Asbestos Removal - Muswell Hill - Case Study
Read on to discover more about our case study on Muswell Hill Primary School. In this project we undertook asbestos removal and covered it with our JungleMulch playground surfacing.
Asbestos. The world’s favourite building material. That was, until scientific studies linked exposure to asbestos to several diseases, including cancers. Safety experts banned blue and brown asbestos in the UK in 1985. While eventually banning white and all other types of asbestos in 1999.
At its peak, asbestos was used in over 3000 products. However, due to its significant wide range of uses, asbestos is still present in many places today. One of these places is Muswell Hill Primary School. They unfortunately found some asbestos in some of the ground at the edge of their school.
If the asbestos is in good health and unlikely to face accidentally damage, it poses little risk. However, it can be encapsulated to increase safety further. Asbestos removal can be very costly, however encapsulation is significantly cheaper. Our encapsulation process includes applying a protective adhesive to prevent the release of harmful dust. Luckily for the school, their survey highlighted that encapsulation was an option for them.
Once we encapsulated the asbestos, the Primary School wanted to cover the area. They did this to create a safe, enjoyable play space for their students. They settled on the original blend of JungleMulch rubber mulch playground surfacing to create a woodland floor effect.
We laid our original blend JungleMulch right up to the edges of some old tree stumps in the area. This helped prevent trip hazards and enhance the woodland look of the area.
The most challenging aspect of the proposal was to create a play provision amongst the trees at Muswell Hill Primary School. They approaced us with the desire to reimagine this area and to give it some purpose. To continue the woodland theme, we installed three large uprights with HDPE palm fronds on top and rock holds up the sides, by which to traverse around the palm trees. Opposite the rock holds are some drop rope traverses, and either side of the trail continues with rock traverse panels.