To start with, there are 2 main issues to be handled when creating a playground: preparing a secure playground flooring and gathering necessary equipment 안전놀이터. The initial issue is much too often overlooked, even though that it is the flooring which plays a deciding role whenever a child is falling down. Falls are the key cause of accidents on a playground! Grass or natural soil usually are not sufficient to cushion the impact of a child's fall.

The equipment is another factor and here the money should not be spared. Obviously, the prevailing playing equipment can be utilized when it is in a good shape and regularly maintained. When buying new equipment, you need to select a reliable manufacturer whose equipment complies with international safety standards. Producer should inform you which equipment could be installed in a DIY manner, and what needs to be carried out with a professional company.

Calculating playground area

Let's start with designating a secure playground area, that ought to be large enough not only to suit all the apparatus, but also to comprise the impact area, which can be where a child can fall. Remember that the impact area will be free of obstacles. To be able to have the ability to calculate this area, we must know the critical fall height of the equipment. For example, if the most height from which a young child can fall is 2 m, the ground has to be covered with protective playground flooring certified to attenuate the impact from 2 metres. Moreover, the flooring should reach 1.8 m behind the edge of the apparatus in question. The formula to calculate the impact area is: 2/3*critical fall height + 50cm.

Which means you need to always pave the playground with safety flooring reaching 1.5 to 2.5 metres behind the equipment.

Another important safety requirement is that the most fall height is 3 metres. So, make certain none of the apparatus where a child can stand or climb is higher than 3 m. Finally, let's not just forget about good sense that ought to guide you in the initial place when building a private playground.

Preparing the subfloor

When you have viewed the located area of the existing equipment or installed the new one (following the manufacturer's instruction) and once you have designed the sum total playground area, it is time to prepare the subfloor. If you build a DIY playground it is much easier if the subfloor is bound (e.g. concrete, paving stone, asphalt, tiles). For the reason that case, you can lay safety flooring directly together with it, without the need to organize the base course. If you decide on rubber playground mats which are interlocking, you won't even need certainly to glue the tiles.

If your subfloor is unbound, as an example it is soil, sand or grass, you'll need to organize it first to make it load-bearing and solid. The very best and most economical way is to organize a grit or gravel bedding. Level the prevailing area and place a level of about 15 cm of sharp-edged gravel, that ought to be compacted and levelled. Now you can pave the safety playground mats directly onto the gravel bedding. Rain water will seep through the porous mats and through the gravel layer to the ground. This solution is ecological and very practical - you will see no puddles and children can utilize the playground in just about any weather!

Low-maintenance playground flooring

Rubber mats are the most practical flooring solution for a secure DIY playground. Apart from the fact that they're childishly easy to set up, they might need practically no maintenance. Playground mats are made from a permanently elastic material (polyurethane-bonded rubber granulate) this means they're absolutely weatherproof. They'll not rot or crack, and they'll last for about 15 years or more. If you have any difficulty, individual mats could be lifted or exchanged.

Other playground materials are either very expensive or difficult to maintain. Especially sand, grass or wood chips need constant maintenance, exchange and replenishment. The expenses related to this is often overwhelming for a residential district or neighbourhood. Especially that the layer of those loose fill materials has to be quite thick to provide the necessary fall protection.

With rubber playground mats it is quite simple to provide the fall protection necessary on a specific playground. Producer always informs you what the critical fall height for every single safety mat is, and which is suitable for installations on unbound subfloor. Rubber granulate mats are an easy task to cut on site and they have small formats to make DIY work slightly easier.