HONEL PROPERTY MAINTENANCE, INC.

Public playgrounds are a staple of childhood adventure, challenge, and development.  Ensuring a safe play environment is essential to children's ability to play, explore and challenge themselves.  Regular inspections, testing, and maintenance are the components that help to provide a safe play space for children over the life span of the equipment.

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In additional to individual offerings, we can manage the entire lifecycle of a playground:​

• Planning

• Budgeting

• Assessment

• Procurement

• Construction Oversight

• Inspection

• Testing

• Ongoing Asset Management

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Individual Services Offered:

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Audits, Inspections, and Testing:

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Audits:  An Audit is performed when new playground equipment is installed prior to opening for use to correct any deficiencies found before the equipment is turned over to the owner/operator. An audit may also be performed if an inspection is requested on an older playground that has no prior history of inspections or audits, after a major renovation to the playground has occurred, or after a major environmental event.

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Annual [Low-Frequency] Inspection:  These are performed on an annual basis following the audit.  This is a detailed safety inspection to identify hazards, damaged, or worn equipment, structural problems, and other conditions that may affect playground safety.

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High Frequency Inspections:  These are more frequent inspections that occur on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis depending on the customers' needs and the amount of traffic on the playground.  Typically, these are performed by on-site maintenance or park employees that have been trained by a CPSI.  If the playground is located in a smaller municipality or Homeowners Association that does not have on-site dedicated staff, we can perform such inspections.  This is when minor maintenance items will be addressed such as tightening or replacing loose fasteners, replacing worn labels, and raking displaced loose fill mulch back into place, or doing spot loose fill replenishments in areas where raking will not bring an individual area back into compliance.

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TRIAX Impact Testing System:

This type of testing assesses the ability of the playground surfacing to absorb the impact when a child falls from an elevated height to the surfacing below. This test is crucial in determining the surface materials ability to meet the standards set forth by the ASTM (American Society of Testing and Materials).  Specific ASTM Standards include ASTM F355, ASTM F1292, and ASTM F3313.  These standards are written to ensure that the surfacing materials meet or exceed the safety requirements.

 

Gmax (maximum acceleration, measured in units of gravity or "g") is the primary metric of how hard a playground surface feels during a fall.  Lower Gmax values indicate better impact absorption and lower injury risk.  Why a lower Gmax is safer:

• Gmax measures the peak deceleration the head experiences on impact.

• A lower number means the surface dissipates more energy over a longer time, reducing the force transmitted to the body.

• Surfaces with Gmax well below the 200 maximum threshold (e.g. 100 - 120 at installation) provides a better safety margin. This buffer is important because real-world performance can degrade due to compaction displacement, wear, moisture, temperature changes, or inadequate maintenance.  

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In relationship to overall safety ratings, Gmax is evaluated together with HIC (Head Injury Criterion), which accounts for both the magnitude and duration of the acceleration pulse.  Both must stay under their limits.  Exceeding the maximum threshold of 200 Gmax or 1,000 HIC is associated with an elevated risk of critical or fatal injuries.

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​​​In addition to Audits, Inspections, and Testing, we provide the following services:

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Maintenance Services:

• Replacement of worn or damaged parts

• Properly taking pieces of equipment or entire playgrounds out of service

• Preventative Maintenance 

• Refinishing

• Loose-Fill Surfacing installation and replenishment

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Consultation Services:

• Capital Planning & Replacement Strategy

• Playground Asset Management

• Repair vs. Replace

• Lifecycle Planning

• Playground Protocol Planning

• Replacement Planning

• Reserve Study Support

• New Playground/Replacement Layout Planning

• Accessibility Evaluations

• Post Injury Evaluations

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Project Management Services:

• Equipment/Demographic Planning

• Project Overview/Management

• Owner Representation

• Design Review

• Procurement Support

• Construction and Installation Oversight

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