Play Area Maintenance
Maintenance and Care
Preventative maintenance and care are essential for keeping a safe play space for kids and adults. From wiping surfaces to inspecting components, you must take several actions to maintain your playground. We design our equipment to be durable and low-maintenance. Still, preventative care can show your dedication to health, protect your investment, reduce business liability and make your play area more valuable and enticing.
With Soft Play, you can expect dedicated service even after project completion. Our representatives are always prepared to answer any question about maintaining, cleaning, repairing or replacing components. We can suggest maintenance schedules to keep a clean facility and ensure you can quickly address any loose, worn or damaged equipment to promote the safety of everyone in the area.
Maintenance Recommendations
Soft Play recommends the following tips for maintaining playgrounds:
- Form a comprehensive plan: Your maintenance plan should fit around your operating hours to avoid impacting your customers. For example, if you operate seasonally, you can schedule significant repairs and inspections during the off-season. Notify all team members of their responsibilities for the play area.
- Schedule inspections annually: Professional inspections offer the trained experience to identify potential problem spots that you may otherwise miss. Annual inspections allow you to fix minor issues before they present significant problems. Catching a concern early can save time and money while protecting your customers and their kids.
- Check equipment regularly: You will need to inspect your playground daily for regular signs of use. You can create a checklist for these items to keep the playground clean every day. Things to look for include litter, vandalism, rust, exposed metals, tripping hazards, surface cracks, unclean surfaces and damaged nets.
- Conduct checkups each month: Although you may care for minor issues daily, monthly checkups allow you to check other components, like bolts, nuts, connections and additional couplings. We recommend having two team members conduct this job to verify each other’s work.
- Train workers to identify wear: Even employees who don’t conduct regular checks should understand what potential problems to look for. If a customer tells your staff about a problem, you should feel confident that every team member can assist them. Proper training will make these tasks easier and increase the chances that you find issues as early as possible.
- Record records of repairs and inspections: Demonstrate that you emphasize safety and cleanliness efforts by recording every repair and inspection service. These documents verify your previous services and empower you to maintain optimal integrity.
- Verify repairs with manufacturer recommendations: You should always verify your maintenance methods adhere to the manufacturer’s recommendations. These recommendations will highlight the best care practices to length your playground’s life span. At Soft Play, you can easily find replacement parts or speak with a representative for information on cleaning or repair.
Replacement Parts & Accessories
Replacing certain playground parts is a common need as natural wear and tear occur over time. If you need a replacement, our customer service team is here to assist. Contact us with pictures and a detailed description, and we’ll help identify the part you need. We’ll do our best to replace missing or damaged parts, but don’t forget to check your warranty for coverage details.
Soft Play Antimicrobial Play Equipment
At Soft Play, we use a proprietary process called PlaySoft™. After we produce foam-sculpted playground equipment, we coat it with a rubber-like substance. That coating is durable and naturally antimicrobial. Our smooth-finish PlaySoft™ coating has ASTM certification. Indoor play areas with these coated elements ensure a healthier play experience for kids.
PlaySoft™ equipment is the perfect solution for business owners who want kids to have fun playing in a healthy environment. You can even add signage to explain the advantages of your antimicrobial play elements, which families will appreciate. Every customer wants to know the businesses they support care about them. Installing antimicrobial equipment and cleaning it regularly shows you are dedicated to the health and safety of your patrons.
Cleaning and Disinfecting Play Areas
Keeping kids active is crucial to their physical and mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies playing at parks and other public recreation areas as an effective way for kids to get the physical activity they need. How can you ensure public playgrounds are safe for the kids who play there?
At Soft Play®, we understand the importance of cleaning public playgrounds. Here is our guide to disinfecting playgrounds as well as information about antimicrobial coatings for custom playground equipment.
How to Clean Play Equipment
Follow these four steps to clean and disinfect your playground equipment.
1. Check the Instructions
Your equipment should have an owner’s manual or other instructions. Check the manual for any warnings or special cleaning instructions. Your manual should let you know if the equipment has fragile components or if you can use abrasives on certain surfaces.
2. Wash Surfaces With Soap and Water
You can clean most playground equipment with water and a mild detergent. You can also use brushes and other scrubbing tools on durable surfaces. Note that abrasives and paper towels can scratch domes and windows, and those surfaces usually require an ammonia-free cleaner. Washing surfaces frequently helps remove dirt and any sticky spills.
3. Sanitize or Disinfect the Equipment
Make sure to use non-toxic cleaning products safe for playground equipment. The product should be able to remove any germs that transmit bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Next, choose whether you need to sanitize or disinfect your public playground equipment. The CDC explains the difference between the two terms:
- Sanitizing: Reducing the number of germs on a surface to a safe amount.
- Disinfecting: Completely eliminating germs on a surface.
Follow applicable sanitizing and disinfecting guidelines to comply with any Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety standards and keep your playground safe.
4. Spot Clean
If you notice certain areas of the playground that need cleaning throughout the day, you can spot clean to keep your play equipment in excellent condition. Spot cleaning helps keep up with streaky windows, muddy stairs, and other signs of heavy use.
Bring the power of play to life with SoftPlay
Ready to imagine the play possibilities? Have questions about your space? Let’s get started by filtering your requirements, and we’ll get you in touch with the right member of our team.