In rainy weather, it is important to provide safer surfacing to reduce risks to children on your school playground. Play safety is a priority in any playground project. Therefore, your outdoor play area needs to account for unexpected hazards that come from heavy rainfall.
Schools often struggle to find the best surfaces for their budgets that provide this important safety year-round. Therefore, PlaySmart is here with a guide to making the right choice for your school playground.
1. Ensure Full Slip Resistance
Our playground rubber mulch surfacing solutions offer excellent slip resistance with bonded rubber mulch for any playground surface options. JungleMulch is the premier playground mulch with vibrant and durable rubber chips for playground surfacing that lasts.
JungleMulch is popular for use on pathways, mounds, embankments, specialist sports areas, and erosion control sites. Because of its top-quality weathering resistance, rubber mulch maintains vibrancy and slip-resistance over time. Even with minimal rubber mulch maintenance, the surface avoids water erosion issues other surfacing options face!
The innovative design and quality recycled rubber materials provide many benefits which you can find in our handy JungleMulch brochure [pdf]. Its amazing slip-resistance is provided by its smart design. The flat but slightly textured surface of the rubber chipping gives you extra grip no matter the weather!
2. Make sure your Surfacing has SUDS Credentials
Choosing the best ground cover for a playground requires consideration of the amount of rainfall and quality of the ground. A Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) requires porous surfacing and high-quality aggregates. This is because these areas have to facilitate natural water cycles and strive to reduce pollution.
We design our SmartPave black rubber recycled granule aggregate surfacing option with drainage in mind. The moisture-curing polyurethane binder keeps the surface porous while still providing slip resistance and long-term resilience to stress.
This safer surfacing option is a great eco-friendly outdoor play area flooring idea. This is because our recycled rubber ‘eco chippings’ help to reduce risks of flooding in urban areas. They are also a sustainable flooring solution with non-toxic bindings.
3. Know your Ground Quality
When looking at any surface, you much consider carefully the ground quality of your site. For example, SmartPave rubber surfacing on a looser surface may not promote drainage as effectively.
Our expert installation team has over 20 years of playground installation experience. We provide assessments to identify the surface right for your soil type, natural drainage and site geographies. Therefore we ensure you get the correct and most effective surfacing solution for the needs of your playground design.
Our experts give you all of the information you need to make a considered choice. This includes expert advice on the long-term impacts of your chosen surfacing solution on your ground quality.
Want to find out how our experts can adapt our playground installation process and types of surfacing to your site? You can request a call back or fill in a quick quote form on our handy contact page.
4. Incorporate Nature
Adding nature to your play area provides a wide range of benefits to children’s moods, playground aesthetics, and more. Also, root systems take in groundwater, reducing saturation, and preventing flooding in times of heavy rainfall!
Therefore, many of our safer surface options work alongside nature to enhance the play value of your outdoor area. Additionally, our playground grass mats have a grid-like structure which allows for grass growth and high-quality drainage.
Rubber play bark chippings are popular for use surrounding trees and vegetation. This protects roots from weathering and erosion. Additionally, it creates an attractive playground design that you can incorporate alongside other types of playground flooring.
Hybrid grass is an alternative to typical Astroturf, which avoids the durability and drainage problems of artificial grass. As the exclusive Hybrid Grass UK distributor, we have helped many of our clients achieve their sustainable surfacing goals. This is because of the biodegradable materials of hybrid grass and the incorporation of natural grass into the surface.
5. Safer Surfacing
Even in the rain, children still need a safe space to play. It can be hard to keep them from climbing and playing even if surfaces become slippery and hazardous. To ensure full safety, playground flooring must protect for required critical fall heights to BS EN 1177 certifications.
In rainy weather, safety becomes even more of an important consideration. This is because of the reduced visibility, and changing ground saturation that can lead to sinking. PlaySmart’s SmartPlay shock pad underlay reduces rubber playground mat sinkage to maintain a higher standard of fall protection.
Is your School Playground Prepared for Rainy Weather?
Unsure if you can provide the best and safest space to play for the infamously rainy British Summertime?
Are you looking for expert advice on safer surfacing for your site? Don’t hesitate to fill in our contact form for your Free Quote or give us a call at 01564 742811.