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City of Winter Haven Reopens Splash Pad with Improved Safety Surfacing

Trailhead Park’s Splash Pad in Winter Haven, FL has provided significant value to the city’s community over the past four years. It’s become a popular spot for families to cool off in the hot Florida sun and spend time together. This 4,200 sq ft splash pad opened originally with a concrete finish, but the facility unfortunately experienced several slip and fall incidents on the slick surface. With calls from the community to improve the safety of the splash pad, the City of Winter Haven applied a popular non-skid rubberized paint to try and reduce the number of injuries. Unfortunately, the issue persisted, and the city began to research options that would yield better results so they wouldn’t have to redo the surfacing a fourth or fifth time.

Trailhead Park’s Splash Pad in Winter Haven, FL

Life Floor’s East Coast Regional Manager, MaryAnn Eifert, reached out to the City of Winter Haven via FRPA’s E-Connect after learning about the splash pad’s chronic slip and fall issue and introduced them to Life Floor. The city was most excited to learn about the product’s built-in slip-resistance since it had the potential to solve many of their chronic slip and fall issues. It was also happy to hear about its certification to NSF/ANSI Standard 50, which provides unbiased testing results of Life Floor’s performance. 

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The City of Winter Haven had a set budget that they wanted to stay within, so MaryAnn presented our pre-established High Tide Theme paired with our economically-friendly square pattern 301. This combination simulates the blue tones of a seascape, offering a simple layout while still allowing for limitless play. By choosing this option, the city was able to stay within budget and provide Life Floor as a safety solution to the Winter Haven community. Since Life Floor is truly one of its kind being the only splash pad safety surfacing certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 50, and with Inside Edge as its certified North American Installation Partner, the facility staff was able to present this plan to city council as a sole-source bid. By using the sole-source bid model, the city was able to save more time and money by eliminating the need to bid out other products since Life Floor’s certification and benefits demonstrate that it is both unique and superior to concrete and other surfacing options.

They gave us a design and a quote, it was in our budget and met all of our needs.
— Andy Palmer, Parks Planning & Strategic Initiatives Manager
Trailhead Park’s Splash Pad in Winter Haven, FL

Once the improved surface was installed, over 1000 community members showed their support via Facebook and celebrated the City of Winter Haven for addressing such a prominent issue in the community by installing a safety surface at the Trailhead Park Splash Pad. The Winter Haven Sun then picked up the story and featured the splash pad on the front page of the newspaper in their article Upgraded Splash Pad Reopens To Smiles

The city staff themselves were also pleased with the results. Andy Palmer, the city’s Parks Planning & Strategic Initiatives Manager, stated how pleased he was with the entire process.

Not only does it look awesome but it meets many criteria of fall and slip resistance ... we’ve gotten nothing but great feedback from the product and that we did something to address our slip and fall issues.
— Andy Palmer, Parks Planning & Strategic Initiatives Manager
Trailhead Park’s Splash Pad in Winter Haven, FL

Palmer was also impressed with the professionalism and friendliness of Inside Edge’s installation crew.

We work with many specialty item crews such as playground and pour-in-place rubber installers. The crew who installed the Life Floor was one of the best we have seen. They were professional, friendly, clean, and the workmanship [was] exceptional.
— Andy Palmer, Parks Planning & Strategic Initiatives Manager

We’d like to extend a special thank you to the City of Winter Haven for your business and collaboration in transforming your parks into a safer and more playful space for your community. Thank you as well to the Inside Edge Safety Surfaces team for your continued excellence in installation and for your commitment to Life Floor’s mission!

National Water Safety Month: Clean Surfaces Make Aquatic Facilities Safer

Welcome to week four of our National Water Safety Month series on issues and topics prominent in the aquatics industry! If you missed last week’s post on accessibility, be sure to check it out. In light of facilities beginning to open up again, this week we’ll be highlighting the importance of having and maintaining a clean aquatic surface.

Concerns have often been raised across industries that have significant touchpoints with the general public about clean surfaces and cleaning guidelines, especially at parks, pools, and splash pads. Recently, these concerns have increased with COVID-19 and have caused facilities to reevaluate how they are sanitizing surfaces and features to avoid spreading disease. Following the Model Aquatic Health Code, surfaces should be cleaned to remove 99.9% of microorganisms. Unfortunately, many surfaces are porous and absorb materials. For example, concrete is 97.4% impervious according to third party testing involved with NSF/ANSI Standard 50. While 99.9% of microorganisms can be cleaned from its surface, it may still absorb contaminants such as fertilizer run-off, bacteria, viruses, and other hazardous fluids. Beyond potentially harboring these contaminants, the permeable nature of a surface like concrete can lead to staining, which makes it more difficult to maintain.

Windsor Hills Splash Pad, Kissimmee, Florida

Windsor Hills Splash Pad, Kissimmee, Florida

We know that cleaning has always been a forefront topic for operators and supervisors of aquatic facilities. Maintenance can get costly, and it is important to address safety concerns immediately so they do not result in pain points for years to come. Life Floor has strived to improve upon the cleanability of concrete and other surfaces by creating an innovative closed-cell foam product that is 99.7% impervious. Based on third party testing, our tiles are also 99.9% cleanable after having been exposed to harmful bacteria, even in the joints. Offering a safer surfacing solution is our company’s greatest mission and, to do so, we couldn’t just look at obvious improvements such as slip-resistance and cushioning for our tiles. We have been focused on protecting guests not only from physical injury, but also from microscopic threats that could potentially lead to infection or disease. While preventing microbial growth on our product, we have also engineered it to make it extremely difficult to stain. Even spray paint cleans off. 

For any aquatic surface, it is also important to make sure to use the right cleaners and understand that a regular maintenance schedule ultimately reduces cost and provides your guests with a positive experience. Life Floor recommends certain cleaners to ensure optimal maintenance of our floors. These include a peroxide cleaner, a degreaser, and a mineral deposit remover. Using all three of these cleaners on a regular schedule ensures that build-up doesn’t occur and that Life Floor installations remain slip-resistant and beautiful. 

Life Floor Ripple 2.0 Texture in Bluebird

Life Floor Ripple 2.0 Texture in Bluebird

As this summer season begins, we wish the safest experiences possible for all visitors and operators at water parks, pools, and splash pads. We certainly can’t wait to get out there to enjoy the beautiful weather and the great outdoors! 


Looking to upgrade your facility’s aquatic surfacing? Contact us - we’re always happy to help.