Playground CAD, use zones and specifications, published and ungated
For landscape architects, civil engineers and anyone writing a play area into a set of drawings. You need a dimension and a file, not a discovery call, so everything is on the page before you speak to us.
- Safety use zone published as a dimension, separate from the footprint
- Accessible components shown provided against required, per configuration
- Performance spec language on request so substitutions are judged on merit
Request drawings or spec language
Tell us the product and the format. We will send the file rather than a brochure.
Equipment specifiers actually buy
Every system below shows its published price, the age range it is engineered for, how many children it holds at once, the safety use zone it needs and the lead time. No form to see a number.
We are loading manufacturer catalogues supplier by supplier, so this is not the full range yet. We quote from the entire catalogue either way, so tell us the space and the age groups and we will price it whether or not it is listed here.
You need a use zone dimension, a fall height and a DWG. You do not need a discovery call. Everything on this site is published without a form because a specifier trading an email address for a measurement is a bad deal for both of us.
What is published on every product page
Not in a brochure request. On the page, before you speak to anyone.
- Safety use zone as a dimension. The number that drives your site plan, not the structure footprint.
- Critical fall height. Which determines surfacing type and depth, and therefore a meaningful part of your budget.
- Structure footprint, separately, so you can see the difference.
- Child capacity at peak simultaneous use.
- Accessible components, ground level and elevated, provided against the count required for that configuration.
- Age band the equipment is certified for.
- Standards with the revision cited, not a generic compliance claim.
- Materials, finishes and colour options.
- Lead time, stated in weeks and kept current.
- Downloads. Specification sheet, 2D DWG and 3D model. No form, no email gate.
Drawing formats and what to expect
2D plans arrive as DWG with the use zone shown as a distinct layer from the structure outline, which is the thing most manufacturer files get wrong. 3D models arrive as DWG or SketchUp depending on the manufacturer. PDF specification sheets carry the dimensioned plan, elevations, component schedule and the compliance statement.
If you need a format that is not published, ask. Revit families exist for some manufacturers and not others, and rather than implying universal coverage we will tell you specifically what exists for the product you are specifying and get it to you inside a working day.
Use zone versus footprint, and why it decides the plan
The recurring failure in playground site planning is drawing the structure and forgetting the zone. Use zones extend six feet beyond equipment in most directions and roughly twice the pivot bar height in front of and behind swings.
A structure with a thirty one by nineteen foot footprint carries a forty five by thirty three foot use zone. That is around two and a half times the area, and it cannot overlap a fence, a path, a wall, a planting bed or an adjacent use zone unless the heights permit it.
On constrained sites this is the binding constraint far more often than budget, which is why we publish the zone as a dimension rather than leaving you to derive it. It also drives the surfacing quantity, so pricing the footprint instead of the zone routinely understates a surfacing package by a factor of two.
Writing a specification you can actually bid
Specifying a single manufacturer by model number gets challenged in public work. Specifying so loosely that anything qualifies gets you equipment you did not want. The workable middle is performance language.
A specification that holds up usually states the following as requirements rather than as a product: minimum child capacity at peak use, maximum critical fall height, maximum safety use zone envelope, minimum accessible ground level and elevated components with a requirement that they offer different play experiences, whether elevated components must be ramp accessible or whether transfer is acceptable, age band certification, material and coating requirements, warranty terms by material, and third party certification against ASTM F1487 with the revision named.
Write those and you can accept substitutions on merit rather than on price alone. We are happy to supply performance spec language for anything in the catalogue, and we will tell you honestly where a requirement would exclude products worth considering.
Alternates, allowances and bid packages
Playground packages get value engineered more aggressively than almost any other site element, usually late and usually by someone who does not know that surfacing is a compliance item rather than a finish.
Two things protect the project. Put surfacing in the base bid at the specified depth for the specified fall height, with the depth written as a requirement and not a suggestion, so it cannot quietly be reduced. And put shade, site amenities and the second age group in as priced alternates rather than in the base, so that when the number comes in high there is something to cut that is not the safety surface.
If you are writing an allowance rather than a specification, base it on the use zone area, not the structure, and say so in the allowance description.
Accessibility detail that gets missed at drawing stage
Component counts are the easy part and the software will usually tell you. The route is where projects fail an audit.
The accessible route runs from an accessible path of travel to the play components, and the surface on it must be firm, stable and slip resistant. Loose fill tests as compliant on installation and frequently stops being firm within two seasons. Any border, kerb or timber edge on that route is a barrier unless the transition is flush or ramped.
The detail worth drawing explicitly is the surfacing transition at the use zone edge. Left to the installer it becomes a four inch timber lip, and the playground is then technically inaccessible regardless of what the equipment does. Specify a flush or ramped transition and show it in section.
Surfacing specification in short
| Surface | Installed | Accessible route |
|---|---|---|
| Engineered wood fibre | $4 to $8 per sq ft | Only when maintained at depth |
| Poured in place rubber | $14 to $24 per sq ft | Yes |
| Rubber tiles | $12 to $20 per sq ft | Yes |
| Synthetic turf with pad | $12 to $20 per sq ft | Yes |
The hybrid that usually survives value engineering is poured or tile on the route and the high traffic landings, engineered wood fibre across the remainder. Around forty percent of a fully poured cost with none of the accessibility exposure. The surfacing comparison has the detail.
Working with a general contractor
On most projects the playground is a subcontract line, and we deal with the GC rather than with you once the bid is awarded. That works better when three things are settled at drawing stage: who is responsible for site preparation and to what tolerance, who is providing the accessible route surfacing, and who books the independent post-installation inspection.
Left ambiguous, all three land on nobody. Name them in the drawings and the submittal review goes quietly.
Lead times to plan against
Six to fourteen weeks manufacturing from a clean purchase order, depending on manufacturer and configuration. Custom colours add. Poured surfacing needs installation weather and a cured base. Installer availability is worst in late spring, so a September installation is frequently faster and cheaper than a June one.
Lead time is published on every product page and we keep it current rather than repeating a brochure figure.
What to send us
The site plan or just the dimensions, the age bands, the fall height limit if you have one, the accessible requirement, and the format you need drawings in. If you are early and simply want files to test a layout, take them. There is no form and we would rather you specified accurately than accurately guessed.
Specification questions, answered properly
The dimensional and compliance questions that come up mid drawing, answered with numbers.
- How much space does a play structure actually need?
More than the footprint. Every structure requires a safety use zone extending beyond the equipment, commonly six feet in all directions for static components, and considerably more in front of and behind a swing arc, where the rule is based on a multiple of the beam height. The use zone is what has to fit clear of fences, walls, paths, trees and parking. We publish the use zone as a dimension separate from the footprint so it can go straight into a site plan.
- Can I get CAD without filling in a form?
Yes. 2D DWG, 3D models and PDF cut sheets are published on the product pages with no gate, because a specifier needs a file at eleven at night, not a discovery call. If a format you need is missing, ask and we will send it inside a working day rather than routing you to a territory representative.
- How do I write a specification that allows fair substitution?
Specify performance rather than a proprietary model number wherever your client's procurement rules require competition. Name the age range, simultaneous capacity, number and type of accessible ground level components, elevated component access method, critical fall height and material standards, then list two or three acceptable manufacturers. We will supply performance spec language for any configuration so approved equal substitutions get judged on merit rather than on catalogue photographs.
- How do accessible component counts work?
The Access Board's play area guidelines set a minimum number of accessible ground level components and a minimum number of different types, both scaled to how many elevated components the structure has, plus rules on ramp or transfer access to elevated play. It is arithmetic, not a judgement call, which is why claiming a structure is ADA compliant without a count is meaningless. We publish provided against required for every configuration.
- Which surfacing should I specify for an accessible route?
Poured in place rubber and bonded rubber are reliably firm and stable and are the safer specification when accessibility is a project requirement. Engineered wood fiber can comply when installed and maintained to depth, but it displaces under traffic, so its compliance depends on a maintenance regime you cannot control. If the client's maintenance budget is uncertain, specify the unitary surface at least on the accessible route and under high traffic components.
- What critical fall height do I design the surfacing to?
To the highest designated play surface on the structure, not the top of the roof or the highest reachable point. That number determines the surfacing type and installed depth beneath the entire use zone, and it is tested to ASTM F1292. Because surfacing scales with height, a taller structure carries a cost consequence across the whole use zone, which is worth modelling before the concept is fixed.
- Can you provide budget numbers at schematic design?
Yes, and early is better. Send the footprint, the age ranges and the surfacing intent and we will give you an all in range covering equipment, freight, surfacing and installation, so the play area line in the estimate is not a placeholder. We would rather tell you at schematic that a concept is over budget than have it value engineered out at bid.
- Do you work directly with the client or through us?
Whichever you prefer, and we will not go around you. If you want us to hold all contact through your office we do that. If the client is buying direct on a cooperative contract, we can quote them while keeping you copied on the specification so what gets installed matches what you drew.
Something not covered here? Ask us directly and we will answer it properly, not with a brochure.
Specification detail, published
Standards, accessible component counts, surfacing performance and the numbers that drive a site plan.