Maintaining playground surfacing is essential for the durability, aesthetics, and most importantly, safety of your playground.

Wetpour is an incredibly tough, long-lasting safety surface option, however it still requires ongoing maintenance and occasional repair. In this blog you can find how you can improve the longevity of your playground surface, as well as some easy and affordable solutions for when your surfacing needs a repair.

 

Inspections

 

A schedule of regular routine and operational inspections is a good way to keep your surfacing and playground up to the standards of BS EN1176 & EN 1177 for Commercial Playgrounds and BS EN16630 for Outdoor Fitness Equipment, as well as understand what maintenance or repairs need to be carried out.

Routine inspections can be carried out by your ground maintenance staff member; however, we recommend they attend a playground visual inspection training course first. These inspections should be carried out on a regular basis and recorded, with all found hazards reported for further action.

Operational inspections look at the condition of the playground in more detail, providing a quality control check on the more regular inspections and identifying wear and tear on the equipment. 

These inspections should occur every quarter as a minimum. We offer an inspection service which you can read more about and book here.

Check out our general inspection handbook here for a full guide and checklist to help you inspect your playground equipment.

 

 

 

Cleaning

 

Remove any litter, loose leaves or debris and inspect area for moss and algae, which tends to form in damp, shaded areas. You can find out more about how to clean your wetpour surface by reading our surface cleaning guide.

 

Weather Protection

 

During the colder months you may have ice or snow form on your surface. Before you’re tempted to pick up a shovel or scraper, be aware these can cause damage to your surface. Rock salt or traditional winter road grit is also not a suitable de-icer for wetpour, as it can leave white residue stains as well as being abrasive to the surface itself. We recommend our Wetpour De-icer for Play area Safety Surfacing, and Knapsack style applicator which quickly melts ice without a damaging the surface of your playground. Our Wetpour De-icer can also be used to prevent ice forming before a frost and will protect the surface for 24-48 hours.

Spot Damage and Wear

 

Look out for excessive wear or damage of the wetpour surface. High footfall areas such as under swings, the end of a slide, and around park entrances are most likely to be affected by this issue.

Regular inspections will help identify these spots so you can take the necessary action and small areas of damage or wear are very easy to fix with our wetpour repair kits and tools.

Our repair kits come in a variety of colours and with simple instructions to make the job stress free.

 

Edge Shrinkage

 

Another issue that can occur with wetpour safety surfacing is edge shrinkage. Over time wetpour can shrink and expand due to fluctuations in temperature. This can cause the rubber surface to pull away from the pin kerb forming a gap. The good news is it can be easily repaired, and it is important to do so promptly to prevent a potential trip hazard.

Here at OLP we can provide you with everything you need for your wetpour edge repair - whether you are carrying it out yourself or you would like one of our team to do it for you.  All that is required are 2 sets of measurements, plus pictures of the repair area and play equipment.  This will allow us to determine if a single or double edge repair is needed and the depth required.

The first measurement we need is the linear meterage (l/m) of the surface you wish to repair - see Diagram 1 below (A+B+C+D).  Then we need the width of the gap between the pin kerb and the wetpour (see Diagram 2).

 

Edge repair diagram

 

Our repair kits come in a variety of colours and with simple instructions to make the job stress free.

Our experienced team can easily give you a quote so contact our maintenance department with your pictures and measurements.  Alternatively if it is something you are able to carry out in-house then we can supply wetpour repair kits in a variety of colours.

If you have any further questions about your safety surfacing, maintenance or would like to book an inspection you can contact us on 01354 638 359.