On August 14, 2026, our crew pulled up to King Middle School at 1440 E Court Street in Kankakee and washed and sanitized the entire playground area at no charge to the school or to Kankakee School District 111. Students walked back through those doors on August 17. We wanted the equipment they grabbed on the first day to be clean.
Nobody asked us to do it. We live here, our families live here, and a playground is one of the few pieces of school property that every single student touches with their bare hands. So we donated the wash, and we filmed part of it so other districts and park boards can see exactly what the process looks like.
Green Pro Services soft washing and sanitizing playground equipment at King Middle School, Kankakee IL. Filmed August 14, 2026.
What Is Playground Pressure Washing and Sanitizing?
Playground pressure washing and sanitizing is a two part service. First a professional applies a diluted sodium hypochlorite solution mixed with a surfactant to every play surface, lets it dwell long enough to kill mold, algae, bacteria and viruses, then rinses the entire structure thoroughly with clean water until no chemical residue remains. The equipment dries and reopens the same day.
The important word there is sanitizing. Plenty of contractors will blast a play structure with a pressure washer and call it done. That removes visible dirt and leaves the biology behind. Mold and algae grow back within weeks because the spores were never killed, only moved. Sanitizing solves the cause instead of the symptom.
Quick answer for facility directors: a full playground wash and sanitize on a typical school or park structure takes two to four hours, uses low pressure rather than high pressure, and the play area reopens as soon as the surfaces air dry.
Why We Use Sodium Hypochlorite and Then Rinse Thoroughly
Sodium hypochlorite is the same active ingredient used to disinfect municipal drinking water and hospital surfaces. Applied at a low dilution with a surfactant that helps it cling to the surface, it oxidizes and kills the organic growth living on plastic slides, powder coated steel, rubber safety surfacing and wood timbers.
Here is the part that separates a professional from a guy with a trailer. The rinse. After the solution has had its dwell time on the surface, we flood every square inch of that structure with clean water. Handholds, seat pans, the underside of slides, chain links, the ladder rungs, the poured rubber below. We keep rinsing until the runoff is clear and there is nothing left for a child to touch. We also pre wet and post rinse every plant, mulch bed and patch of turf around the play area, because the same chemistry that kills algae will kill landscaping if it is left to sit.
Done correctly, sodium hypochlorite breaks down into salt and water. Done carelessly, it damages plants, corrodes metal and leaves residue on surfaces that children put their hands and mouths on. The chemistry is not the hard part. The discipline around it is.
Why High Pressure Is the Wrong Tool for Play Equipment
A pressure washer turned all the way up will strip the powder coat off steel posts, fuzz the surface of plastic slides, splinter wood timbers and drive water into bolted joints where it sits and rusts. Every one of those outcomes creates a rough surface with microscopic pits, and those pits are exactly where bacteria settle in and hide from the next cleaning.
We run low pressure with high volume on play structures. The chemistry does the cleaning and the water does the rinsing. High pressure gets saved for the surfaces that can take it, like concrete walkways, curbs and the pads under the equipment.
Bleachers, Stadium Seating and Sports Field Cleaning
The same service applies to every seating surface a district owns. Aluminum bleachers at a baseball or softball field collect a season of spilled soda, sunscreen, bird droppings, gum and black mildew streaks in the channel between planks. Concrete stadium seating grows algae on the shaded rows and stains under every trash can. Composite and molded seats hold grime in the texture where a broom will never reach.
We clean and sanitize:
- Aluminum bleachers, including the underside, risers, stairs and handrails
- Concrete stadium seating, bowls, ramps and concourse walkways
- Molded plastic and composite stadium chairs
- Dugouts, press boxes, ticket booths and equipment sheds
- Playground structures, swings, slides, climbers and shade shelters
- Poured rubber and rubber tile safety surfacing
- Picnic pavilions, park benches, tables and trash enclosures
- Sidewalks, entry aprons, curbs and building exteriors
Homecoming, graduation, a conference tournament, a summer concert in the park. Any date the public is going to sit in those seats is a good reason to have them washed the week before. A clean set of bleachers changes how a visiting district sees your program.
How Often Should a School or Park District Clean Playgrounds and Bleachers?
For most districts in our area, twice a year works. Wash and sanitize the playground in late summer right before students return, then again in late spring after the freeze thaw season has coated everything in grit and mildew. Bleachers and stadium seating should be cleaned before the season opener and again before any major event.
Sites that need more frequent attention are the ones under heavy tree cover, next to standing water, or serving elementary and preschool age children. Shade plus moisture equals algae, and the younger the students, the more hand to mouth contact happens on the equipment.
How We Schedule Around Students
We do not clean playgrounds with children on them. Ever. Every job gets scheduled for a day the site is closed, an early morning before doors open, or an evening after activities end. We cone and tape off the work zone, walk the structure first and report any loose hardware, cracked plastic, exposed bolts or worn surfacing we find, then clean, rinse and let it dry before we pull the tape.
Green Pro Services carries commercial general liability insurance, and our crew completed OSHA 1910 pressure washer and window cleaner safety training in 2026. If your district requires a certificate of insurance, a W-9, background checks or a specific vendor packet, send it over and we will fill it out.
What Does School Playground and Bleacher Cleaning Cost?
Price depends on square footage, the number of structures, how much rubber surfacing is involved and how far the water source sits from the work area. A single playground structure at an elementary building is a very different job from a full stadium bowl. We quote each site after we look at it, and we put the scope in writing so a business office can compare it line for line against another bid.
If you manage facilities for a district, a park board, a church, a daycare or an HOA in Kankakee County, Will County or the south suburbs of Cook County, we will come walk the property and give you a written number at no cost.
Why We Gave This One Away
Green Pro Services is two guys from Kankakee who built a company here. Clayton runs the field work, I handle the sales and marketing side, and neither one of us wanted our first real community project to be a check we mailed somewhere. We wanted to show up and do the thing we are actually good at.
King Middle School serves families we know. A clean playground on the first day of school is a small thing, and it is also the exact kind of small thing that tells a kid somebody thought about them. That was worth a Thursday afternoon and a tank of chemical to us.
If you are a school administrator, a park district director or a facility manager reading this, we would be glad to talk about what your sites need. Learn more about our commercial power washing work or see everything on our commercial cleaning page.
Common Questions
School and Park District Pressure Washing FAQs
Yes, when it is diluted properly, given the correct dwell time, and rinsed away completely. Sodium hypochlorite is the same disinfectant used to treat drinking water. The risk comes from using it at too high a concentration, letting it dry on the surface, or skipping the rinse. We rinse every structure until the runoff runs clear and the surfaces are free of residue before the play area reopens.
As soon as the equipment air dries, which is usually one to two hours on a warm day. There is no waiting period beyond drying because the sanitizing solution is fully rinsed off as part of the service. We leave the caution tape up until the structure is dry.
High pressure will. It strips powder coating off steel, hazes plastic slides, raises the grain on wood and forces water into bolted joints. We use a low pressure soft wash on play structures so the cleaning solution does the work instead of the water. High pressure is reserved for concrete pads, walkways and curbs.
Twice a year covers most sites, once in late summer before students return and once in late spring. Playgrounds under heavy shade, near standing water, or serving preschool and early elementary students benefit from three visits a year. Cold and flu season is another common trigger for an extra sanitizing pass.
Yes. We clean aluminum bleachers including the undersides, risers, stairs and handrails, along with concrete stadium seating, molded plastic chairs, concourse walkways, dugouts and press boxes. Most districts schedule bleacher cleaning before the first home game and again before graduation or a tournament.
Yes. Poured in place rubber and rubber tile surfacing hold dirt and organic growth down in the granules. We treat it with the same low pressure approach so the surfacing is not torn or lifted, then flush it thoroughly. Cleaning the surfacing also makes it easier to spot worn or separating areas that need repair.
Not when the job is done right. We saturate all surrounding vegetation with plain water before we start, cover anything sensitive, and rinse the entire area again when we finish. Untreated overspray is what kills plants, and preventing it is a standard part of every job we run.
Always. We schedule playground and bleacher cleaning for weekends, breaks, early mornings or evenings so no students are present. Summer and the days right before the first day of school are the two most popular windows, so districts usually book those early.
Yes. Green Pro Services carries commercial general liability insurance and can provide a certificate of insurance, a W-9 and any vendor paperwork your business office requires. Our crew completed OSHA 1910 pressure washer and window cleaner safety training through Expert Safety Services.
We serve Kankakee County, Will County and the south suburbs of Cook County from our shop at 407 S. Yates Avenue in Kankakee. That includes Kankakee, Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno, Peotone, Monee, Frankfort, Tinley Park, Orland Park and the surrounding communities.
Need a Playground, Bleacher or Facility Wash Quoted?
We walk the site, put the scope in writing and give your business office a number it can actually compare. Serving Kankakee County, Will County and the south suburbs.
