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Safety Surfacing for Playgrounds and Other Recreational Areas for Schools, Churches, Daycares, Parks, Clubs, YMCAs, and HOAs
Why does the proper surfacing matter for play areas? It’s really a safety issue. Over 200,000 children are brought to hospitals from playground-connected injuries each year, most of which are due to spills and falls. One of the biggest causes of these injuries? Improper safety surfacing. Most of these injuries are completely preventable, as long as the right safety surfacing is installed, adult supervision is present, and proper site restrictions are followed.
Listen to what some of our many satisfied customers and clients have to say about their experience with Carolina Recreation & Design
I just built a daycare center and called Carolina Recreation & Design to work with me for playground equipment installation. They were great. The crew they sent out was very professional; they followed the timeline they promised. Great company to work with. The playground they gave me will make a lot of kids happy and safe.
Carolina Recreation & Design was very easy to work with when our neighborhood association decided to upgrade the features at the park. From the initial contact to the final inspection, it was a great all-round experience. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to install a commercial playground in their community.
Our church considers Carolina Recreation & Design a part of our family. They have designed and built three play spaces at our church so far. Carolina Recreation & Design creativity, along with their professionalism, make working with them a joy. The final product is safe, current to industry standards, and, most of all, a fun space for the children. We would recommend Carolina Recreation & Design to anyone interested in upgrading their play spaces.
Falling from playground equipment is the most frequent kind of injury that happens on playgrounds. To prevent or minimize the injuries, every type of school, park, or public use outdoor playground equipment or play structure must include proper safety surfacing. Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to the installation of playground safety surfacing:
All surfaces and applicable sub-surfaces must be installed exactly to specification over a well-drained, properly-prepared base, and must cover the intended use zone to the specified depth. It’s critical that these instructions are adhered to in order to achieve the same performance values the surface material passed for ASTM standards in the lab.
The use of a geotextile fabric, laid on the ground before the surfacing material is installed, may help decrease maintenance by acting as a weed barrier. Containment curbs must also be used with loose-fill materials to prevent them from migrating outside the intended use zone, and to ensure that the proper depth is maintained. As an example, the required depth of engineered wood fiber surfacing is typically 12 inches.
Poured unitary surface (e.g., PIP or bonded rubber) installation will require a skilled technical crew that is trained in the proper installation of the material. This will also require specific temperature and weather conditions to be present in order for the installation to be successful. Once the surface installation is complete, you’ll also need to allow time for the surface to properly cure before allowing users on the playground.
Synthetic turf is a great natural-looking option to consider for safety surfacing, but it’s a material that should really only be installed by professionals. If you’d like to learn more about synthetic turf options for your playground or recreational area, just reach out to the team at Carolina Recreation & Design!
If you’re planning to install a new playground facility for your school, preschool, park, church, club, or other public-use facility, safety surfacing isn’t just a good idea; it’s actually a legal requirement! Here are a few of the most popular safety surfacing options we can provide and install for you.
This is a loose fill surface comprised of engineered, non-toxic, crushed wood fiber. EWF is effective for fall safety, and it adds a more natural look to your playground.
It’s not just for football fields! Synthetic turf is a durable safety surface for your applications, too. It also offers the look and feel of real grass, while never needing to be mowed!
Pour-in-place (or PIP) rubber is attractive, seamless, & resilient, providing both great impact attenuation and ADA accessibility. And the look of your PIP surface is completely customizable. Choose your own colors, designs, even specific logos or game templates (like hopscotch) to include.
This compact surface offers great shock absorption, easy accessibility, and low maintenance. The tiles can be placed in an array of attractive patterns and designs, and can include built-in games like leap frog, hopscotch, and four square.
This unitary safety surface comes in an attractive tile consisting of shredded recycled tires, polyurethane binder, and pigment. It’s springy to the touch, and is made to be long-lasting.
This loose-fill surface is made from 100% recycled rubber tires that have been cleaned and ground into small pieces. It’s more shock-absorbent than wood fiber, and is available in a wide variety of colors.
Being part of the Playcore community means that Carolina Recreation & Design has access to all the best safety surfacing options for meeting your needs. Plus, we do more than just provide and install playground surfaces. We also provide complete play systems, and offer site design and site preparation services, shade structures, seating areas, and much more!
At Carolina Recreation & Design, we pride ourselves on providing total turnkey solutions. If you’re a school, preschool, daycare, church or faith center, hospital, park, community center, YMCA, or HOA, we can take care of you!
Need more information? Ready to get started? Just reach out by completing this simple form, or go ahead and give us a call at (704) 664-1833! Carolina Recreation & Design has all your playground and recreational area surfacing needs to be covered!
Carolina Recreation & Design is a full-service general contracting company offering turnkey installation of recreational products for parks, schools, churches, clubs, daycares and amusement parks. We offer premium-quality commercial products that are safe, fun, and built to last.