How Much a Playground Costs

Most playground budgets fail for the same reason: someone priced the equipment and nobody priced the project. This page gives you the whole number before you speak to anyone.

The rule that matters

Equipment is usually between half and two thirds of what a playground costs to put in the ground. If you have been handed a total, do not spend it on equipment. If you have been quoted equipment, do not present that figure as the project cost.

A workable split for a typical replacement or new build on a prepared site:

• Equipment, 50 to 65 percent. The structures, swings, inclusive components and site amenities.
• Safety surfacing, 15 to 25 percent. Driven by your critical fall height and the area of the use zone, not by the size of the structure.
• Installation, 15 to 25 percent. Certified installation, footings, and the labour to do it correctly.
• Freight, 5 to 10 percent. Real money on a large system, and it varies by hundreds of dollars depending on where the truck has to go.
• Site preparation, 0 to 20 percent. Zero on flat, clear, accessible ground. Substantial if there is demolition, grading, drainage or a retaining edge.
• Contingency, 10 percent. Not optional. Something is always found once the old equipment comes out.

Working backwards from a number

If your total is fixed, take 55 percent of it as your realistic equipment allowance and shop to that. Three worked examples, assuming a flat prepared site with no demolition:

• $40,000 total. Roughly $22,000 of equipment. A well specified toddler or preschool area, or a focused refresh of one age group.
• $100,000 total. Roughly $55,000 of equipment. A school playground serving one age band properly, with poured surfacing on the accessible routes.
• $250,000 total. Roughly $140,000 of equipment. A municipal park structure serving two age groups, with inclusive components and full poured surfacing.

These are planning figures, not quotes. They exist so you can walk into a meeting with a defensible number rather than a guess.

The costs that get forgotten

1. Removing what is already there. Old equipment, old surfacing, and disposal. Old surfacing in particular can be a surprise.
2. The accessible route. An accessible surface has to reach the equipment from an accessible path. Budgeting for surfacing under the structure but not the route to it is the single most common miss.
3. Border and drainage. Loose fill needs containment and somewhere for water to go. Poured surfacing needs a proper base.
4. Shade. Rarely in the first budget, almost always wanted in year two, and cheaper to install at the same time as everything else.
5. Site amenities. Benches, tables, bins and a bike rack. Small individually, several thousand dollars together.
6. Inspection and maintenance. An annual inspection and a small parts budget. Loose fill needs topping up, and a surface that has compacted below depth is a compliance problem as well as a safety one.
7. Signage. Required in most jurisdictions and cheap, but it has to be in the budget to exist.

Where the savings actually are

Not in buying cheaper equipment, which usually costs more over ten years. The real savings are in phasing, surfacing choice and procurement route.

• Phase it. Buy the structure now and the shade, amenities and second age group next year. A well chosen system extends rather than needing replacing.
• Choose surfacing deliberately. Engineered wood fibre is far cheaper to install than poured rubber and considerably more expensive to maintain. Which one wins depends on whether you have maintenance staff.
• Buy off a cooperative contract. It costs nothing to use, satisfies competitive procurement requirements, and removes months from the timeline. Months are money.
• Install in the shoulder season. Installer availability is worst in late spring. Ask about it.

What to do with this

Take your total, apply the split, and send us the equipment allowance along with your dimensions, age ranges and ZIP code. We will come back with one firm all-in price rather than an equipment number you then have to defend in a meeting.

The interactive version

An on-page calculator that does this arithmetic for you, and produces a one page summary you can attach to a grant application, is in development. The percentages above are the same ones it will use, so nothing you plan now will need redoing.