Playground Equipment Safety Guidelines
Maintain the safety of your playground means maintaining the safety of your wooden playsets over time. Playground equipment has different fasteners; these include bolts, nuts, caps, chains, cables and many more. To keep these in proper shape, these need to be checked on regular basis for wear and tear and replaced as needed. Apart these, protective playground surfaces like mulch, sand and pea gravel needs to be replenished as they become compressed after regular use.
Safe Hardware for Playground Equipment
You should use only those bolts and screws for your wooden playsets that are recommended by the manufacturer of your playground equipment. Lock washers or self-locking nuts helps in preventing the bolts from loosening over time. Also, you should cap the exposed bolts because these can cause serious cuts or entangle loose clothing. All the S hooks should be close, so that the openings are less than the thickness of a dime. Carabiners are also used as an alternative to S hooks for attaching top of each swing to the swing beam hardware. Carbiners are considered safer than S hooks because these are less likely to pose a strangulation hazard or entangle loose clothing. Carabiners are also used for making easy adjustment of swing height.
Playground Equipment Safety Guidelines
When you are selecting the right playground equipment or planning to construct your own backyard playground equipment, then it is essential to follow the guidelines for backyard playground equipment safety. These guidelines are recommended by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC):
● All rungs, posts, steps, railings and posts need to be evenly spaced.
● Guardrails or barriers should be constructed around any platform over 30 inches above the protective playground surface.
● Openings between rungs, railings, steps and posts and railings should be larger than 9 inches or smaller than 3½ inches wide. This is done so that the children do not become stuck.
● V-shaped angles that open upward and are less than 55-degrees should be filled with a solid barrier (gusset) because these angles can trap a child’s head or neck.
● There should be no gaps or protrusions between the slide entrance area and bed that could entangle or catch clothing.
After your wooden playsets are selected, constructed and installed in your playground, following guidelines should be followed. These guidelines will help in ensuring the safety of the children, who want to have fun and enjoy on the playground equipment. The guidelines are as follows:
Children are advised not to wear bike helmets when they are playing on the play sets because they cannot pass through small spaces and children can become trapped. Strangulation by the helmet’s chinstrap can cause a potential danger.
● Ropes, clotheslines, jump ropes or pet leashes should not be attached to the playground equipment as they can become a strangulation hazard.
● Parents or any other adult should supervise the children, when they are playing on the backyard playground equipment.
When you are selecting any backyard equipment, your main concern is the fun and excitement of your children. Another important point that needs to be considered is the safety of the kids and this can be ensured with proper planning and implementation of the playground safety recommendations that are mentioned above.
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