16.2 The Site History File

16.2 The Site History File

Domain 5B is not a citywide binder of park addresses. It is a living file for one playground — one bay, one composite, one address that a later inspector can reconstruct without calling the original installer. Domain 5A told you to keep signed inspections and repairs. Domain 5B tells you where those papers live and what else must sit beside them so the site has a memory.

A playground without a site history file is a pile of steel and surfacing with no biography. You can still run probes. You cannot tell whether today's three inches of engineered wood fiber is the system in the laboratory report, whether the swing hanger is the part the manufacturer specified, or whether last year's audit already ranked the same opening as a priority failure.

What belongs in the file for this playground

Build the file so each of the following has a labeled home. Mixed-vendor sites need a divider per event, not one unmarked envelope.

That table is the Domain 5B file. A single invoice or a brochure photograph is not a site history file.

Why the file is living

"Living" means the folder is updated when the site changes. A new slide bed, a replaced hanger, a two-inch surfacing lift, a border that was reset, a composite that was reoriented, or a toddler bay that was added all get a dated note and a photo. The original cut sheet stays. The modification sits on top of it. Throwing the opening-day drawings because "we remodeled" erases the only proof of what the footings were designed to hold.

IPEMA certificates are product-level. The International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association program certifies that a manufactured product was tested to designated ASTM criteria — commonly ASTM F1487 for equipment, F1292 for impact attenuation, F2075 for engineered wood fiber, F3012 for loose-fill rubber, or F1951 for accessibility — as of a date, for a stated model and thickness. An IPEMA mark on a post or a bag does not certify the installed playground after five years of kick-out, UV, and missing hardware. Domain 5B files the certificate. It does not let the certificate replace the current audit.

F1292 reports are laboratory critical-height ratings for a specified system at a specified thickness. F1951 reports, when they exist, are laboratory accessibility results for that surface system. Both belong next to the surfacing identity sheet so a later CPSI can ask the Domain 5B question: is the surface still the system in the report?

What you cannot verify without the file

Two exam-ready failures follow from a missing file.

Today's surfacing thickness versus the lab report. You measure 7 inches of engineered wood fiber under a 10-foot fall. The F1292 report — if you had it — might have rated that product at 12 inches for a 10-foot critical height. Without the report and the specified thickness, you are guessing. CPSC Table 2 is a fallback depth table for non-impact-tested loose-fill. It does not reconstruct a missing manufacturer report for a specified system, and it does not tell you whether this fiber is the fiber that was tested.

Whether a hanger is the original part. Swing hangers, track-ride carriages, and clamps have model-specific wear limits and replacement kits. A hardware-store eyebolt that "fits the hole" can introduce a protrusion, an entanglement, or a load rating the manufacturer never approved. Without the cut sheet, the as-built, and the modification log, you cannot tell a specified hanger from a substitute.

The same logic applies to a barrier that looks factory-made, a plastic slide bed of a slightly different color, and a pour-in-place patch that is not the original formulation. The file is how you stop treating every metal part as original equipment.

The contract CPSI asks before arriving

A CPSI who is an employee may already have the cabinet key. A CPSI arriving as a contractor should request the site history file before the visit. Put the request in writing. Ask for design intent, cut sheets, install records, surfacing reports, IPEMA certificates, as-builts, prior audits, the injury log, modification notes, recall-check dates, and photo history. If the owner has nothing, that absence is itself a Domain 5B finding. You still inspect the equipment. You write that you could not compare the as-built site to its own paper.

Do not treat a missing file as permission to invent certificates. Do not skip the visit because the cabinet is empty. Do not rely on a social-media photo of opening day as the as-built. Walk the site with whatever paper you were given, list every document that should have been there, and tell the owner — in writing — what the gap prevents you from verifying.

Assemble or request the Domain 5B file in this order:

1. Confirm this folder is for one playground, named by park, address, and bay.
2. Pull design and age-group intent, cut sheets, install date, and installer.
3. File the surfacing system, the F1292 critical-height report, and any F1951 report.
4. File product-level IPEMA certificates and as-built drawings.
5. Add prior audits, the injury log, modifications, recall checks, and photos over time.
6. If you are the outside CPSI, request that packet before the visit and document whatever never arrives.

Domain 5B compressed into one sentence: one living folder per playground is how you prove today's surface and hardware still match the paper that justified opening the gate.