How to clean your playground equipment
Check out our pro tips for cleaning and maintaining plastic playgrounds.
While good quality commercial playgrounds are typically easy to clean and maintain, it’s important to understand your duty of care as the owner/operator. On top of ensuring your playground looks great, proper cleaning and maintenance minimises the potential for accidents, ensures a more enjoyable play experience and increases the equipment lifespan
So how often do you need to clean your play equipment? What should you use and how do you do it? Here are our pro tips.
Start with daily routine inspections
We recommend conducting daily inspections before opening your play area. This gives you an opportunity to identify any obvious hazards, such as damaged parts or even broken bottles, as well as removing any rubbish. It’s also a time to check for any vandalism or debris from storms or other.
Cleaning your play equipment
General and periodic cleaning should be carried out daily and on an as-needed basis. To effectively clean the entire play structure, we recommend employing the services of a professional commercial cleaning company. Many playground structures are high off the ground, requiring cleaners who are fully-trained in height safety and have experience using elevated work platforms, industrial ropes and other to access difficult areas.
To clean plastic playground equipment, you will need:
- Food safe All Purpose Concentrate (APC) or mild detergent
- Non-scratch scourer pads or sponges
- Clean towels, including separate towels for cleaning and rinsing
- A plastic bucket for rinsing towels
To clean plastic play equipment, simply rinse the equipment with lukewarm water, then wash with a solution of all purpose cleaner or detergent using a soft cloth or sponge, loosening any dirt or grime. Rinse or wipe cleaning agents off according to instructions, then dry the equipment with a soft cloth to prevent water spotting. Ensure all surfaces are completely dry before opening the play area.
Important tips and tricks
- Avoid using heavy-duty degreasers on your play equipment. Degreasers can break down polycarbonate materials, having a milky effect and making the product brittle and more prone to cracking and breaking over time.
- Steer clear of products containing bleach or decolouring agents.
- Avoid using high pressure cleaners. Using a Gerni can strip the graphics and cause damage to your equipment.
- Stick to soft sponges. Scouring pads, rough bristle brushes or abrasive cleaning materials may scratch, mark and damage the plastic. This is particularly important when cleaning clear polycarbonate panels or bubbles.
- Last but not least, never scrape playground parts using squeegees, razor blades or other sharp instruments. This damages the plastic and does more harm than good.
By regularly inspecting your play area and rectifying problems immediately, you will go a long way to fulfilling your obligations with regard to duty of care. You will also benefit from a play area that looks better, is incident-free and more likely to stand the test of time.
And of course, if you need help with more comprehensive inspections, spare parts or repairs, just give us a call.