What You Need to Know About the Cost of Park Equipment
Playground equipment is a great way to encourage exercise in kids and adults. It promotes fitness and helps people develop coordination, strength and critical thinking skills. It also helps them maintain a healthy weight and eat more nutritious food.
KOMPAN offers playground equipment in different styles and materials. Its products are designed, engineered and tested to meet safety standards for public use in kindergartens, schools, multiple family dwellings and parks.
Site Amenities
A community’s parks should have a variety of site amenities. This will encourage visitors to stay longer and enjoy their time at the park. Some site amenities include playground equipment and shade structures. Some also include eye-catching sculpted play elements and colorful surfacing. These features will attract kids and parents to the park, increasing visitor numbers.
Other site amenities that increase park use include benches, trash receptacles and bike racks. These are available in a variety of sizes and designs. They are durable, clean easily and resist vandalism. They are perfect for complementing Burke playgrounds and commercial playground equipment.
Another useful site amenity is a community bulletin board. This allows people to post notices about events and activities. It is a great way to communicate with the local community. It is also a good place to promote the park’s mission and programs. It can also be used as a meeting place for local groups.
Safety
While playing outdoors provides many health, social and cognitive benefits, injuries associated with playground equipment occur when children are not properly supervised park equipment or use equipment that isn’t appropriate for their age. Fortunately, these issues can be prevented by following safety measures and practicing good habits. For example, make sure that kids always play with an adult and don’t ride on equipment that is too tall for them. Also, remove drawstrings from clothing that could get caught on equipment or cause choking. Lastly, avoid rough play and running near moving equipment to reduce the risk of injury.
Inspect the equipment before play to ensure that it’s in good working order and free of debris. Look for tripping hazards, such as exposed concrete footings, rocks or tree stumps. Check that there’s a safe ground surface beneath and around all equipment, such as wood chips, mulch, sand or pea gravel or mats made from safety-tested rubber or rubber-like materials. Ideally, the surfacing should be at least 12 inches deep and extend at least six feet in all directions around stationary equipment and, for swings, twice the height of the suspending bar, both in front and back.
Encourage kids to slide down the slide feet-first and sitting up, not headfirst or on their backs. They should also stick to the one-rider rule on all slides and swings. It’s also important to have children wear proper clothing when using equipment, such as sneakers or slippers and avoiding clothes with drawstrings that could get caught on gear.
Maintenance
Maintenance procedures and practices are critical to ensure safe and durable park equipment. These include sweeping, removing debris, and repairing broken facilities. Parks staff also need to perform regular cleaning and inspections of all structures. They should also maintain tools of the trade such as mowers, trimmers, and hand tools. They also need to keep a log of mechanical problems and submit them for repair.
A well-maintained play environment is a source of pride for the community. It demonstrates the community’s standard of care and manages risks to children from accidental injury. It also reduces the need for costly repairs and extends the lifespan of the equipment.
In addition to routine maintenance, parks and recreation departments need to perform low and high frequency inspections. These inspections should be completed by a qualified staff member with knowledge of playground equipment and surfacing standards. Ideally, these reports should be kept in an accessible location to provide valuable information for ongoing maintenance, budgeting, and staffing.
Keeping a detailed record of the maintenance performed on park structures can help to prevent accidents and injuries. These records are vital to creating a safe environment for all visitors. They should also include pictures, which can be helpful in identifying potential issues and reducing human error. Using an online CMMS such as Limble can simplify the process of tracking maintenance costs, including parts, vendors, assets, and paid overtime.
Cost
There are many different factors that go into the cost of playground equipment. The first factor is the equipment itself. Prices vary depending on what components are included and how much play value is required. The next factor is the installation costs. These costs include site preparation, the installation of the playground and safety surfacing. These costs can be significantly reduced by working with a provider who has experience in the industry and understands all the aspects of completing a playground project.
Another consideration is the age range of kids who will use the park. Elementary school children, for example, need a variety of different equipment that is safe and age-appropriate. This is especially important for children with special park equipment needs, who may need to be supervised by adults at all times.
Modern playgrounds also offer sensory equipment to help kids explore their sense of touch, sight and sound. These experiences can be stimulating or calming. They can even be wheelchair accessible, making them ideal for kids of all abilities to play together.
Site amenities can include benches, picnic tables, grills, bike racks and signs. These can add a level of comfort to the play space and make visitors feel more at home in the park. They can also help reduce the stress on maintenance teams by reducing the amount of trash that has to be collected from the area.
