Maintaining your backyard playground ensures that your structure is a safe, clean, and sturdy place for your kids to play. Even high-quality, professional-installed playgrounds need regular maintenance. Like anything that lives outside, the sun, weather, and natural world can take its toll on your playground. Wood wears down if not regularly treated, screws can loosen and need re-tightening, and ropes, handles, and other fixtures can be cleaned or replaced. By taking care of your playground, you and your family can continue to trust and enjoy your backyard adventure space for years to come. 

Maintenance Tips

• Maintenance Frequency: You should do a quick maintenance check on your play structure once a year and more thorough upkeep at least every three years. 

• Washing: Over time, your play structure will accumulate dirt and grime. Wash off the layers of grime with a power washer or water and rags. Don’t forget, once you’ve thoroughly washed the wood of your playground, it’ll need a stain or sealant applied once dry so that the wood of your playground doesn’t dry out, crack, or be vulnerable to nature’s elements. 

• Ground Safety: When your playground is installed, your installer checks to ensure that the ground is level and your structure is well-placed. But over time, your backyard landscape may change. When maintaining your play structure, check for holes, rocks, trees, or other yard debris that might make the area around your structure unsafe.

• Check the Hardware: Your playground is made up of many different pieces of hardware that may wear out or come loose over time. Check the screws at each wood joint and any hardware that your child uses to pull, hang, grab, or swing from. Tighten any loose screws and replace any ropes, handles, or hardware that have been worn down.

• Use Sealant: Like the sealant on your deck, preserving and protecting the wood of your playground is one of the most effective ways to keep it strong and sturdy into the future. Sealant keeps water, dirt, and bugs from getting into the wood of your playground and damaging the structure. Look for sealants that are designed for wear and tear and safe for kids. 

Check Your Warranty

Many backyard playgrounds come with a warranty to ensure that your family can safely enjoy your structure long into the future. An important piece of your warranty to look at is how often maintenance is required. Many playground warranties require maintenance to be done regularly in order to protect your warranty. Some playground installers offer maintenance services or safety checks that you can take advantage of even years after you purchased your backyard playground.

Johnny’s Backyard Playground Maintenance

Here at Johnny’s we’re playground masters, which means we’ve done more than our fair share of playground maintenance. We offer a comprehensive maintenance package that will have your playground looking brand new in no time. Our maintenance package includes a full cleaning of your playset, including power washing, removal and cleaning of plastic accessories, wood staining, hardware tightening, ensuring the ground is still level, and a waterproof sealant that is safe for kids and designed to protect playsystems from the elements. Get in touch today to schedule your playground maintenance.