The Telure Standard for a outdoor playground

Playground site sweep: debris, user modifications and displaced surfacing

Walk each play area for what arrives from outside and what one busy week moves. Debris first: broken glass, sharps, cans, bottles, branches, animal waste and anything left overnight, with the receptacles checked and emptied. Then anything tied on: ropes, cords, dog leashes, jump ropes and straps come off the equipment there and then, and a swing looped over its top rail comes down. Then the fill at the points that move first, under each swing seat, at every slide exit and at climber and transfer points, raked back and read against the depth mark on the post. Last, everything broken or missing in plain sight: guardrails, barriers, steps, rungs, handrails, deck boards, seats and the caps and plugs over open tube and bolt ends. Record what came out and where, because a spot that repeats is a lighting or a boundary problem and not a litter problem. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Use zone extent and trip hazard walk

Walk the full extent of every use zone against the registry and confirm nothing has been placed, parked, planted or grown inside it: benches, planters, bins, bollards, contractor material, tree growth. Then walk it for what will catch a foot: exposed footings and anchoring devices, surfacing containment borders standing proud of the fill, rocks, roots and any sudden change of elevation. Encroachment arrives by accumulation rather than by an event, so record the ones you moved as well as the ones you found, and open a corrective item for anything that needs a machine. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Protective surfacing depth measurement and unitary surface inspection

The weekly sweep is displacement at four or five known points. This is the whole use zone, probed and written down as a number rather than a yes or no. Probe at each fixed measuring point across every use zone and record the depth in inches at each one, so the trend is readable and the next order is not a guess. Read each area's depth against what the material needs when compressed rather than as delivered, and read the surface's critical height rating against the fall height of the tallest equipment it protects, using the rating the manufacturer or installer supplied. Where the surfacing is unitary, inspect it instead for holes, flaking, buckling, lifted seams, shrinkage at the edges and any exposed base. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Structure, fastener and footing inspection

Structure by structure with tools in hand. Every fastening device and connection checked for tightness and for loss, every structure checked for secure anchoring, and every footing checked for movement, lifting or exposure above the base of the surfacing. Then the material itself, with the most careful look where components meet the ground: rust and corrosion on metals, rot and insect damage, splitting and splinters in wood, cracks in plastics. Deterioration is slow with a fast failure at the end, so record the condition you found even when nothing needs doing yet, because the value of this one is the trend across months. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Moving parts, connectors and suspended hardware inspection

Everything that moves or hangs, in one pass. Swing hangers and their bearings, spinner and merry-go-round bearings, track ride trolleys, seesaw fulcrums: play, noise and wear. Chains for elongated, thinned or twisted links, and seats for splits, cuts and worn edges. Every S hook, C hook and connector checked closed, with no gap or space wider than about the thickness of a dime, on every hook on every bay. Exposed moving parts checked for crush and shear points. Any suspended cable, wire, rope or other flexible component checked where it sits within 45 degrees of horizontal and lower than 7 feet above the surfacing: fastened at both ends, made visible, and unable to be looped back on itself into a circle. Wear here is use-driven, so a busy site tightens this interval rather than treating monthly as the answer. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Protrusion, entanglement and sharp edge pass

A hands-on pass over every reachable surface with the gauges. No bolt exposing more than two threads beyond the end of its nut, no projection whose diameter increases in the direction away from the surrounding surface, and no sharp point, corner or edge anywhere a child can reach. Metal edges rolled or capped, corners rounded, wood free of splinters. The weekly sweep catches the already-obvious version of this; sharp points and splinters develop out of ordinary wear rather than appearing at once, which is why this one is gauged and scheduled rather than eyeballed on the way past. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Entrapment opening gauge check

Gauge every opening a child can get into, with the templates rather than by eye. Completely bound openings wherever interior opposing surfaces sit more than 3.5 inches and less than 9 inches apart, and partially bound openings and angles, with accessible adjacent parts forming angles greater than 55 degrees unless the lower leg is horizontal or below. Openings low enough for a child's feet to reach the ground still count. New openings appear when something bends, breaks, is replaced or is added, so re-gauge anything that has been worked on since the last pass and record the ones you cleared as well as the ones you found. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Loose fill top up and displacement audit

Take the quarter's depth readings together, decide the volume to order, and record the delivery and where it went. Re-probe every measured point after the material is raked out so the completion carries the depth the site actually finished at, not the depth on the order. Note the areas that keep displacing so the next order is not a guess, and repaint or reset the depth marks on the posts while the crew is there. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Drainage and standing water review

Review the season's standing water rather than today's puddle: where water pools in the use zones, how long it stays, and whether it is the same spots each time, with the heavy-wear areas under swings and at slide exits looked at first. Pooling compacts loose fill far faster than dry material, so record where the fill is wet and packed as well as where the water sits. A spot that repeats across a wet season is a drainage job and not a raking job, so this is the review that produces the decision and the corrective item. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Fence, gate and boundary inspection

Where the site is enclosed: fence fabric, rails and posts along the full line, height and ground clearance unchanged, and every gate latching, swinging and self-closing as it was intended to. Record damage, gaps worn under the line, and anything that has been leaned against or tied to the fence. A site with no fence records that it has none and why, so a later reader knows the check was considered rather than skipped. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Signage, overhead clearance and site furnishing review

Confirm the age range and warning signage each play area carries is present, legible and positioned where the intended reader will see it in time to act on it, and replace what is faded rather than noting it again next quarter. Then look up: tree limbs, shade structures and any overhead installation encroaching over the equipment, which grows in on a seasonal clock. Then the furnishings: benches, tables and receptacles at their anchors, boards unsplit, and shade fabric, grommets and cables sound where the site has them. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Inspector currency and site walk review

Walk one site with each person who does the sweeps and watch them do it: what they look at, what they probe, what they photograph, and how a finding gets written up and escalated from a site with no office on it. Then go person by person through everyone who inspects or audits: which credentials each holds against the requirements the operator answers to, the date each was earned, and when each expires, with renewals booked before anything lapses. Record which sites each person is actually assigned, because a route that quietly lost a site is the failure this review exists to catch. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Annual playground audit (qualified person)

The yearly outside audit, play area by play area, by a qualified person, whether that is your own credentialed staff or a contractor. File the report against this task, record who performed it and the credential they hold, and open a corrective-action item for every cited deficiency naming who owns it and when it is due in the item note, so the closure of each one is on the record. Telure records the audit; it does not issue, verify or endorse any credential. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.

Structural overhaul and surfacing renewal window

Once a year, in whatever the site's quiet window is, do the work a route visit cannot. Close the play areas and record the closure. Excavate and inspect footings and buried post sections, strip loose fill back to the base and re-probe the whole zone, torque every fastener on every structure, replace worn hardware from the manufacturer's parts list, and clear the repair backlog that built up through the year. Record what was replaced against each registered structure so the fleet's age is readable next season instead of remembered. Part of the Telure Standard: the manufacturer's manual governs all equipment intervals.