# Annual main inspection: what to ask for > **Short answer:** The annual main inspection is the deep one, and EN 1176-7 describes it as work for a competent person. It goes through the overall safety of the equipment, including structure, foundations and parts that cannot be seen from the ground. Lekko neither performs it nor replaces it: it reminds you when it falls due and keeps the report with the equipment it covered. Category: Inspections and defects · Updated: 2026-08-09 · Published by: Lekko · Canonical address: https://lekko.tech/eu/help/recording-the-annual-main-inspection What the annual main inspection covers, who EN 1176-7 says carries it out, and what to ask of the report. ## How to do it in Lekko The annual main inspection is the deep inspection that EN 1176-7 describes as work for a competent person. Lekko does not carry it out and does not replace it: what you do in the app is record the result — who carried it out, when, and which defects were found. 1. Start a new inspection and choose the annual main inspection level. 2. Choose the equipment that was covered. 3. Record the defects that were found, with a severity and ideally a photograph. 4. Upload the report. It is stored against every piece of equipment that was part of the round. 5. Write who carried out the inspection and when, and complete the round. > Defects from the main inspection end up in the ordinary list of defects, so they are followed up in exactly the same way as everything else. A report that sits unread is worse than no report, because it documents that you were told. Getting the findings into the same follow-up as your own is the point of recording it here. ## What the inspection covers The annual main inspection goes further than anything you can do yourself. It judges whether the equipment still meets EN 1176, and it covers parts you do not see from ground level: - Structure and load-bearing parts, including hidden fixings. - Foundations — which often have to be dug out to be judged at all. - Corrosion and rot below ground level, where metal and timber meet soil. - Free heights of fall measured against the documented critical fall height of the surfacing. - Crushing and entrapment points measured against the standard's dimensions. - Testing or measurement of the impact attenuating surfacing where that is called for. It also does something that is easy to overlook: **it is a check on whether your own routine works.** The person carrying it out sees whether last year's findings were closed, whether the maintenance happened, and whether the routine exists in practice or only on paper. ## Ask a provider these before you book **Seven questions** - What is the person's competence, and what does it rest on? - Does the inspection cover all the equipment, or is anything excluded? - Is the surfacing measured, or only looked at? - Are foundations dug out where that is needed? - Do we get a written report with photographs, a severity per finding and a proposed action? - Are small repairs on site included, or charged separately? - Do we get an overview of which findings have been closed since last time? There is no single European register of people who do this work, and the schemes that exist are national or belong to one country's trade body. So the questions above are worth more than a badge: they are answerable, and the answers are comparable between providers wherever you are. ## The report is not finished when it arrives A report that sits unread in an inbox is **worse than no report** — it documents that you were told. The findings in it belong in the ordinary follow-up, with an action, an assignee, a date and a closure, exactly like the ones you find yourselves. > Lekko builds on EN 1176 and EN 1177. It says that the equipment has been checked against those standards — not that any national requirement has been met. What makes the standard binding is national law, and that differs across the countries this market covers, so we do not claim to know what applies where you are. ## Questions and answers ### Who can carry out the annual main inspection? EN 1176-7 describes it as work for a competent person. What matters is the competence and that the judgement is independent of the people who run the site day to day. Ask what the competence rests on, what is covered, and whether foundations are dug out and surfacing measured. ### Can we do the annual main inspection ourselves? It calls for a professional and independent judgement, and most owners buy it in. The routine visual inspection and the operational inspection are the two that are meant to be done by the people who look after the site. ### Does the annual main inspection replace the regular rounds? It is the other way round: the main inspection assumes the regular rounds have been done. One inspection a year does not catch broken glass, vandalism or a bolt that worked loose in May. ### What if we disagree with a finding? Raise it in writing with the person who made it and ask for the reasoning against the standard. If you still disagree, record your own assessment — then there is a trace showing the point was dealt with rather than ignored. ## Sources - [EN 1176 and EN 1177 – CEN/TC 136 Sports, playground and other recreational facilities and equipment (CEN-CENELEC)](https://www.cencenelec.eu/areas-of-work/cen-sectors/consumer/sports-goods/) - [CEN-CENELEC: European Standards, and how members adopt them nationally](https://www.cencenelec.eu/european-standardization/european-standards/) --- This guide is published by Lekko – https://lekko.tech/eu/help/recording-the-annual-main-inspection