When you purchase playgrounds or any type of playground equipment, ensure the pieces meet the safety standards and will ensure your children are completely safe at all times.

Reputable companies or manufacturers will be able to provide you with all the correct specifications required to ensure the playground equipment is well within the safety standards.

Also, reputable companies or manufacturers will be able to provide you with satisfactory answers to any questions you may have regarding the safety of their products.

You can follow these simple safety tips, when you are ready to purchase playground equipment:

1.  Install correctly all equipment. Regardless of  how safe the playground equipment manufacturer claims it to be.  If you are installing the equipment yourself, ensure that the equipment is firmly secured to the ground.

2.  Every year, hundreds of children are injured on the playground due to falls. Although the playground equipment may be completely safe and correctly installed, children are still capable of falling, tripping, or tumbling onto the ground. Instead of allowing your tots to fall on a hard concrete surface or even the slightly softer grass, install a soft surface. These shock absorbing surfaces include shredded rubber, rubber bond, special safety playsafer rubber mats or mulch from Rubberecycle can make the difference in a trip to the emergency room and a minor fall.

3.  Be sure to choose equipment that is appropriate and recommended by the EPA, choose age appropriate equipment and sizes of your children. If you have several different children in a wide range of ages, consider dedicating different parts of the playground to each child. Also, consider choosing pieces that can be upgraded as the child ages, such as swings or rings. Ensuring that the playground surfaces are appropriate like rubber mulch, playsafer rubber bond or Rubberecycle wear mats and rubber curbs that will prevent accidents from occurring.

4.  Cover hardware and all playground equipment that  has sharp, pointy, or hard aspects that are essential in the assembly of the play area. Choose playground supplies with covers that will ensure little ones are not cut or injured on this hardware. This is especially essential when it comes to the s-hooks and chains that attach swings, rings, bars, and other suspended elements.

5.  Constant supervision. The best way to ensure safety on any playground equipment is to properly supervise any children while playing. Just as you would watch your kids playing in the park playgrounds, the same safety precautions should be taken in your own backyard playground.

6. Regardless if you have a metal set or a wooden set, most playground swing sets comes with some type of paint or protective coating. Check the makeup of the paint or sealant to ensure the safety. Furthermore, some types of pressure treated wood contains creosote or other chemicals.

7. Most playground swing sets  has a ladder of some sort. Ensure the child cannot become trapped between the ladder and the guardrails or between the rungs. This is critical to prevent children from becoming stuck or seriously injured. Be sure that spaces between guard rails or between runs should be less than 3.5 inches or greater than nine inches.

Let our kids have fun the safe way.