Fall protection is a number that is assigned to help judge the safety of a playground’s surface. Fall protection is obviously going to be different depending on if you have an asphalt playground or if you have Sof’Fall engineered wood fibers.

Let’s get one thing out of the way right at the start and that is that there is no simple formula where you can plug in a few numbers and get an easy answer. If that’s why you started reading this then we figured we’d break it to you early on. Answering the question ‘what is my playground’s fall protection’ isn’t that simple but with these tips we hope you can get a general idea of the playground safety of your child’s favorite playground.

“Gravity does not care at all whether or not your child is playing on gravel or a soft playground surfacing.”

We want to put soft playground material under the feet of every child to catch them when they fall down.

How to judge fall protection

The best way to judge fall protection is the simple eye test. This isn’t anyone’s favorite especially in our world of data and results but it can work in extreme circumstances. You don’t have to be a genius to see that the hard, compact dirt surface your child is playing on will not be too forgiving to anyone who falls down. Same thing goes with a nice engineered wood fiber surface. If there is a soft playground surface with absorbent and safe materials, the simple eye test makes you feel better about the latter example here than the former.

Contact The Right Person

I’d be willing to bet that if you walked up to another mom in the park while you are watching you kids play on the playground and sit down next to her and say, “What do you think this material’s fall protection is?” you would get a weird look. We said at the very beginning of this article that there isn’t an easy formula that you can just do in your head to find out the fall protection of your playground surfacing. While this is true, someone somewhere has to know how safe these playground materials are.

The beginning point for each person and each playground is going to be different but ask yourself, who would know the answer here. If it is your community playground, contact someone in the local government. If it is your child’s playground at school, talk to someone in the administration. People will either know the answer or be able to find someone to get you the answer.

Do Your Own Research

Like most things in today’s world a simple Google search will prove very telling. Most dealers and playground surfacing manufacturers post information about their products. For example, Sof’Fall is proud to share the fact that our engineered wood fibers boast a 25 foot fall protection. We are also happy to answer any other questions you might have about our product. Do some research and we promise you’ll at least get a little bit better understanding about what your children are playing on.