Playgrounds

Outdoor play equipment

Outdoor play equipment is chosen first by age group, and it is a subtler exercise than it looks. A playground for 2-6 year-olds needs low heights, gradual access, seating and imaginative play; one for 6-12 year-olds needs height, climbing, swinging and managed risk. Mixing the two without physical separation produces a playground where the small get knocked over and the older ones are bored.

Free fall height is the figure that governs everything else: it determines the extent of the impact area, the thickness of the safety surfacing and, in turn, a large part of the budget. Equipment topping out at 1.50 metres and equipment at 2.50 metres do not cost the same once the surfacing is counted - a point catalogue comparisons systematically hide.

We work with certified equipment and with bespoke design, depending on the project. Bespoke comes into its own where the plot is constrained, where a local theme deserves telling, or where standard equipment does not sit well on a heritage site. See product design for that dimension.

On materials, timber needs regular upkeep and ages visibly but suits any setting; steel and composite need less maintenance and take intensive urban use better. We give you the ten-year upkeep cost of each option, because that is where the real difference lies, not in the purchase price.

On renewal, one mistake recurs endlessly: replacing an ageing item with a model of the same footprint but greater height, because it is more attractive. The impact area and the surfacing thickness then have to be redone, which was not budgeted for, and the playground stays closed for months. We systematically check the free fall height of the replacement model before ordering, and tell you if it forces the surfacing to be redone.

Safety surfacing

Playground safety surfacing is not a comfort finish: it is a safety device whose thickness follows from the free fall height of the tallest item in the zone. A price per square metre should never decide that thickness, and yet it is the most frequent error in the schemes we are called in to put right.

Wet-pour EPDM laid in situ is the most common urban solution: continuous, seamless, coloured, accessible to wheelchair users and easy to clean. Its laying is on a base layer whose thickness varies with the performance required, and it is that base layer, invisible once the job is finished, that does most of the absorbing.

The alternatives have their place: rubber tiles, easier to repair zone by zone; bark or sand, cheaper to buy but requiring regular topping up and constant depth checks - loose fill that hollows out under a swing loses its performance without showing it. We set out those trade-offs before the choice is made.

Junctions and edgings decide how it lasts. Poured surfacing lifting at the perimeter creates a ridge, and therefore a fall, and repairing it is expensive. We pay particular attention to the junctions between safety surfacing and paths, and between two colour zones.

A word on performance over time. Poured surfacing keeps its characteristics as long as its base layer is neither compressed nor lifting, and that is verified by periodic testing rather than by eye. Loose fill, by contrast, loses its performance as soon as its depth hollows out - under a swing, within weeks of intensive use. That is the main reason we steer authorities towards poured surfacing wherever the budget allows.

Accessibility and inclusive play

Playground accessibility is not just a wheelchair-friendly path to the gate. A genuinely inclusive playground lets a disabled child play with the others, not beside them: that is a design requirement, and it is settled on the drawing before it is settled in a catalogue.

It starts with the surface. Poured safety surfacing is wheelchair-navigable where bark or sand is not: the choice of surface is therefore, in itself, an accessibility decision. The paths then have to serve the equipment and not merely the perimeter, and thresholds between zones have to be flush.

On equipment, several answers coexist: directly accessible items - a flush roundabout, a basket swing, sand play raised to wheelchair height - and sensory play that addresses everyone without distinction. The common mistake is to install a single specific item in a corner, which isolates instead of including. We prefer to distribute them.

The adults matter too: a parent in a wheelchair has to reach the seating and see the whole playground. It is a point we check systematically on the drawing, along with sightlines. These trade-offs belong to space design, and they cost almost nothing when taken into account from the start - a great deal when added afterwards.

Furniture and shelters

Playground furniture is aimed first at the adults who come along, and it is what decides how long families stay. Seating facing the equipment rather than the path, in sufficient number, shaded in the afternoon: three simple conditions, rarely met in the playgrounds we take over.

Shelter and shade are becoming increasingly important. A playground in full sun becomes unusable for several hours a day in summer, and dark safety surfacing reaches temperatures that rule out use. Shade is provided either by planting - the best long-term answer, but one that takes ten years - or by structures, or by the orientation of the layout. We raise the question at the study stage.

Bins, water points, buggy parking and cycle stands complete the equipment. They are modest budget items and decisive in use: a playground without bins is a dirty playground within a month, and a dirty playground empties.

We draw and manufacture this furniture where the catalogue does not suit the site - see manufacture - particularly on schemes where a municipal visual identity has to carry through to the equipment.

Fencing and boundaries

Playground fencing answers one priority above all: keeping the area away from the road. Everything else - separating age groups, keeping animals out, marking a boundary - comes after, and is often better handled by means other than fencing.

Height and infill are chosen according to the age group and the setting: a toddler area beside a road needs high fencing with a self-closing gate whose latch is out of reach; an area for older children inside an enclosed park may need only a low or planted boundary. Separating without shutting in is the balance to find.

Planted boundaries are often preferable where the context allows: visually gentler, they age better than mesh and do not suffer the same damage. They do, however, need time to establish and upkeep the authority must be able to provide.

The gate is the point most often found defective during periodic inspection: a tired spring, a broken latch, a latch height that has become reachable by a three-year-old. It is a simple, heavily used component, and we check it at every visit - see maintenance.

On vandalism, experience leads to simple choices: favour fixings that cannot be undone without a special tool, avoid components that unscrew, and remove climbing holds from the upper parts of fencing. A vandalised playground can be repaired, but what matters is that it stays safe between the damage and the repair - which is why we prefer arrangements that, when they fail, do not create a hazard.