Playground Equipment For Residences – Considerations Before Buying
Playground equipment are not restricted to playgrounds, parks and schools any longer, these are found at malls, airports, pediatrician’s offices and many other places. Most people nowadays are installing these in their homes as well. If you are also considering installing playground equipment in your homes, you should first of all plan your budget and design the playground according to that. You need to find the right balance between the type of equipment and your budget. While shopping for the equipment, you should bear a few things in mind.
Choice Of Kids
When it comes to choosing the playground equipment for your kids, you should consider the choice of your kids. The most preferred choices of kids are swing sets and slides. However, some kids like the thrill of classic merry go rounds and have fun playing with the funnel balls. To know the exact requirements of your kids, you should have a chat with them to find out what they like to have in their personal playgrounds. If your kids are too young to help in taking such decision, you can always go for the play sets. These sets consist of various structures. For example, a single set has slides, tunnels, ball pool and climbing tower. Each play set has different assortment of structures to offer multiple play varieties.
Age Group
Age of the kids is another important factor that needs to be thought over when choosing the play equipment. If your kids are under the age of eight, you may not want to purchase structures with large climbing towers and bump wave slides. These are meant for children over the age of ten and more. For the young ones, you can get sandboxes, spring riders, swing sets and others. A number of companies offering playground equipment have them categorized according to different age groups. This will make your job easier.
Material Used
The material used for manufacturing the equipment is of utmost importance. In the market, you will come across playground equipment made of different materials like metal, plastic, recycled plastic and wood. Metal has been in use for years but is slowly being replaced by plastic. The main reasons for that is that it heats up in the summers and have sharp edges that may injure kids. Overtime, wood also gets deteriorated due to the varying weather conditions. Plastic, on the other hand has no negative effects of the weather. Plastic can be molded easily in a variety of shapes and attractive designs. With the whole world going green, manufacturers have also started using the recycled plastic. It cleans up the ecosystem a bit and brings forth the equipment with various designs.
Safety Standards
When it comes to playground equipment, kids’ safety is the first concern. You know that you can’t be there at all times to supervise them while they play. Therefore, you should consider the stability and structural sturdiness of the equipment and make it a point to buy age-appropriate play equipment. You can use protective barriers like safety netting to minimize the likelihood of falls. Use of playground specific surfacing will reduce the chances of children getting injured, in case of a fall. For that you can use smooth pea gravel, wood chips or coarse sand. Some companies also offer synthetic surface along with playground equipment.
ADA Compliance
If you have a child with special abilities, you should get the ADA compliant equipment that can be easily accessed by them. Such equipment are manufactured as per the defined standards which include the route to the structures, height of seats, accessibility to the elevated structures and clear floor space. In such structures, kids with special abilities can play along with other kids. Cost of an accessible playground varies according to the structures and materials used. Even if you are purchasing the indoor playground equipment for them, make sure that these are created as per the ADA standards.
