There are multiple requirements for playground fencing to make them suitable for children’s play areas and adventure playgrounds. When being used in children’s areas, all solutions should be designed with safety in mind.
Play area fencing has no legal requirements. However, there are certain standards that operators should take in order to ensure child safety. These factors include the fencing type, durability, materials and openings.
Fencing Type
It is recommended that Bow Top Fencing be used for children’s areas. This fencing type offers maximum visibility. Bow Top Fencing is used to hit the health and safety regulations within play areas, residential areas and schools. With curved edges it avoids any sharp points creating a child friendly area.
Material
Whether it’s timber or steel, the material used for playground fencing must be robust and able to withstand harsh weather conditions. If you are using wood as your material avoid types that are prone to splintering. This could result in a hazard, and could therefore cause injury to a child. There must be no risk of child entrapment within the fence. This safety measure means that the durable coatings should be applied to whatever the material. When installing the playground fencing, make sure that if it were to fall inward that it would fall on to a bench or a piece of playground equipment. This can prevent the fence from falling onto a child causing injury.
Durability
No matter where you are putting your fencing, you want it to be durable and long lasting. If the area that you are putting your fence is susceptible to vandalism, a timber fence may not be the ideal choice. Timber fencing can be easily broken, which can expose nails and end up being a safety hazard. To enable maximum durability your fencing should be of a height that is no less than 1 meter. Ensuring that secure fixings are on the proprietary caps and edgings.
Openings
When creating an opening into your playground, gates should not open outward into anything hazardous like any roads. However, if your area is considered safe, the gate should open outwards. Having the gate open outwards will also prevent dogs from coming in. If you decide to have a gate in your playground, you also need to consider finger traps.
Child friendly self-closing safety gates can be available with a hydraulic or spring close system. These help towards ensuring the playground is kept as an enclosed area, free from wandering animals such as dogs. For more control over access to your playground, you can also get secure lockable gates. It is also helpful if your fencing and gates are a different colour, then this makes it easily identifiable.
At the Fencing Superstore, we provide a variety of steel fencing systems to suit a wide range of applications. If you would like to find out more information about our playground fencing please click here.