Playground Safety Surfacing Standards
Playground safety surfacing has requirements, also known as standards, to live up to. Whether you’re a school, council, playground equipment manufacturer or landscape architect, you need to understand the playground surfacing requirements to ensure the safety of your playground is top notch.
So, what are the playground surfacing standards?
The main ones you’ll hear about are BS EN 1177:2018 and BS 7188. BS EN 1177:2018 specifies a method for determining the impact reduction of playground surfacing, defining the Critical Fall Height of the safety surfacing. Whereas, BS 7188 provides additional test methods and performance limits to those in BS EN 1177, for resistance to abrasive wear, slip resistance, resistance to indentation and ease of ignition.
BS 7188
BS 7188 provides additional tests for abrasive wear, slip resistance, resistance to indentation and ease of ignition, and the results of these tests must fall within the required limits. The BS 7188:1998 limits are as follows:
Performance requirement
Result required to comply with BS 7188
Resistance to Abrasive wear
Wear Index less than 1.0
Wear ratio between 1.0 and 3.0
Slip Resistance
Not less than 40 when tested wet or dry
Resistance to Indentation
Residual indentation shall not be more than 5.0mm
There shall be no cracking, splitting or perforation around the point at which the load was applied
Ease of Ignition
The surface shall have a ‘low’ radius of effects of ignition
Tensile Properties
Upper wearing layer: Tensile strength shall not be less than 0.4 MPa and elongation at break not less than 75%
Lower unexposed supporting layer (where applicable): Tensile strength shall not be less than 0.1 MPa and elongation at break not less than 25%
Other playground surfacing requirements to consider
Additionally, changes in levels of surfaces should not present hazard(s) to the users of the area.
When developing your playground, you should also check the Critical Fall Height of the surface. The CFH should be accurate, as stated on the test certificate. Additionally, this should be equal to or greater than the ‘free fall height’ of any playground equipment in the area. Playground equipment manufacturers will often specify the free fall height of their equipment within their brochures.
Do you need any advice on playground surfacing standards?
Give us a call on 01564 742811 and a member of the team will be happy to help. For quotes, head over to our handy contact form page or drop us an email at [email protected].
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