Resurfacing Your Spray Pad: Three Signs Of Wear That Let You Know It's Time

Spray pads are fairly durable, but even they do not last forever. If you installed a spray pad by your public pool or your hotel pool several years ago now (before they became wildly popular), it might be time to resurface the area. Here are three signs your spray pad surface needs to be redone.

Users Are Slipping and Falling

Yikes. Slips and falls on your spray pad could lead to some serious injuries, followed by even more serious lawsuits, none of which you would want. Most of the really good spray pads have a textured surface that helps keep users from slipping while playing in the water sprays. Slips and falls are a good indication that this built-in traction has worn down significantly. If you have people slipping on your spray pad now, you may want to rope it off and turn off the water sprays until you can get it resurfaced.

There Are Rust Stains Around the Spray Jet Openings

If the spray jets have begun to collect rust, that is another safety issue altogether. You will be able to see the problem as the jets eject less-than-clear water and your spray pad openings are discoloring. At this point, you may have to rip up the entire spray pad if the problem jets are nowhere near the edges of the spray pad. (If they are near the edges, it may be possible to just pull up those edges, replace the jets and then resurface those areas.) Seeing as you cannot cut a swatch of the spray pad out of the middle without ruining the rest of the spray pad, the whole pad might have to come up.  You could delay the inevitable by placing cages over these jets to protect spray pad users and then using a rust removing cleaner regularly, but the spray pad may still retain some less-than-pleasant discoloration.

There Are Divots and Tears Developing

Spray pads, by their very nature, receive a lot of foot traffic. If your spray pad is of the squishy foam polymer variety and not the stone/cement variety, it may develop divots and tears. Children might want to pick and pull at this material because it has a fun texture and because some kids tend to be a little more destructive than others. As such, you end up with a spray pad that is in bad need of repair. Now would be a good time to resurface the pad completely to prevent more divots and tears.