Starting from the Ground Up to Create the Best Playground Possible

While playgrounds are generally appreciated for their exciting variations of bright colors and slides and ladders, one of the most important features goes unnoticed. Child playground safety should be the most important deciding factor of what playground ideas are best suited for your home. This unsung safety hero is in fact protective playground surfacing material. One easy way to see what is the best playground surface option is to take note of school playground surfaces. These public or private institutions take special care to apply the best safety measures in their playgrounds because they cater to hundreds of children daily. The following is a list of what most schools are using for their play areas:

• Wood fiber – Grade (B-): The new and improved wood mulch, wood fiber is a longer lasting version of wood mulch. This was a common type of surfacing for public parks and schools due to the resiliency of the wood against falls and impacts. However, this surfacing is a loose-fill material so it loses bits and pieces over time. This changes the depth of the surfacing all over the playground the longer it is used. When the depth is lower than the safety standard, this surfacing is not effective for the full fall height rating that it has been tested for. Irony is that the most used areas will have the least depth due to use! It must be constantly maintained to ensure that the surfacing is the correct depth or else it can become ineffective to protect children from serious injury if they fall from high playground equipment. Wood fiber is also uncomfortable to run on if barefoot, which is guaranteed to happen in a residential play area. Loose-fill also creates the problem of covering sharp objects, such as broken glass. Imagine if a glass bottle is dropped and breaks apart in the playground, it would be almost impossible to find all the shards of the glass. Wood also deteriorates over time so it will need to be replaced. It is important to remain vigilant and keep any eye for any signs of mold or fungus as this is an organic material. Wood fiber, however, has improved its ability to maintain the same resiliency against impact regardless of the weather or dampness, unlike the older version of wood mulch.

• Sand – Grade (B): When most people think of playground floors, they remember how much they loved playing in the sandbox as young children. However, there are reasons why this is a popular surfacing choice from the past. While sand is still one of the cheapest options for playground surfacing material, it has several safety issues. Sand becomes compacted and hardened if accidentally sprayed with water or in the rain. This creates extremely hazardous conditions if a child falls onto it because it has almost no impact absorption. While sand is one of the few playground surfaces that can be played with, it is also the easiest to be scooped out and dispersed over time so that the depth of the sand cannot effectively prevent critical harm. As another loose-fill surface option, sand can easily blanket any dangerous and sharp objects. With sand especially, children love to scoop their arms and feet into this material so they are more prone to pricking themselves if a hazardous object is buried in the sand. Regardless of the low cost, it is important to “look at the long-term issues involved and not make decisions on today's costs alone” as PTO Today notes (http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/403-safe-playground-surfaces).

• Rubber Tiles – Grade (A): Perhaps the best marriage of prevention and cost-effectiveness, rubber tile surfacing is recommended as one of the best playground surface options in the market. It not only fulfills the safety standards and appropriate fall height ratings created by the US Consumer Safety Commission for child playground safety, but also includes preventative measures that other school playground surfaces do not provide. Rubber has a naturally high coefficient of friction, so these tiles help to stop any accidental slips and skids, even during rainy season! Because these tiles are modular and do not need adhesives to secure them to the ground, it is easy to maintain and replace individual tiles, saving money rather than replacing the entire play surface. This surfacing is also somewhat springy so children love bouncing across this protective flooring. Rubber tiles also create a solid surface so if a glass does break, it lays in plain site rather than becoming embedded into the tile. It can then be swept up easily and disposed of, reducing the possibility of anyone getting injured.

While school playground surfaces may vary from school to school, rubber tiling quickly becoming a common playground surfacing material all around the nation. Child playground safety is the most important concern when building a playground and it is important to install the best playground surface to protect your family. Although there are many playground ideas, choose the surfacing that effectively prevents critical, life-threatening injuries!