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How to maintain your outdoor play environment

Natural Impressions Outdoor Play maintenance manual

With proper maintenance the product you have chosen will withstand many years of use. Natural Impressions designs and manufactures its play structures with safety features that are in compliance with current standards.

It is the responsibility of the owner to maintain the structure and its surroundings to ensure the play structures remain safe and compliant.

WARNING! Failure to follow these inspection and maintenance instructions could result in unsafe conditions on and around the play structure and possibly lead to serious physical injury during use. Natural Impressions Outdoor Play Ltd (NIOP) will not be responsible for any injuries or damages that are the result of a failure to follow these instructions.
Following our maintenance instructions are also necessary for the products to be covered by the NIOP General warranty. Inspections and maintenance of play structures should be scheduled on a daily/weekly, monthly/seasonal, and an annual basis. If your play structure is used heavily, or is located where the climate is severe, it may require more frequent attention than this manual recommends.

Below are general maintenance instructions providing information on how to inspect and if necessary, maintain your product.

Occasionally, parts may need to be replaced due to breakage or wear. Parts should be replaced immediately to avoid dangerous conditions. Repairs should be completed in accordance with this maintenance manual and the installation instructions.

Information about replacement parts and copies of installation instructions can be obtained through your NIOP sales consultant. If any repairs cannot be performed immediately, action must be taken to restrict access to that portion of the play structure or the whole structure if necessary.

Inspections

Inspections can be performed visually daily or weekly to identify developing problems. However, the results of monthly or seasonal inspections should be recorded into your maintenance log. Further, a comprehensive annual report should be written and entered into a file with all other documentation regarding the play structure. We recommend the owner/operator establish a file for the play structure or entire playground. This file should contain at least the following.

  • Maintenance instruction
  • Installation instructions
  • Sales and warranty documentation
  • Maintenance logs
  • Comprehensive annual inspection reports

Yellow Cedar

Yellow Cedar, like any other species of wood, is a natural and organic material.

Yellow Cedar will potentially have a number of knots, cracks and other patinas on the surface. The appearance of Robinia wood changes according to the weather conditions and humidity. These are not necessarily imperfections; they are completely natural and give our playground equipment the benefit of an organic and adventurous design.

The tension in Yellow Cedar causes openings in the ends as well as along the sides of the posts These do not affect the strength of the structure and do not carry any additional risk of rot or fungus. This is just a natural reaction that might happen with Yellow Cedar and is normally not a safety or a quality issue.

During routine inspections and maintenance, severe deformation must be addressed if it appears on vital areas of the play structure. For example, if an opening appears near a play element that has forced movement (slides, fireman’s pole, etc.) the issue of the openings and Cracks/checkings needs to be addressed

in accordance with current safety standards in the specific market. If a deformation in the wood does not conflict with the current safety standards, it is considered beneficial characteristics provided by the organic wood Yellow Cedar!

If you have any questions about maintenance, please get in touch at [email protected]

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Facility Location

5039 112th Street

Delta, BC

Postal Mailing Address

51 – 12411 Trites Road

Richmond, BC V7E 6J7