As a parent, playgrounds can look like dangerous places for your children; they could get caught in between metal bars or slip through gaps and hurt themselves. Don’t let fear deter you from giving your children a great time at the playground. As park administrators, we can reduce playground-related injuries by installing a rubber surface in the playground. Here’s how rubber flooring reduces potential playground injuries.
Prevents Serious Injury
When rubber surfaces are placed on uneven ground, they make it even and safe for children to walk and play upon. When children run rampant on the monkey bars and swings, the rubber will soften their landing. This type of playground ground covering helps prevent injuries.
If you’re looking for a better way to reduce the risk of injury this coming year, applying stable ground floor covering can help improve children’s safety.
Infections Caused by Playground Surfaces
Even with rubber flooring, any playground surface can carry germs. For example, natural materials such as mulch can carry bacteria that cause severe health risks for humans. If mulch or another surfacing isn’t maintained, diseases can spread through it or any food that’s fallen onto it.
Can Sustain UV Rays
Outdoor areas are prone to damage if they’re not properly maintained after installation. When you use rubber surfacing, you won’t need to worry about excessive wear. Compared to other flooring surfaces such as tiles, which become dried out by the time summer ends, rubber flooring is very hardy.
When park administrators use a pour-in-place rubber surfacing, they’re looking at the benefits of having an upgraded, safe play area. One of the benefits of having rubber covering on the playground is that environmentally friendly materials get mixed in, such as EPDM rubber.
When EPDM rubber is used, the ground surface won’t dry out or get hot in shaded areas. Additionally, it will be able to tolerate UV rays.
Slip and Waterproof
The biggest thing to worry about is ensuring the surfacing has enough traction to prevent slips, falls, and flooding. Many parks can use a rubber surface in other areas of the park such as the community pool or designated fitness areas.
Low-Maintenance
Traditional surfaces need plenty of maintenance and time to get fixed if they’re damaged. They’re always a time investment. However, if you have a pour-in-place surfacing, you won’t need to worry all the time since it requires very little upkeep.
Cement, for example, needs to be weeded and swept constantly. If the ground becomes uneven, it’ll need to get fixed. But, even though concrete can absorb water, it won’t prevent the area from flooding.
Using rubber surfacing can save maintenance workers time when they’re working on surface areas in and around the playground.
Shock Absorbency
A great reason to use rubber placement for your playground is because it absorbs shock by distributing it around the playground surface. A poured-out material turns out spongey, alleviating the risk of falls and injury. Additionally, you can add more padding if the park needs to meet a specific fall height.
Rubber surfacing is a much better application compared to wood chips or harder surfaces such as asphalt and concrete.
Application Made Easy
Many parents don’t view the playground as a safe place all the time, but with suitable adjustments, you can make playtime great by using playground rubber flooring. With this flooring type, many parents and their children can play at the park with confidence and not have to worry about the risk of injury. It’s made with up-to-date materials to help cushion landings and prevent children from getting injured. It’s difficult to slip on and can stop shocks. Additionally, rubber pour-in-place surfacing contains enough elasticity to absorb jolts when children are jumping off high surfaces.
Another thing that helps determine how rubber flooring reduces potential playground injuries is figuring out fall heights. Many parks rely on the size of equipment to help them determine how high their rubber surfacing needs to be before it gets installed.
Easy To Fix and Maintain
The pour-in-place material also helps people identify foreign objects inside the play area. Things such as broken glass and scattered rocks become more visible when cleaning the space. Your maintenance crew won’t miss any messes with rubber surfacing.
Additionally, when the material gets damaged, the repairs won’t take long. All it takes to repair rubber surfacing is the addition of a finishing coat.
Installation is Simple
If you want a no-hassle installation, use a pour-in-place—it sets fast, and you can mold the material into any design you’d like. Then, to set it up, all you need is a selected area that’s blocked off, followed by the color of your choice.
Once it’s poured in, cut off the unneeded parts and shape it into a design of your choice. Each installation will be different depending on the bottom surface you use during placement.
Rubber Flooring is Recyclable
Rubber flooring is recyclable. Many surface materials are made from old rubber and then reused in parks and fitness areas. You can help repurpose the park by using a rubber-based material made with recycled rubber.
Drawbacks on Using Rubber Surfacing
Even though rubber surfacing is great for preventing injuries, it’s been debated whether or not it’s environmentally friendly. Even when it’s made from recycled tires, the harsh chemicals used in that process can make the environment worse.
If you aren’t careful, you may find children getting sick from the compounds used inside the rubber placing. So, get a non-toxic material that won’t cause illness in children and improves the environment around the playground.
Our playground materials are perfect for every park. Discount Playground Supply provides the needed materials to prevent injury while playing.
Make your park an enjoyable and safe place to be when you use rubber surfacing. Discount Playground Supply helps park administrators prevent injury and make playtime fun while also being safe.
