Hazard Tape and Trip Hazards
I guess this isn't the most interesting news post to everyone, but we do try to post little updates here and there that provide an insight into the hundreds of unseen actions, process, steps and measures we take to ensure each and every hire isn't just fun, but also very safe.
We recently wrote about our long leads and them being the absolute pinnacle of high safety standards. We stand by that, but just having the very best and the very safest power leads isn't good enough. It's all very well having RCD's, 2.5mm core cables, but if they're strewn across pathways and where people are likely to be walking (or let's face it, if someone sees a bouncy castle, they're running, not walking!).
When we arrive to set-up a bouncy castle (or any item actually), the first thing we're looking out for is potential hazards, where to be site the equipment and where we can safely run the leads. We wouldn't for example have the leads running underneath the bouncy castle and no accessible. However, we can't just leave them running up the middle of the garden, either. We make sure that they cables are just along the side of the garden, running to the power supply. If power is being taken from the house, we normally suggest putting the cable through the window; There's a real method in what we're doing here... Not only does that mean you can keep the door shut, but it also means that the door isn't constantly pressing against the cable and potentially causing a tear in the sheathing, exposing bare live wires.
With the cables neatly chased along the side of the garden on the same side as the power socket, it removes the trip hazard! This isn't always possible with smaller leads, which is why we always carry extra long ones!
All of that is fine for home hires, but what about school fetes and events? We regularly hire 15 inflatables to single events and cable management in that situation is very important. Schools often require power taken from the school building, which sometimes means running across the playground to the field, or across pathways. If the entrance to the inflatable day is across that path or it's a school day and the path is in use, there's an accident waiting to happen!
We take these situations pretty seriously. We offer free site visits on all of our fete packages and identify these risks ahead of time.
Quite often we will mitigate the risk by having the cables all run across at a single point, rather than several locations. We then cover using weighted mats so that it is made safe. Where that isn't possible or appropriate we will cover with hazard tape. We carry a roll of this at all times, so even when there are unexpected occasions when we need it, we have it to hand and ready. Hazard tape is a great way to make the area high visibility and caution people of the danger. The tape is self-adhesive so we can run it across the path, up walls or pretty much anywhere needed!
It may be a small thing, but it's little actions like this that are important when you're planning an event and need to have confidence in who you're using. We pride ourselves on our safety record and hope that this little blog post reassures you that we're the number one choice for bouncy castle hire.
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