Many of the team at CAP.CO started life as park operators within a challenging woodland and moist, marsh environment, so we understand what is required to run and maintain an adventure playground. It’s about little and often and not putting off jobs that you know need doing.
We were obsessed with ensuring that every guest had the same experience as the first guest. They would walk into a beautiful, clean, exceptionally maintained park and have a great day. When they left to go home, they shared their experience on social media and with friends and family, so it had to be good.
More than that, in fact, we wanted it to be perfect every time. And this is only possible if you ensure everything is beautifully maintained.
You have to develop an operator’s eye and look at your park as though it’s your first time and not one where you see it every day and forgive all its faults as they may be long-standing or too hard to address.
When we design a new play area, with our experience as operators, we always ensure that the finished play park can be easily and efficiently managed/maintained. This means we aim to avoid the need for destructive works, unnecessary plant or equipment or the need for long periods of facilities closure. This ensures any business impact is minimised.
A considered design/layout which takes into account the future maintenance requirements that are sensitive to the specific site environment will ensure that you can operate with minimal repair costs and maximised operating days.
Most of our adventure playground equipment is made from timber and natural materials, which, if properly maintained, can last a lifetime. The counter position to this however, is that if you don’t maintain them, they won’t last.
Most day-to-day maintenance jobs are straightforward and can be carried out by the in-house team. You will need to sweep off leaves, check bolts for tightness, ensure their caps are in place and keep it generally dry and clean. Wet, rotting leaves left touching timber, can cause untold damage quite quickly.
Keeping the top side of slides clean is a never-ending job in a woodland, but visually it’s important to show you care for the playground and expect guests to treat it well too.
Some jobs however, such as tensioning cables, working on zip wires and replacing poles, that are required far less often, need the more specialist skills and experience that our team provide.
For all of our own play equipment, we provide a warranty on the basis that the Client/Operator follows our recommended inspection and maintenance programme, for all installed elements of adventure play and associated equipment.
We would normally be engaged to maintain our own CAP.CO designed and built adventure play structures. With some attractions, if there was an existing play build, we are happy to maintain that in addition to our own.
When an onsite build reaches practical completion and is handed over, our plan for regular maintenance comes in to operation with a ‘soft landing programme’. This is the process we use to ensure the transition from construction to full operation/handover is ‘bump-free’ and that operational performance can be optimised from the outset.
Towards the end of the build process, we create an asset register, so we all know which piece of play equipment is being discussed in any correspondence. This is stainless steel and has a QR code, so that it is easy to scan and get in touch.
If we are taking over an existing play area or structure, we will create a new asset register for it. We will inspect all of the elements for safety and, if required, advise costs to repair/replace elements to get it to a standard we’re able to maintain properly going forward.
If something is showing signs of wear, we put an estimate on its safe working life, so you can budget for its replacement and balance out your capital expenditure over a longer time period. This thoroughness and eye for detail is not a short-term way to win immediate work, but it’s a long-term way to build trust and ensure consistent service for attractions and the safety of all visitors, young and old.
We’re advocates of excellent maintenance and work to standards that match the quality of our own adventure play. Our team work throughout the UK.
We do try and group maintenance visits together to keep the travel costs down for clients. However, if you have a maintenance contract with us, and there is ever an emergency, where something needs an urgent repair, for you to be able to open/operate, we will have a team with you as soon as practically possible to get you back open.
For more information, please get in touch with the playground maintenance team
They can be contacted on +44(0) 800 009 6907 or by email at hello@wearecapco.com
We’re all about kids understanding their own ability to take risks. There’s nothing more rewarding and powerful than the look on a child’s face when they have conquered their own fear. We work to brave limits rather than age limits for access to our play!
What we’re not at all keen on are hazards, or play being inherently unsafe. Whilst we have years of experience in creating adventure play that is designed to be safe from the ground up, we ALWAYS get our play inspected by RoSPA post completion and before the general public can get near playing on it. RoSPA test for every small trap hazard and fall zone, so you know that any potential hazards are minimised. We repeat this test each year to ensure ongoing risk reduction.
Part of our maintenance programme is to follow up from both the initial and the annual inspections, to address anything that may be identified as potentially hazardous and rectify it, so it’s safe to welcome visitors.
Timber can last a lifetime. There is one key condition to this claim. Timber can last a lifetime if it is kept consistently clean and dry. Any timber that stays consistently damp, will encourage fungus to grow and dry rot to form. Either will become terminal for timber. It will also compromise any fixings that go through it and render the whole structure unsafe.
This is why the simple step of sweeping a boardwalk, is such a powerful preventative measure. Wet leaves on walkways trap damp, breed rot and seriously shorten the life of a structure.
One of our golden rules when we have operated parks ourselves, was that the attraction must look perfect every day, for every visitor. Amongst many things, this includes raking every sandpit, and tidying away the sand play tools, ensuring there is no leftover litter or animal droppings anywhere and sweeping and drying all slides and boardwalks, before people arrive in the morning.
People pay a premium for adventure play experiences, so they deserve a premium experience. If a park looks well-maintained, loved and cared for, people will be far more likely to revisit, than if it looks scruffy and unkempt.
Well-maintained play structures, with the gentle aging and silvering of the timber, look every bit as enticing as the day they are built. They often look even better as they begin to blend into the woodland that surrounds it.
This does not mean you should allow dirt and grime to build up on stainless steel slides, or the build up of green algae or lichen on timber. This just makes it look unloved. We would urge you to create a regular programme for keeping this clean.
Your marketing team will love the power that strong and up to date images of the play allow. Great images of play and families playing together will normally be used for their most appealing ‘money shots’ in any attraction.
There is a real danger of ‘over-promising’ by using old photos when the play was new, when the reality is a tired, worn structure This is a magnet for negative feedback.
If you look at the negative feedback that farm parks, theme parks and attractions get, it often mentions peeling or chipped paint and overgrown, uncared for grounds. Once there is a trend for negative feedback, a confirmation bias kicks in and even more negative feedback often follows.
This feedback directly relates to poor maintenance and a lack of reinvestment. It will not only shorten the operating life of your play, but it will damage the long term profitability and ROI of your business.
Visible maintenance is a powerful tool and always worth talking about in blogs and social media. People love to see play being well-maintained and cared for. When this is the case, we have seen customers on social media actively defending the attraction against criticism from ’outsiders’ or non-regular guests.
If you operate a play park, you need insurance in place, in case something does go wrong. Accidents do happen and when they do, you may need to rely on your insurer to save the day.
What you don’t need is for your claim to be rejected if you can’t prove your play equipment is safe – and this means your annual RoSPA Safety Inspection/Certificate in the UK and ASTM in the US. Without this, you may be in trouble.
We time our Annual Maintenance Inspection to coincide with the Safety Inspection, to ensure that any necessary safety and maintenance rectification work can be carried out in response to anything highlighted by the inspection.
We’re advocates of excellent maintenance and work to standards that match the quality of our own adventure play. Our team work throughout the UK.
We do try and group maintenance visits together to keep the travel costs down for clients. However, if you have a maintenance contract with us, and there is ever an emergency, where something needs an urgent repair, for you to be able to open/operate, we will have a team with you as soon as practically possible to get you back open.
For more information, please get in touch with the playground maintenance team
They can be contacted on +44(0) 800 009 6907 or by email at hello@wearecapco.com