Wet Pour Parkour Bewbush Crawley
Playsafe Playgrounds recently carried out the wet pour safety surfacing for a Parkcour area in Bewbush, Crawley West Sussex for Crawley Borough Council. The area itself was over 200 square metres in size at varying fall heights. The installation team cut a chase into the existing tarmac to facilitate good adhesion for the bonded wet pour rubber. They then prepared the existing surface and coated with polyurethane primer prior to laying the base course and then the black EPDM rubber over the entire area.
Please see the images below of the works:
Parkour Explained:
Parkour is a training discipline using movement that developed from military obstacle course training. Practitioners aim to get from one point to another in a complex environment, without assistive equipment and in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement, and other movements as deemed most suitable for the situation. Parkour’s development from military training gives it some aspects of a non-combative martial art.
Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others and is usually—but not exclusively—carried out in urban spaces. Parkour involves seeing one’s environment in a new way, and imagining the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features.
Parkour was developed in France, primarily by Raymond Belle, and further by his son David Belle and his group of friends, the self-styled Yamakasi, during the late 1980s. The discipline was popularised in the late 1990s and 2000s through films, documentaries, and advertisements featuring the Yamakasi.
Parkour History
In Western Europe, a forerunner of parkour was French naval officer Georges Hébert, who before World War I promoted athletic skill based on the models of indigenous tribes he had met in Africa. He noted, “their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.” His rescue efforts during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Saint-Pierre, Martinique, reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. Hébert became a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. Hébert set up a “méthode naturelle” (natural method) session consisting of ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defence, swimming. These were intended to develop “the three main forces”: energetic (willpower, courage, coolness, and firmness), moral (benevolence, assistance, honour, and honesty) and physical (muscles and breath). During World War I and World War II, teaching continued to expand, becoming the standard system of French military education and training. Inspired by Hébert, a Swiss architect developed a “parcours du combattant” — military obstacle course—the first of the courses that are now standard in military training and which led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses.
Playsafe Playgrounds Safety Surfacing
Wet Pour Safety Surfacing –
The Wet Pour safety surface is constructed of bonded rubber mixed on site using specialist equipment to produce a dense, consistent texture. It is then ‘wet laid’ to exacting standards BSEN1177.
The key advantages of Wet Pour Rubber Surfacing are:
- It can be installed to uneven surfaces and around existing play equipment
- Durable, robust and resilient solution
- It can be laid in high traffic areas
- Reduces injury potential from falls
- Low maintenance solution
- Easy to clean and maintain
- Tolerates many weather extremes
- Can be laid to different depths depending on the Critical Fall Heights
- Graphic Designs can be incorporated into the layouts
Installation –
The base on which the rubber surface is laid is either non-fines concrete or MOT Type 1, dependent on the depth of surfacing required for each area.
The top layer (wearing course) is Ethylene Propylene Diene polyethylene-modified rubber (EPDM) which is available in black, red, green, blue, beige, purple, eggshell, brown and yellow. A flecked pattern can also be achieved by mixing black with any of the other colours. To add to the play value of playgrounds, colourful graphics can be designed into the surfacing to individual requirements. The surface is slip-resistant and non-abrasive to young limbs.
Different areas beneath the equipment are laid to differing thicknesses to provide the necessary impact absorbency. The correct thickness and area are determined by the Free Fall Height (FFH) of the equipment to be installed. Wet pour safety surfacing can be laid around complex configurations of playground equipment and ground contours. It is virtually maintenance free.
Guarantees –
Wetpour surfacing is guaranteed for a period of 5 years against defects in materials and workmanship from date of invoice. The above guarantees do not include any of the following – cosmetic issues e.g. fading colours or any dis-colouration due to weathering, misuse, neglect or accident. Any damage resulting from vandalism, abnormal use or lack of maintenance is not covered by this guarantee.
Play Equipment Installation
Playsafe Playgrounds Ltd are an independent playground company, we are therefore able to install any other playground manufacturers equipment. This gives you the total flexibility to mix and match any solutions to suit your budget and requirements. This can range from a springer through to large steel / wooden multi tower units as well as all types of rotating and swinging equipment. As independent playground designers our dedicated team can design, develop and produce the most cost effective concepts and solutions without compromising on play value and individual items.
Our installation services include the following range of play equipment:
- Single Deck Tower Units
- Multi Deck Tower Units
- Swings i.e. Flat Seat, Toddler, Nest
- Aerial / Cable Runways
- Springing equpiment i.e. springers and seesaws
- Ball Play – MUGA – Multi Use Games Areas
- Embankment Slides & Standard Slides
- Adventure Trail Equipment i.e. suspension bridges, ‘A’ Frames, stilts, stepping logs, balance beams etc…
- Play Huts
- Roundabouts
- Trampolines
Please contact us to discuss your requirements on 01730 815472
