Public Use Play Structure: Day 5 & 6 on site

Day 5 on site at the Contra Costa Jewish Day School and great progress! The Tube Slide has been installed and the rubber resilient surface material (RSM) has been poured by Playgrounds Unlimited.
Here, Sean from playgrounds Unlimited, checks to make sure that the RSM is 2-1/2" thick, the required thickness to help prevent serious injuries from a 6' fall height.

Now that the beautiful redwood structures have been installed, it is time to start lashing the "miles" of rope netting over all open areas of the play structure. When done, the entire structure will be fully enclosed so that no child can play outside of the structure once they start up the stairs!









Even the roofs are covered with rope netting to prevent adventurous kids from climbing up and out.













Barbara and Jeff go first, tightly attaching the netting to the posts using plastic twist ties (to be removed later). Then, Marco, Jose & Luis come next and lash the netting to the posts with rope, tying special knots every few inches to make sure it will not come undone. Attaching, lashing & knotting is very time consuming - it takes strong hands and willing hearts! The crew will still be at it on Monday. We hope to finish by the end of day tomorrow!!!




















Meanwhile, under the shade tent, Barbara and MaryLou work on completing the complicated Certification paperwork.









By end of day Saturday, a good deal of the rope netting has been completed. More to come on Monday!

Public Use Play Structure: Day 4 on site

Big Day on site: the crawl tunnel tube is added in between Clubhouse #1 and Clubhouse #2! They will keep it wrapped in plastic sheeting until everything else on site is done, but this fun play element is in place and just waiting for kids to crawl through it.













Next the guys move over to the Slide Transfer Platform and add the railings and the roof. Almost ready for the Tube Slide.














Then a day full of drilling in the hot sun...


















More to come tomorrow

Public Use Play Structure: Day 3 on site

Barbara and crew are back on site at the Contra Costa Jewish Day School playground where they are installing a public use, fully enclosed, ADA Handicap Accessible play structure custom designed to run above the playground on top of existing 8' high concrete planters (as shown in Barbara's Artist Sketch):











By mid-morning of Day 3, all 3 clubhouses have been erected and bolted to the floor frames and 2 of the 3 roofs have been added. Jose and Armando are working on adding the angled "step down" platform on the left side of the structure. This is where the kids will exit to the playground area below via a long tube slide.









The 3rd roof goes up while Jeff, below, uses the epoxy gun as the final step in securing the 4 redwood support posts to the concrete.












Next step is to raise the front and back 12' long railings for the straight bridge:










Tomorrow: the crawl tube tunnel!

Public Use Play Structure: Day 2 on site

Day 2 the crew continues with the installation of Contra Costa Jewish Day School's play structure:
Now that the ledgers have been installed (see Day 1) the guys bring in the clubhouse floor framing, bolting the frames to the ledgers.









Next, they add stairs and angled Ship's Ladder ramp on the right side of the playground. This combined stair/ramp system will provide access to the "soon to be" play structure up on top of the concrete planters. The stairs, like the clubhouse floor framing, were pre-built at our shop to exact measurements, fitting to the curve of the wall.

The 12' high redwood frame in front of the stairs will become the "ball wall", to be brought in at the end of the project.



Next, the crew adds the series of 3 Clubhouses to the top of the concrete planters, bolting everything to the previously installed floor frames.

At this point, the structure is really starting to take shape: stairs up to angled ramp, then up to Clubhouse #1. Lots still to be done.



One last addition at end of the day: the guys bring up the roof frames and attach them to the top of the Clubhouses.

Public Use Play Structure: Day 1 on site

The day before we arrive, the school yard sits empty, waiting for the magic to begin...




Immediately upon arrival, we unload and set up our equipment so that we can begin the first step: set the spacer boxes (pre-built in our shop) on top of the concrete planters, establishing that everything fits. Then we start attaching the ledgers to the existing retaining walls. A critical 1st step!














We have to get the ledgers (which you don't see once installed as they sit flush to the top of the planter wall) at the right height and in the right placement so our pre-built structure will reassemble correctly.
Once in place, we drill the concrete for the threaded rod that will be epoxied into the wall.
























There was a lot of hot sun and it was persnickety work, but the crew did a great job getting everything ready for setting the threaded rod in epoxy. Marco & Jeff both have a lot of experience doing this type of work and Aubrey was their willing apprentice.

















Aubrey seemed to like using the hammerdrill :) There's Jeff's in the background below diligently cleaning the drilled holes in preparation for the epoxy. That's the key to using epoxy to bolt the ledger to the concrete walls: super clean holes.

















More install pictures tomorrow!

Public Use Play Structure for CCJDS in Lafayette, CA

New, exciting, public use play structure that Barbara custom-designed for the Contra Costa Jewish Day School in Lafayette, CA. It will be a fully enclosed, self-contained redwood & rope netting play structure built up on top of 8' high concrete planter boxes and running along the edge of the play space.













Access up (on right) via the steps enclosed by the "Ball Wall" then up the angled ship's ladder, through clubhouse #1, through the crawl tunnel, through the clubhouse #2, through the rope net bridge, through Clubhouse #3 and down the tunnel tube slide (on left) out onto the open playground. Plenty of activity while only using a minimal amount of current playground space.

Building started back in the shop as soon as Barbara was able to get the variance and permit sign offs. For this complicated design it takes a lot of conferring with the whole team.











Marco, an exceptional builder, makes the curved steps that have to conform exactly to the concrete wall when we bring it to site.

Tricky!









As soon as pieces are built they go to the staining bay, where Rudi adds the natural tung-oil stain colors. Then everything is set outside to dry in the sun. Time is off the essence as there is only 2 weeks to build, stain and pre-assemble! Normally, this size project would take up 4 weeks of our schedule. We are on double-time...












Fortunately, Rudi, our master stainer, has the experience, fortitude and know-how to get it all done.






As soon as the stained pieces are dry, the guys start to pre-assemble the play structure in our shop to make sure that everything fits together perfectly. Our motto is that it's better to find & fix any problems in the shop then when on site. Everything is geared for the on-site installation to run quickly and smoothly... and because of their diligence, it usually does!











Stay tuned for pictures from site.