The first step of any project is to work with our concept design team and establish your goals, your rough budget target and your location.
These three factors help us figure out the most cost effective way to create your dream playground.
Because we are totally bespoke at Touchwood, we can completely tailor a design to your budget. Ideally, the design we discuss will focus on providing the best play value for your budget making your playground a success.
We will consider your site and establish the best way to achieve your goals within your budget.
In simple terms, the cost of a bespoke natural playground isn’t directly comparable with purchasing playground equipment on its own from a catalogue supplier. Our natural play equipment is made with modern manufacturing techniques. You will always be able to get a swing set cheaper, but we are the most competitive when it comes to carefully designed unique features – we are good value for money.
A key thing to consider with bespoke playground design is that most suppliers of playground equipment made of metal or plastic don’t provide end-to-end support. You would need to work with other suppliers to carry out the groundworks and installation of your equipment to meet safety certification standards.
Often, this multi-stakeholder approach means that our playground designs for smaller budget projects are more competitive on price than people expect because we handle the full design and installation of your playground. This includes the groundworks and safe floor surfacing meaning you save money by working with one stakeholder. The added benefit is that from the moment we break ground to handover of the playground we are often as fast, or faster than other suppliers for a much more bespoke playground.
What you need the playground to do often leads the budget we recommend for the project. Often the first thing our clients are certain about is the budget they want to spend. They either know how much they need to raise for a school or parish council installation based on their regions historic spending, or they have a budget in mind when it comes to retail, leisure and tourism installations. As a jumping off point this is fantastic, it allows us to showcase examples of how your budget ideas will translate into a physical playground.
But we hear you, ‘how much does it cost?’. The simple answer is typically £35,000 and up. Most playgrounds from any provider will cost at least £35,000 in today’s market when you factor in equipment, design, groundworks and surfacing. Depending on your goals the budget can be tailored. We’ve delivered projects for budgets 100x bigger depending on the site size, aims of the playground and timeline.
The crucial thing to consider when it comes to cost for a playground is what you want the playground to do. If you want to elevate the profile of your location and drive more visitors to your attraction, then investing more in a bespoke natural playground that becomes a USP for your business is definitely worth it.
However, if you’re a school and your main goal is to encourage skill, relationship and risk taking development in children during breaktime with as little supervision as possible the approach will be very different.
Our bespoke playground design approach is based on the amount of design needed to create your playscape. We don’t price based on a specific features cost to install or manufacture, everything in our process centres around the time it takes to create each feature in your playground.
To provide an example, if you had £50,000 to spend on a playground installation the approach we would take for a school would be totally different to that for a tourism location.
For the school we would focus on play value. We would design features that engage and inspire children for longer without supervision. This may mean that more of your budget goes on play route design driving development in the children with less intricate features with higher safety thresholds leaning on a child’s imagination and creativity.
The approach for a tourism location would be totally different. If you wanted to increase footfall to your location and encourage visitors to stay longer at your hotel or farm park we may suggest a playground focused on dwell time as well as visual appeal to assist your marketing strength. This would enable parents to plan more time and stay on site longer to engage with your wider attraction.
In both instances, the £35,000 would deliver a fit for purpose playground uniquely designed for your location to do the job you need it to do.
Our concept design team can quickly help you explore pricing, themes and play value on call – submit your email address and our team will get in touch. Our designs are bespoke and no two are the same. Whether you’re a school or a world class leisure park, we can quickly come up with some ideas to support your project.
0117 963 8222
