Play Areas & Courts

The surface is the safety equipment

In children's play areas the most important item is not the equipment — it is the surface beneath it. Most serious playground injuries come from falls, and injury severity is decided by how well the surface absorbs impact. So the required thickness is calculated from the free fall height at the highest point of the equipment.

The common error is one uniform thickness across the whole area. It saves cost, but it means the surface under the tallest item is thinner than required — the highest-risk spot gets the least protection.

Heat is a safety issue, not a comfort one

Exposed metal and dark plastics in UAE sun reach temperatures that can burn. Metal slides in particular are hazardous at midday. What reduces it: light colours, grips and contact surfaces in materials that do not store heat, and designed shade over the area. Shade is calculated in the design because it changes where the equipment goes.

Clearances are not a regulatory detail

Every item has a safety zone around it that must stay clear — and its size varies by item. A swing needs far more space in the direction of travel than at its sides. Packing many items into a small area removes those zones and turns the space into a continuous hazard.

Courts: regulation size, or say so

A standard padel court is 20 × 10 metres. Where the available space is smaller, a reduced court is a legitimate option for family use — but we say plainly that it is not regulation, rather than hand over a court whose owner later discovers it does not match the ones they play on elsewhere.

Netting and lighting

Netting height follows the sport and the direction of play, not a single figure. Low netting solves part of the problem and lets the ball through in exactly the situations that annoy neighbours.

Lighting must be distributed so it casts no shadow across the playing area. One strong floodlight from a single side gives powerful light and long shadows — worse than weaker, evenly distributed lighting.