A guide to maintaining domestic play equipment

There are numerous benefits to outdoor play for children’s health and development. This means that having play equipment in your own garden is not only a great way for letting your children play and have fun, but can also help with their physical and mental development. 

While there are numerous benefits to having play equipment in your garden, ensuring that you maintain your domestic play equipment is essential for keeping it safe and ready for use. These tips will help you to repair and maintain your play equipment so that it lasts for as long as possible. 

Keeping equipment well maintained

The first step towards keeping your domestic play equipment in good repair is by ensuring it is well maintained. This means keeping an eye on your equipment to watch out for any damage or repairs that need to be made. If you spot any potential damage it is a good idea to monitor the potential damage to ensure that it doesn’t get any worse. 

Make repairs quickly

One of the key ways to keeping your domestic play equipment in good repair is ensuring you make any repairs to damaged equipment as quickly as possible. As soon as you see a repair needing to be made you should ideally stop your children from playing on the equipment as it could be unsafe or playing on it could make the damage worse. Most repairs to domestic play equipment are easy to carry out with tools that you would use for repairs around the house. If the repair looks more difficult to fix, consider getting an expert to carry out the repair for you.  

Sourcing the right supplies

Whether you carry out the repair yourself, or get an expert to do it for you instead, you will still need to source the right spares. The easiest way of doing this is by looking at the part that needs replacing and searching online for a matching spare part, this spare can then be delivered to your home. If there is a part you regularly need to replace, it could be a good idea to buy several spares for this part to keep at home to make repairing the equipment even quicker.

Protecting your play equipment

Keeping your play equipment protected year round will help to stop any unnecessary damage from occurring. Weather conditions such as heavy rain, snow, strong winds and freezing conditions can all lead to equipment getting damaged and needing to be repaired. If possible, throughout winter when conditions are often at the worst, it is a good idea to store equipment indoors or keep it covered to protect it from the weather. 

During summer, it is worth considering keeping the play equipment under a shade. This will help protect children when playing on the equipment from the sun, as well as helping to protect the equipment from damage caused by harsh direct sunlight.