, 68 Texas children had drowned this year. Half of them — 34 — were in swimming pools, and 22 of those were backyard pools.

Thirty-eight of the sixty-eight were between one and four years old. That age cannot be taught to swim out of trouble. A gate that closes on its own can stop them reaching the water in the first place, which is why this layer exists.

A barrier is the thing that works when nobody is watching. It is also the layer most likely to have quietly stopped working since the last time anyone looked.

The gate closes and latches by itself.

A gate that needs a push is not a barrier. Self-closing hinges weaken, latches drift out of alignment, and the gate that shut properly in May often does not in September. This is the single thing you can test yourself in ten seconds: open it, let go, and watch what happens.

And the latch has to be out of reach.

On a residential pool, where the release is operated from outside the barrier, the code puts it at 54 inches or higher. Where the only release is on the pool side, it sits at least three inches below the top of the gate, and no opening within eighteen inches of it may exceed half an inch — so a child cannot reach through the fence and work the latch from the other side.

Barrier height and opening size, measured against the code your city has adopted.

Requirements differ between Flower Mound, Lewisville, Highland Village and Argyle, and they change over time. A fence installed to an older standard can be entirely legal and still leave a gap a small child can use. We measure against what your city currently requires.

The standard we measure against is the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, Section 305. It sets a minimum barrier height of 48 inches, limits how far the barrier can sit off the ground, and governs the spacing between the members a child would climb or squeeze through. A gate must swing away from the pool, close itself, and latch itself.

Two things almost nobody checks, and both are in the code:

The 48 inches is measured from outside the fence — and it has to hold for three feet out.

A fence can measure 48 inches from the pool side and less than that from the yard, which is the side a child climbs from. The code also requires that height to hold for three feet measured horizontally outward from the barrier — so a raised bed, a retaining wall, a woodpile or an air conditioning unit sitting just outside the fence defeats it, even though the fence itself is tall enough.

Pool equipment has to sit at least three feet back from the barrier.

A pump and filter set tight against the fence is a step. The code treats it as one.

Whether the pool has a single blockable main drain — and what the cover looks like.

This is the suction entrapment item on the Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice — the one most sellers cannot answer, because almost nobody has looked. We look, and we document it either way.

There is a visible difference you can check yourself. Older drain covers are flat, which means a body can seal against them. Newer anti-entrapment covers are curved, so they cannot be fully blocked. The federal Pool Safely campaign puts it plainly: have a licensed pool professional inspect and replace any broken, missing, loose or non-compliant covers.

GFCI protection and equipment bonding.

The electrical layer nobody outside the trade knows exists. We check where the GFCI is, whether it works, and whether the equipment is properly bonded.

We do not install pool fencing. We refer to Protect-A-Child Pool Fence of Dallas — Greg Dorman, dealer and installer — for removable mesh pool safety fencing. (214) 676-3132.

And if a fence is not affordable right now, there is something in the code worth knowing. Where a wall of the house forms part of the barrier — which is how most backyard pools are arranged — the code accepts an alarm on the doors and windows that give onto the pool, listed to UL 2017, as one of the permitted means of protection. A power safety cover built to ASTM F1346 is another. Neither is as good as a four-sided fence, and we will say so. But both are recognised, both cost a fraction of fencing, and both can be in place this week.

Ask us and we will tell you which applies to your yard. There is no charge for the answer.

A designated Water Watcher — one adult, close, capable, off their phone, with no other job until someone relieves them. Not “everyone is keeping an eye out,” which is how a group of adults ends up with nobody watching.

Lifeguard Your Child, run by The Center for Children's Health at Cook Children's with Safe Kids North Texas - Fort Worth, provides drowning prevention education, Water Watcher tags, swim lessons and life jackets to families across eleven North Texas counties. It is the closest programme of its kind to us. Lifeguard Your Child

Colin's Hope publishes free Water Watcher cards and a short training course for parents and caregivers. Colin's Hope

This is not our expertise. It is theirs.

Swimming is a skill built over time, not a box that gets ticked. Two schools we refer people to:

Amy's Aquatics — Flower Mound, 25 years.

Swimming Fishies Swim School — Argyle, since 2006. Daniel Bakic.
820 Indian Trail, Argyle, TX 76226 · (214) 997-3065

Self-rescue is a related and distinct discipline, taught to very young children. The Live Like Jake Foundation funds self-rescue scholarships. Live Like Jake Foundation

For the pre-reading age group, Josh the Otter teaches water safety through a children's book. Josh the Otter

Coast Guard approved, worn, and the right size. Not water wings, not a pool noodle, not an inflatable ring. Those are toys, and several of them are designed to be let go of.

CPR with rescue breaths, basic water rescue, and a phone within reach for 911.

So Much More CPR & First Aid teaches CPR and first aid locally to families and educators.

Casey keeps his CPR certification current. It is not something we sell or teach — he just thinks anyone who works around water every day should hold it.

Casey serves in an advisory, non-voting capacity on the board of the Texas Pool & Spa Coalition, advising on state safety and licensing standards. We are also members of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association and Safe Kids Tarrant County.

Membership is affiliation, not qualification. What we hold is Texas Licensed Residential Appliance Installation Contractor, RAIC #214, and twenty-two years on North Texas pools.

If you would like someone to look at your barriers, gates, drain and electrical protection, our Health and Safety Check is free. We will tell you what we find, in writing, whether or not there is any work in it for us.

469-835-5674