Is Your Playground Unsafe? The Answer Might Surprise You.

This is your biweekly dose of playground knowledge from someone who's spent 20 years inspecting them.

In this issue, I’ll discuss what to look for when deciding on playground companies to work with, and how salespeople can tell you a lot about what a company values.

I’ll also dig into the idea of proactivity versus reactivity when it comes to playground design and safety.

All that and more lies ahead in The Playground Post.

Just about every customer-facing company likes to tout quality of service to distinguish themselves from their competition. But, when it comes to the playground industry, stellar customer service isn’t just a matter of cordiality or going the extra mile to close a sale.

Rather, good playground salespeople are upfront with customers about the investment they’re making in the future of the kids who use their playground, even if that means telling the customer something they don’t want to hear.

For instance, if you want to install a bunch of equipment within a space that’s too small to fit it safely, a good salesperson will bring this up and suggest alternatives. What they won’t do is nod their head and let you create a space that’s unsafe or could present danger years down the line.

After all, not only do customers spend big money on their playground, they’re taking on a huge responsibility to ensure the safety of others who use it. If someone googles “how to build a playground”, they’re only going to get half, at best, of the information they actually need. This is where a skilled playground salesperson comes in: not just to make a sale, but to ensure that sale comes as a result of a customer making an informed decision.

So, if you’re shopping around different playground companies trying to decide between two or three that seem comparable in terms of price and turnaround time, pay close attention to whether your salespeople are truly setting you up for success, rather than just trying to make money. It’s far more important to get bad news from a salesperson that will save you future headaches than be stuck with a playground that’s a nightmare to maintain.

It’s hard to believe, but Autumn is almost upon us. Playground installations in most of the country tend to drop off in the next couple months as temperatures start dropping and weather becomes more unpredictable. If you’re looking to upgrade your playground or build a new one, the next month or two could be your last chance to do so until next Spring.

And, if you are in the market for a new playground, make sure you have a plan to maintain it. My free digital playground inspection toolkit has helped many playground owners keep their space danger-free and ready for kids to use. Check out the link below to get started.

I often say that some playground accidents are inevitable. What this really means is that kids falling and getting injured is a fact of life, and those occurrences aren’t necessarily ones that can be addressed. What this doesn’t mean is that learning from and making changes based on accident type or volume has no point, since kids will just hurt themselves anyway.

On the contrary, I’ve seen many examples of playgrounds over the years in which owners have adjusted the layout, made modifications to equipment, or even changed their surfacing type in order to cut down on needless playground injuries. But, too often, these things only happen, at best, as a reaction to a spate of injuries.

So, why don’t organizations learn from these incidents? In a nutshell, their entire attitude regarding playground safety is reactive, rather than proactive. It’s worth touching on what proactive playground safety entails, and why it eludes so many organizations.

Proactivity starts before a playground is even built. Ensuring a space is as flat as possible and lacks divots or holes is something any competent installer will take care of, but those aren’t the only things to focus on. Adequate spacing between equipment is a crucial yet sometimes overlooked aspect of playground design, and it’s one that’s especially hard to address after the equipment is installed.

Additionally, it’s helpful to note the presence of trees near a playground. Before your playground is installed, either trim their branches or remove the trees entirely so that they don’t make their way onto a play space and cause tripping hazards.

These are just a few proactive considerations when building or designing a playground. A CPSI will be able to give you more context-based information, but being able to make informed decisions based on the basics of playground design will empower you to create a safe playground for kids to enjoy for years to come.

If you’re looking to purchase a playground, ask yourself:

These are the sorts of questions that sometimes prove necessary to make playground plans come to life.

If you have any questions on how to get your playground to the finish line, reply to this email and I’ll give you my take.

A playground is a big purchase, and when it comes to completing a project, there’s no such thing as a dumb question.

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Talk soon,

Nic Breedlove

Certified Playground Safety Inspector

20 years in the game. Still learning.