So you are thinking of buying an indoor climbing frame. Before you start, we have put together a list of the 6 best small indoor climbing frames which you can read by clicking here.
Before you buy one, there are some things you need to consider. Not every home will be suited for a climbing frame and, even if you have the room there still might be other issues with location and type of room.
We have put together the 5 top things you need to consider when buying an indoor climbing frame
What Is It Made Of?
Wood
Material of manufacturer is an important part of an indoor climbing frame. If it’s made from wood, you should avoid any rooms that could suffer with damp as this can cause the wood to rot.
Plastic
Plastic is an all-around good material and is the more popular option for a small indoor climbing frame. Be sure to check the strength as some plastics don’t have a very high weight limit.
Also, be sure to clean your plastic climbing frame regularly as virus’ can live on plastic for up to three days.
Metal
Metal climbing frames are slightly less popular for indoor climbing frames although still available. If you go for a metal one, you need to make sure you keep it out of direct sunlight.
Leaving it in the sun can cause it to heat up and severely hurt your child.
Soft play
Soft play is our personal favorite for the indoors. It’s easy to move, lightweight, and spongy so any falls and tumbles should hurt. You can get all kinds of soft play shapes and even sets that you can put together to build castles.
An added benefit of soft play is that you can add a bit to it, for example, you could get a slide, then add a ball pit, then add a tower rather than having to buy one whole unit. You also don’t need to get it all out at the same time and can pick and choose depending on the game you are playing or the space available.
Soft play can be difficult to clean, and even more annoying to store, it’s quite bulky and doesn’t fold or come apart any further than the pieces that stick together.
Space Available
You should always be sure of how much space that you have available for your play area. In an ideal world, you’ll have a huge room and only use the center portion with no other furniture or objects in the room.
Something to think about:
Surrounding areas: You should make sure that your climbing frame is not within 1 meter of any other furniture. It’s well known that your children will tumble and fall whilst climbing and jumping so you don’t want them to hit their heads on any close by objects.
Flooring
The type of flooring that is under your climbing frame is also very important. In the same aspect as the object and furniture not being too close to it, the children will be jumping and diving, swinging and climbing so having wooden flooring, or something hard is not ideal.
Ideally, you want to have carpet. Carpet is soft enough that if they fall it will reduce the damage by quite a lot.
Better yet you can buy some Eva mats, which are soft foam mats that fit together like a jigsaw, and place this under the play area. If you are really looking to invest you can buy 3×2 meter soft crash mats to place on all sides of your climbing frame.
Keeping It Clean
Keeping your climbing frame clean is paramount. Children have a habit of licking things or putting them in their mouths, the last thing you want is to make themselves ill!
A virus can live on plastic for up to three days so it is good to get into the habit of a quick antibacterial wipe down, before and after each play session.
It wouldn’t hurt to include it in your house cleaning routine as well for added safety.
Cost
The last thing to consider when buying a small indoor climbing frame will be the cost.
You can almost spend an infinite amount of money if you wanted to on an indoor climbing frame.
They can cost anywhere from £50-£1000 and then you need to add on all the safety measures if you need them.
The best thing to do is to set your budget and work backward. Source your flooring if needed, cleaning equipment, and then decide what material you want your new climbing frame made out of.
Then with the remainder of your budget, you can start looking for one. We recommend checking out Amazon for the best ones without blowing your budget.
