EN1176 is the public
use standard. This is not a mandatory standard,
which means that even for a public location there
is no obligation to provide equipment which complies
with it. However in order to pursue "Best practice"
normally every public authority project (ie public
playgrounds) and the vast majority of schools, hotels,
nurseries, pubs etc tend to follow it. These standards
are more rigorous than domestic standards although
they also cover many of the same points. Strangely
there are a number of inconsistencies between the two
standards which are quite illogical.
There is no compromise possible between
the 2 standards - equipment must comply with one or the
other: you cannot have a system to EN1176 except for the
slide, for example.
Finally there is a third standard: EN1177
covers safer surfacing - there
are requirements for the use of surfacing around play equipment
and the performance of this surfacing based on critical
fall height (known as CFH). It is our very strong recommendation
that any non-family play equipment installation incorporates
some sort of safer surfacing. In most cases the insurance
company will insist on it.
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