Austin Metal Gates installs pool fencing in Austin, TX, and is Travis County's trusted specialist in code-compliant pool barriers, specializing in powder-coated aluminum pool fence panels, welded steel picket fencing and self-closing pool gates. We offer self-latching gate hardware and flat-top ornamental sections.
Our team provides barrier layouts drawn to the pool code, delivering a safer backyard for your family and a compliant enclosure around amenity pools for both residential and commercial projects. Before we quote, the same crew that installs walks the deck, measures every gap to grade and marks where the house wall joins the fence line, and each gate is welded in our own shop.
From a latch release set 54 inches above grade to the full perimeter around deck, spa and lawn, our team handles every detail. Serving Austin, Shady Hollow, Steiner Ranch and The Hills, we check each enclosure against the local pool rules before a post goes in.
Why Austin Metal Gates
No stock panels cut down to fit, and no handoffs. The crew that measures your opening builds and installs the gate.
A pool barrier exists to keep a small child away from the water long enough for an adult to notice. In 2006 alone, 283 children under five drowned in swimming pools in the United States. The code that answers that number is written in inches, and a fence that misses one of them is decoration, not a barrier.
The International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, Section 305, sets the core rules, and the International Residential Code carries a pool appendix of its own. Rollingwood, for example, names Appendix G, section AG105.1 of the 2012 IRC for every pool fence built or substantially altered since April 20, 2016. The requirements we draw to:
That rail rule shapes the design more than anything else. A classic iron panel with two rails close together needs tight pickets; a panel with rails at the top and bottom only can use standard spacing.
A pool barrier is only as good as its gate, and a gate that stops closing on its own has quietly stopped being a barrier. The code is specific:
We build the gate frame in our shop so it stays square, because a gate that sags drags on its latch and stops closing. At handover we open the gate to different positions and let it go. It has to close and latch from each one. If it does not, the job is not finished.
Pool fencing lives in splash, sun and irrigation, which is a harder life than a front-yard fence.
Aluminum suits a pool barrier well. It forms its own oxide layer, so it does not rust, and it weighs about a third as much as steel, which makes long runs and removable sections easier. A powder-coated finish adds color and a second barrier.
Steel gives a heavier, more architectural look and matches iron gates or railings elsewhere on the property. Around a pool we only use it hot-dip galvanized and then powder coated. The zinc corrodes first, protecting the steel even where the coat is chipped. A salt-water pool deserves extra care, because chloride is one of the things that breaks down the protection on iron.
A pool fence should not invite climbing or catch a falling child, and in some cities a pointed top is illegal anyway. Lakeway requires every new fence to be continuous and flat-topped, and Sunset Valley bans spiked pickets and head-trap spacing above the top rail while also requiring pool barriers to meet the adopted pool code. We design pool runs with the top rail over the pickets.
Austin sits on the Balcones Escarpment, and west of it the ground rolls into the Hill Country, down to Lake Austin and Lake Travis. That terrain produces pools that are anything but a flat rectangle in a flat yard.
The 2-inch bottom rule applies along the whole run, not just at the posts. On a hillside we step or rack the panels so the bottom rail follows the ground, and we measure the gap at each panel before we sign off.
Steiner Ranch sits on a ridge between Lake Travis and Lake Austin, and a lot that falls toward the water may put the pool on one level and the lawn or dock on another. A barrier has to enclose the pool itself, and the path from a lower terrace or dock back up to the deck is part of what we map at the site visit.
If a wall of the house forms part of the barrier, doors and windows with sills below 48 inches that open toward the pool need protection: an entrance alarm listed to UL 2017, self-closing and self-latching doors, or an approved safety cover. We show the house wall on the drawing so you can see where the fence ends and the alarms or closers take over.
The barrier code is the floor. Local rules add to it.
Under Texas SB 711, in force since September 1, 2025, an HOA may no longer ban a perimeter fence, but it still regulates fence type and material. We confirm the current pool code edition and your association's rules when we quote, since both are revised over time.
We quote every pool barrier individually. What changes the number:
The quote follows a free on-site measure, where we check every one of these against your actual yard.
The process
Four steps, and nothing is fabricated until you have signed off on the drawings and the price.
We measure the opening, the slope and where power can reach, and talk through style, automation and access.
You get scaled drawings for your approval and for any HOA or city review, with one written price.
Steel is cut and welded to the approved drawings, then galvanized, powder coated or both.
Columns and posts set, gate hung, operator set up to UL 325 and every safety device tested with you.
Questions
The pool code sets a minimum of 48 inches, measured on the outside of the barrier. Some owners go taller for privacy or to match other fencing, where local rules allow.
It swings away from the pool, closes by itself from any open position, latches automatically, and has its release at least 54 inches above the ground or protected on the pool side as the code describes.
Yes, if it is drawn to the barrier rules: 48 inches minimum, no opening that passes a 4-inch sphere, and tight picket spacing wherever rails sit less than 45 inches apart. We design it that way from the start.
Perimeter length, material, picket spacing, gate count and hardware, slope, how the posts are mounted, finish, house-wall protection and approvals. We price it after a free site measure.
Most associations around Austin require approval, and some, like the Estates of Shady Hollow, ask pool applications to show the fencing and self-closing latches. We provide the drawing and hardware details for your submission.
No, but the fence has to follow the ground so the bottom gap stays within code along the whole run. We step or rack the panels and check the gap panel by panel.
That depends on the perimeter, the finish and any approvals still pending. You receive a schedule with the drawing, and fabrication begins once it is signed.
We build pool barriers across Austin and Travis County, including Rollingwood, West Lake Hills, Sunset Valley, Shady Hollow, Barton Creek, Lost Creek, Steiner Ranch, The Hills, Lakeway and Volente.
Every pool barrier comes with a written warranty, and we test each gate for closing and latching with you before we leave.
Free on-site measure across Austin and the west side. We call you back to set a time.
Calls only, we do not receive text messages.
