According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety 사설토토 추천 (CPSC) this leads to over 69% of the 50,000 yearly injuries in a backyard playground. These are mostly injuries that could be prevented by using some form of playground tiles or other protective surface.
There are many types of surfaces you can use to help protect your children. Sand isn’t recommended because kids can track it all over and remove it from the equipment area as well as get it in their eyes. Wood mulch is better but constant maintenance and replenishment of the mulch is needed, otherwise low areas / bald spots occur where kids can get injured.
Rubber mulch or rubber pellets are much better in terms of cushioning and protection, however these have the same problems as sand or wood mulch – they too can get tracked away from the equipment or hazard area.
Probably the best protective surface to use is rubber playground tiles, also known as playground mats. Rubber playground tiles are great because you can get many different thicknesses, from 1″ to 4 1/4″. This is great because the CPSC has a statistic called the “Critical Height of Playground Equipment”, which is the highest point that kids can get to on any piece of playground equipment. Once you know the critical height, you can figure out the thickness of playground tiles or mulch that’s needed for that area.
The rubber playground tiles also have holes on the bottom of them so that they fit on just about any surface. You can get different colors of tiles to fit the color scheme of the playground or make nice designs. They’re also environmentally friendly and made out of recycled rubber. They have interlocking edges so they’re easy to install and the rubber material is breathable and resistant to damage. However, in the event that some tiles do get damaged or worn out, you can simply replace that tile or section of tiles. When assembling the tiles, a small amount of strong adhesive is used to connect them, that way kids can’t pry them apart. Water dries on them quickly because the water doesn’t pool up. Lastly these rubber tiles can be purchased in bright, primary colors that many kids love.
This sort of protective surfacing can greatly cut down on the amount of scrapes, cuts, bruises and even the nastier injuries like broken bones and concussions. For these reasons and many more, you should check into safety playground tiles for your public or backyard playground!
To begin with, there are 2 main issues to be dealt with when building a playground: preparing a safe playground flooring and gathering necessary equipment. The first issue is much too often overlooked, despite the fact that it is the flooring which plays a deciding role when a child is falling down. Falls are the main cause of accidents on a playground! Grass or natural soil are usually 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 existing playing equipment can be used if it is in a good condition and regularly maintained. When buying new equipment, one should choose a reliable manufacturer whose equipment complies with international safety standards. The manufacturer should inform you which equipment can be installed in a DIY manner, and what needs to be carried out by a professional company.
Calculating playground area
Let’s start with designating a safe playground area, which should be large enough not only to fit all the equipment, but also to comprise the impact area, which is where a child can fall. Remember that the impact area is to be free of obstacles. In order to be able to calculate this area, we need to know the critical fall height of the equipment. For example, if the maximum height from which a 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 equipment in question. The formula to calculate the impact area is: 2/3*critical fall height + 50cm.
This means that one should always pave the playground with safety flooring reaching 1.5 to 2.5 metres behind the equipment.
Another important safety requirement is that the maximum fall height is 3 metres. So, make sure none of the equipment where a child can stand or climb is higher than 3 m. Finally, let’s not forget about common sense which should guide you in the first place when building a private playground.
Preparing the subfloor
Once you have looked at the location of the existing equipment or installed the new one (following the manufacturer’s instruction) and once you have designed the 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). In that case, you can lay safety flooring directly on top of it, without the need to prepare the base course. If you choose rubber playground mats which are interlocking, you will not even need to glue the tiles.
If your subfloor is unbound, for example it is soil, sand or grass, you need to prepare it first to make it load-bearing and solid. The best and most economical way is to prepare a grit or gravel bedding. Level the existing area and place a layer of about 15 cm of sharp-edged gravel, which should 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 – there will be no puddles and children can use the playground in any weather!
Low-maintenance playground flooring
Rubber mats are the most practical flooring solution for a safe DIY playground. Apart from the fact that they are childishly easy to install, they require practically no maintenance. Playground mats are made from a permanently elastic material (polyurethane-bonded rubber granulate) which means they are absolutely weatherproof. They will not rot or crack, and they will last for about 15 years or more. If there is any problem, individual mats can 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 can be overwhelming for a community or neighbourhood. Especially that the layer of these loose fill materials has to be quite thick to provide the necessary fall protection.
With rubber playground mats it is very easy to provide the fall protection necessary on a particular playground. The manufacturer always informs you what the critical fall height for each safety mat is, and which one is suitable for installations on unbound subfloor. Rubber granulate mats are easy to cut on site and they have small formats to make DIY work a little bit easier.
So, when you look for high-quality yet affordable protective flooring to build a playground with, you need a manufacturer who will advise and guide you no matter if you need 10 m2 or 100 m2 of playground mats. Visit online shop by WARCO – www.warco-tiles.com/safety-floor-playground-tiles, a German company who happily advise private and public customers on their many blogs, websites and by phone. No matter if it is in your backyard or by the mall, children’s safety is our priority!
Even though there is a lot of media coverage about violence in the schools, the fact of the matter is that overall schools are very safe for children. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, around 90% of schools report no serious violent crimes even though more than half do experience non-violent crimes such as vandalism and theft. Additionally, not all school safety has to do with violent crimes. Most parents are also concerned about playground safety and bullying as well. Because of this, school officials know that the threat or even thought of possible dangers in schools weighs heavily on parents’ minds, so they do go through necessary steps to help increase and ensure the school safety. Here are some things to look for if you are concerned about the safety of your child’s school:
Safe Behavior Skills. Schools should have mediation programs as well as programs to teach children how to manage their emotions (particularly anger). Within these programs, students should also be taught the importance of alerting adults if they see, hear or sense that anything might be amiss.
Extracurricular Activities. Schools that offer a wide variety of extracurricular activities, especially those that focus on highly at risk students will give students alternatives to joining gangs and participating in dangerous activity.
Modern Building Designs. To keep students safe, newer school buildings have centrally located administration offices, restrooms near offices, no dead end hallways and convenient exits throughout to increase the safety of the building. Additionally, with the centrally located administration offices, school officials can more easily monitor visitors to the school buildings. Schools should now require visitors to check in at the office as well as wear a badge that signifies them as a visitor that has properly checked in at the office.
School Safety Plan. Does your child’s school have one and is it up to date? If your child’s