Asbestos. The world’s favourite building material. That was, until scientific studies showed exposure to asbestos is linked to several diseases, including cancers. Blue and brown asbestos were banned from use in the UK in 1985 and white and all other types of asbestos were eventually banned in 1999.
However, due to its significant wide range of uses (At its peak, asbestos was used in over 3000 products), Asbestos can be found in many buildings and places today. One of these places is Muswell Hill Primary School, who 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 be accidentally damaged, it poses little risk but can be encapsulated to increase safety further. Removing asbestos material can be very costly, however encapsulation is significantly cheaper. With encapsulation, a protective adhesive is applied to prevent the release of harmful dust. Luckily for the School, their survey highlighted that encapsulation was an option for them.
Once the asbestos was encapsulated, the Primary School decided they wanted to cover the area to turn it into a play space for children. They settled on the original blend of our Jungle Mulch rubber mulch playground surfacing to create a woodland floor effect.
Check out the before and after photos from Muswell Hill Primary School below:
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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.