Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Putting the Play in Playground

  • 03/01/17
school playground

Slip-resistance and permeability for quick drainage were two benefits offered by Porous Pave XLS all-rubber safety surfacing — chosen by Community Christian school in the construction of their new playground.

Community Christian School (CCS), Willmar, Minn., is an accredited, inter-denominational school representing more than 20 churches in west-central Minnesota. CCS is a K-12 school and home to Eagle’s Nest Pre-School and Childcare. When CCS installed a new playground, the selection of the safety surface gave David Monson, owner, David Monson Landscaping and Excavating, Kandiyohi, Minn., the opportunity to use his imagination to bring the playground to life.

Choosing a playground surface requires attention to several priorities, starting with critical fall height. Based on the height of the highest piece of equipment that a child can stand on (and fall from), critical fall height determines the thickness necessary for safety surfacing to absorb impact. CCS also wanted slip-resistance and required permeability for quick drainage leaving no puddles after rain. The pre-school teachers wanted smoothness and comfort for young children sitting on the surface. In Minnesota winters, outdoor surfaces must be flexible to withstand freeze-thaw cycles without cracking or heaving and toughness to withstand the scrapping of snow blowers and shovels.

Based on all of its requirements, CCS selected Porous Pave XLS from Porous Pave, Inc., Grant, Mich. Porous Pave XLS is an all-rubber safety surfacing made with chips of rubber processed from recycled tires. Mixed with a moisture-cured liquid binder, it forms a solid paved surface that is safe, highly permeable and flexible.

“We made the playground unique and special,” says Monson. “The recycled rubber chips come in different colors. The material pours in place, so it can form shapes.”

Monson blended a custom mix of earth tones poured at a depth of two inches for the main sections of the 12,000-square-foot surface. Four-inch-deep XLS forms the green safety pads in the critical fall areas. Circles, hearts and diamonds in bright primary colors put the play into the playground.

www.porouspaveinc.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Year-Round Schools Require Year-Round Indoor Air Quality Planning

    While many schools are out for the summer, year-round schools follow a more “balanced” schedule with shorter, more frequent breaks spaced throughout the school year. Even though this offers educational benefits, these facilities have less downtime for building maintenance. This can become an issue when facilities managers overlook the importance of routine HVAC maintenance and air duct cleaning services.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Auburn University Debuts $224M STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., recently opened its new $224-million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, the largest research construction project in the university’s history, according to university news. The facility measures more than 265,000 square feet and brings six departments from the College of Agriculture and College of Sciences and Mathematics together under one roof.

  • ZeroEyes, Academic Innovators Partner to Provide Safety Solutions

    ZeroEyes, which produces a multi-analytics weapons detection and threat intelligence platform, recently announced a partnership with Academic Innovators, according to a news release.