A Jungle Gym is a long-term investment in your child’s development, and in your property.
A quality Jungle gym, that is built to withstand the harsh South African elements is not cheap and if it is, beware of poor-quality building materials.
We recently visited a jungle gym which was beautifully designed and perfectly built BUT it was breaking after only three years' use because it was built using incorrect materials.
Use treated timber
A layer of varnish on the outside is NOT enough to protect wood from the elements. A proper timber treatment is a highly specialised industrial process that involves the impregnation of SABS approved chemicals under pressure into dry timber. It renders the wood nutrients unpalatable to insects and uninhabitable to fungus. SABS approved treated timber is the ONLY timber to use to build a quality, long-lasting Jungle Gym
Avoid repurposing previously used wood
The holes from previous bolts and screws will weaken the structure of the wood and hence your jungle gym, making it unsafe.
Use galvanised or passivated hardware
Galvanising and passivation are chemical processes which improve the corrosion resistance of metals so that they last longer.
If your jungle gym is not built from the appropriate materials the consequences could be disastrous! Check out this video of how easily a jungle gym manufactured from the wrong materials was toppled into a pile of rubble. You would not want your children to be playing on it at the time.
At Rustics Jungle Gyms we understand the South African National Standard by-laws, SANS regulation number 51176-1, 71176-2, 51176-3, 51176-4, 51176-5, 51176-6, 51176-7 and 51176-10; and design and manufacture all of our jungle gyms to these safety standards.