Pool Permits in Asheville, NC

Yes. Any inground swimming pool requires a building permit, and the work is inspected during construction rather than only at the end. The same applies in Henderson County. We file the application and manage every inspection as part of the project, so it is not something you have to take on.

More than the pool shell. A pool permit covers the structure itself, the electrical work and bonding, the plumbing, and the barrier that surrounds the finished pool. On a sloped lot it can also take in retaining walls and drainage, and a pool house or cabana is a building in its own right and is permitted alongside everything else.

The barrier has to be at least 48 inches high, measured from the ground on the outside of the fence. Gaps underneath it are limited to 2 inches over ground such as grass, and no opening in the barrier itself may be large enough to pass a 4 inch sphere. Those figures come from Appendix V of the North Carolina Residential Code, which is what the inspector is working to.

A gate into the pool area has to be self closing and self latching, and it has to open outward, away from the water. The latch is set high, at least 54 inches above the ground, or mounted on the pool side of the gate below the top edge where a child cannot reach it. A gate that has been propped open is the most common reason a barrier fails inspection.

In many designs it can, which is worth knowing because it saves fencing across the most visible part of the yard. Where a wall of the house forms part of the barrier, the doors leading out to the pool have to be protected, and the county will want to see how before it signs the work off. We settle that during the design rather than at the end.

Madison County issues same day, which is the fastest turnaround anywhere we work. If your property is in Madison County the permit is not what holds up the schedule.

We recommend allowing about 30 days in Buncombe County, and it is frequently a good deal less than that. Review time moves with how busy the office is and with how complete the application is when it lands. Ours are complete when they land, which is the part we control. The permit has to be in hand before any ground is opened, so it is the first thing we file rather than something we catch up on later.

A pool is inspected in stages as it is built rather than once at the end. Steel and structure, electrical bonding, plumbing, and then a final inspection covering the barrier before the pool goes into use. Each one has to pass before the next stage of work is covered up, which is why the sequence matters more on a pool than on most jobs.

The unit itself is usually treated differently from an inground pool, and the pad, the electrical supply and any surround still involve permitted work. Get in touch with the details and we will tell you what applies before you commit to anything.

It becomes a problem when the property is sold, because unpermitted work shows up in due diligence and the buyer's lender may want it resolved. Bringing existing work into compliance means opening some of it up for inspection. It is considerably cheaper to permit a pool at the start than to explain one later.

We do. The application, the drawings, the scheduling and every inspection across Buncombe, Henderson and Madison counties are ours to manage. As a licensed North Carolina general contractor this is ordinary work for us, and it is one of the reasons a pool is better run as a single contract than as separate trades.