Building safe jungle gyms are certainly not child’s play. The safety of children on the playground is always of top priority, and that goes beyond simply monitoring them and establishing playtime rules. Playground safety should come right down to the construction of your jungle gyms, obstacle courses, and all other playground equipment.
Playground sets and climbing equipment needs to be manufactured with the correct components and techniques. This is to prevent playground-related injuries as a result of poor construction or unstable structural integrity. At Kidbuddie we set ourselves apart from our competitors with tried and trusted construction methods and materials for our jungle gyms.
Jungle Gym Supports: Pre drilled vs Threaded rods
As you can see, threaded rods look sloppy and create hair and finger traps.
Others may copy our designs, but that doesn’t mean they mimic our dedication to safety. Many turns to the use of threaded rods to keep the structure together, and this often requires that they use extra bracing to keep the structure stable, which looks untidy and is dangerous.
These structures look thrown together in general, as rungs are attached rather than forming part of the structure. This, as well as the threaded rods, creates prime spots for hair and finger traps, which will injure children. It’s also a recipe for cuts, scrapes, and bumps.
At Kidbuddie we use pre drilled upright poles, ensuring that all connections are seamless and secure. The various parts of our jungle gyms connect together to form one stable structure, rather than having rungs and supports attached to the main structure.
Jungle Gym Materials: Timber vs Latte and Gum
This jungle gym has thin latte sapling rungs and gum poles for the structure. This is very unsafe.
Others have taken to using latte saplings and gum poles (Eucalyptus) in their jungle gyms as both rungs, monkey bars and supports. This is not secure or stable and is not heavy-duty enough to support the weight of children or adults.
Latte saplings are thin, and not advised to be used as railings or rungs on a jungle gym. If someone is too heavy they’ll break right through them, and if you fall against them they can easily snap. Gum poles, on the other hand, are not as easily turned and tumbled as pine timber, which results in poles that are thin and not straight enough to function as supports/upright poles. In fact, many of them tend to bend, which results in playground equipment that is as precarious as it looks.
See how these gum poles aren’t straight? And both the gum poles and saplings have uneven surfaces.
Latte and gum poles are also more natural in appearance as if they’ve just been cut from the tree. This means there are irregularities on the surface, bumps and ridges that can easily cut and scrape your child during playtime. On the other hand, sapling poles are thin, with narrow spaces for fences.
At Kidbuddie our jungle gyms are only made of cylindrical turned pine timber poles that have passed SABS specifications. Our monkey bar rungs are 25mm galvanized round steel pipe that won’t rust and prevent injuries. This keeps playground equipment and play areas safe. Our construction methodology also keeps our jungle gym structures sturdy and straight, with smooth Copper Chrome Arsenic pressure-treated cylindrical pine timber poles that have been tumbled and smoothed to perfectly straight poles.
It’s Safety First with Kidbuddie Playground Equipment
Don’t compromise on quality and stability when you’re looking for playground equipment. At Kidbuddie we have an extensive history of expertly crafted children’s jungle gyms. Check out our range of products to find the right jungle gym or playground equipment for your kids.
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