The Situation

The Lower Sioux Indian Community is located in south central Minnesota along the Minnesota River. The community partnered with SafetyFirst Playground Maintenance for a playground relocation. We were able to quickly respond to their request and accomplish the playground move in a timely manner providing a beautiful and safe playground for their community. The Lower Sioux Indian Community was so satisfied with the playground relocation project and SafetyFirst’s flexible customer service, they chose SafetyFirst for their playground surfacing renewals. 

They wanted to spruce up their three existing playgrounds by replacing their current surfacing with a long-lasting and improved playground surfacing option that would enhance the visual appearance of the playgrounds and offer a safer experience for the community’s children.

The Process

The Lower Sioux Indian Community was able to rely on SafetyFirst’s team to complete the project from start to finish without needing to coordinate work or extra communication. SafetyFirst’s process for playground resurfacing and renewals allowed the community to receive revived playgrounds while trusting the work was completed efficiently without inconvenience to their community.

  1. Completed a walkthrough of the playgrounds to assess the current condition of the surfacing. This allowed our team to understand the extent of work needed for the renewal. For some playgrounds, the foundation of the playground is intact and only needs to be topped off with surfacing material. In other cases, to comply with playground safety guidelines and provide surfacing that will last, the surfacing needs to be completely removed and replaced. In this case, because there were weeds and the traditional wood mulch was deteriorating, the community benefited from completely removing the surfacing and replacing it which allowed for a long-lasting solution.
  1. After the assessment was complete and the community approved of the removal, our team removed the existing playground surfacing of the playgrounds.
  1. Next, we installed our drainage base with a layer of drain tile and pea rock. This system offers appropriate drainage for the playground to limit flooding and standing water, improving the longevity of our surfacing.
  1. On top of the drainage base, we add a geotextile fabric liner which prevents weeds from coming back up and invading the playgrounds. 
  1. After the drainage base has been installed, we added 12 inches of Nature’sPlus, our engineered wood fiber surfacing that has elevated the safety, ADA compliance, and resilience of playground surfacing. 
  1. We then added ImpactMats around high traffic areas such as under slides, swings, or spinners. These lessen the overall maintenance of the playground by reducing surfacing displacement and divots in these areas.
  1. Last, we cleaned up the area so it was immediately ready for the community to use again!

The community also had SafetyFirst do some maintenance for the three playgrounds as well as replace parts as needed. The community wanted to make sure their playgrounds, from top to bottom, were up to their quality standards.

The Outcome

Before:

After:

The playgrounds looked new again! The new surfacing and cleaned equipment brightened up the spaces offering an aesthetic enhancement to the community. All the while, every playground was fully compliant with playground safety guidelines. They were both beautiful for the community and safe for the children.

With SafetyFirst, the project did not drag on; we visited each site, completed the playground resurfacing and renewal, cleaned up, and moved on to the next playground. Because of our process, we completed one playground at a time. This allowed the community to always have access to a playground even while we worked on the project. Our experienced team and efficient process limited the downtime for each playground to only a day or two.