Adding Shade to Your Playground Makes Good Sense
Adding shade to your playground has more benefits than keeping users cool and comfortable. It can add a unique look to your park or playground as well as increasing the life of your play equipment.
Benefits of Shade
- Children and their families can play longer without overheating. Heat from the sun can be a burden after a while, and children will want to go back indoors for relief. By shading your playground, children will be able to play longer, allowing them to have more fun while staying active.
- Keep equipment cool to the touch. Many playground injuries come from children touching over-heated playground structure surfaces that are exposed to the sun for too long. Shading your play area will help prevent children from getting burns.
- Protects children and their families from harmful UV rays. Getting just one blistering sunburn can increase a person’s risk of getting skin cancer later in life. By adding UV-protective shade to your playground, children and families can have fun and stay active outside while protected from harmful UV rays.
- Increases the life of your play equipment. In addition to cooling the playground, shade structures will actually increase the life of the play equipment. It does this by protecting it against fading and cracking that happens from sun exposure over time.
Four Ways to Shade Your Playground
- Cover the entire play structure with shade sails or hip ends in square, rectangle or hexagon shapes.
- Integrate a shade canopy into the posts of your GameTIme playground.
- Use umbrellas or cantilevers to protect musical play areas, climbers, or other independent play areas.
- Bench canopies give you an economical option to add shade to your playground when you have a limited budget.
Whether you are designing a new playground or adding shade to an existing playground, we can help you optimize your shade options.
