A minor league ball field in my area is closing and I was contacted because they have a 4 year old old beautiful Game Time playground that they would like to donate it. Someone would need to take it down and rebuild it. My question: Is this safe? Does this compromise the safety of the structure in any way? Could you still do a community build or should this be professional installed since it's moving? I was hoping someone may have some knowledge in this area. It's in perfect shape.
Just an interesting tidbit following on this discussion, The city of San Carlos, California, has just announced it is auctioning off, on e-Bay, a piece of playground equipment as part of its fund-raising efforts to renovate the park's playgrounds.
The playground item up for auction on eBay is the park's red, fire engine-shaped play structure.
"The bidding will start at $500 and you can do a 'Buy it Now' for $8,000," San Carlos Parks and Recreation Director Barry Weiss said. Weiss said the play structure would last longer in a non-public setting like a backyard, where it would get much less use. Volunteers with the Burton Playground Committee came up with the idea to sell it, he said.
I wonder what kind of liability waivers the purchaser has to sign!
Just to follow up... We did get the approval to move that playground which was 100% donated to a school. Through the research I did and gathered from kaboom and US CPSC (united states consumer product safety commission) It is completely safe to move a playground if you have it professional taken down and reinstalled by a trained professional. This project will get a $50,000 playground that is less than five years old and will have to only pay $15,000 to take it down and put it back up by a professional. The playground rep then has to inspect and certify it's safe after they install it- just like you do with a new playground.
That's fantastic! I wanted to add to this discussion that another thing to consider is the safety surfacing in the new location. Especially with such a great new playground that kids will be excited about playing on, it's important to make sure that the safety surfacing goes in right after the equipment is moved & installed in its new location. This is another cost to consider when thinking through an option like this one. Also, it would be so wonderful if you would continue to use this opportunity to teach other communities by taking step by step photos of the move you're doing and sending them in to KaBOOM!-- I talk people & communities through this process on the phone often, explaining why they need to work with a professional representative of the equipment company, and it would be incredible to have an explanation of what is entailed right up on the website with photos. Good luck with the move!
Follow up:
The playground moved- all is well. No issues and everything went as planned. YEAH!