You’ve got to look specifically for what the dangers are and to do that you need to watch how the kids play on the playground. Watch how they use the equipment because you have to expect the unexpected to provide a safe environment for play, compliance with standards and guidelines
Life span depends on design, construction, and maintenance. We do not design/observe many torch-down membranes. From what we hear in the industry, life span could be 10 – 20 years.
I have two roofs on campus that were over-roofed with spray foam approximately 10 – 12 years ago. In one instance, the foam has large bubbles and even holes in many dozens of locations. Fortunately, only one leak apparent inside. Any experience with how to remove this and reroof?
Our experience has been to remove the existing foam roofs and underlying roof system to the deck and to reroof. Typically foam roofs we experience are over-roof applications and the original roof is still working to some degree. Often there is trapped water between the two roof systems. We have not seen much success repairing foam roofs of this vintage. Foam roof removal and reroofing is pretty straight forward. We recommend a design, construction documents, and periodic roof observation during construction for best reroofing project results.
The leading cause of death in the play environment is entanglement – strangulation. Something that gets caught or hooked on a part of the play environment.
The leading places in the play environment where children have died from entanglement are on slides, slide bed ways, or through the sliding region and on the top beam or top rail of swings where bolts or projections that are extended up. A child who’s climbing, walking, or sitting up there gets something hooked or caught.
Rubber roof life expectancy depends on design, construction, and maintenance. Properly designed, constructed, and maintained, they can range from 15 – 30 years, in our opinion. We have seen the fully adhered EPDM roofs last the longest of the three types (ballasted, fully-adhered, or mechanically fastened)
When we talk about the causes of playground injuries, there’s no question that improper use, horseplay, and other dangerous behavior contributes and we can’t necessarily control that. But almost 40% of the injuries that occur either are due to the lack of maintenance or improper maintenance and procedures. It is our responsibility to implement a plan to ensure that equipment is proactively maintained.
What’s important for all of us to realize is that playgrounds are an important part of the development of children. They provide not only physical development but mental, cognitive, emotional, and social development. There’s increasing evidence from the scientific world about the benefits. So playgrounds aren’t just unnecessary amenities that we’re stuck with.
Being safe at school is everyone’s expectation and we can all readily agree that this is true during the regular school day. But it also extends through the evening, on the weekend, and during school vacations with regard to school playgrounds. The fact is that everyone expects school grounds to be safe whether school is in session or not. Playground safety just simply has to be a priority. The stakes are too high for them not to be.
With our modern – and now more high tech – methods for receiving and completing work requests, it can be difficult to balance the need to improve productivity and communication by exercising the proper level of caution when using a cell phone while driving a school vehicle.
Many educational organizations are now developing policies to limit or restrict the use of cell phones by employees who are driving school vehicles, even if they are using an organization-supplied cell phone for work purposes.
In a recent discussion on the Facility Masters Listserv, our peer Carol Walker from Escondido USD, CA shared her district’s policy: Read more…
