Nowadays there exist a wide variety of playground materials to choose from. Gone are the days when swing-sets and monkey bars were plain steel and wood frames. Happily, gone too are the days when jungle gyms and monkey bars would start to rust away or the wood to splinter. The playground materials available today are safer, more durable and environmentally friendly.

Modern playground materials are designed to meet safety standards, ranging from the substances used in creating these materials, to the use they will receive. For example, playground constructors are urged to take into account how much sun the equipment will receive, and whether it is in direct sunlight or not. Few use exposed metal slides or platforms, which can heat up intensely in bright sunlight and burn children’s legs and backsides.

Rather, many playground materials that go into the construction of playground equipment now consists of recycled, highly resistant plastic that follows specific size requirements for optimum safety. Any knobs, screws, or other handles are large and well protected to avoid scrapes and pinches.

When playgrounds are built for toddlers, a whole other set of considerations come into play. For example, when choosing playground surfacing, poured in place surfacing or rubber tiling is highly preferable over loose-fill mulch or sand at this age. Obviously this is to avoid loose pieces from ending up in the toddler’s mouth.

Today’s playground materials are made from non-toxic materials, unlike in the past when chromate copper arsenate was used to treat the wood in playground equipment. The poured in place surfaces and rubber tiles that we use in our work are fully ASTM certified for fall heights, impact resistance, and inflammability. Our surfaces are weather resistant, meaning that they will not become water logged when it rains or snows. They can resist a wide variety of temperatures, neither freezing in extremely cold weather nor drying out and cracking in the hot sun. Feel free to contact us with any questions about the playground materials that we expertly handle and install. Contact us either thru phone or email or drop by our office at playsites + surfaces.