Help with Swing Set Border and Surfacing

[Us3]

We are in the process of researching our next outdoor project of constructing a play area for our 4 yo dd. Finding the perfect play fort has proven easy enough but we are still trying to determine the best border and surfacing for the fort. We have read safety guidelines and understand we need to use 9" to 12" of material such as pea gravel, mulch or sand.

Any experience or advice would be appreciated. Our main questions are....What is the best surfacing material to use and why? Least favorite and why? What border to use to keep the material inside the play area and out of the lawn?

If any of you have pics of your yard and would be proud to post, please do so!!

Thanks!

The Martz Family

 

[pumba]

is a school playground and it has this type of surfacing ......call and ask them.......they go by very strict rules for the schools.....I dont have a swing set anymore but when we did we had it all lawn....so I guess we were out of sinc with the proper protection for the kids.......hope you have a good play area for your little one....

 

[amid chaos]

No sand...it turns into a huge litter box for neighborhood cats.

 

[Us3]

You know, I think we all grew up with the swing set directly on the lawn, and there is certainly not anything wrong with that! Thanks too for the advice on sand, our two Amstaffs would have a fit with cats coming into our yard!

We are at a good point to start the project. We live in the city in a newer development and have a rather steep sloping back yard (why do builders do that??). We are having a retaining wall built along the back of our lot and a new fence. We are bringing in about 6 loads of top soil. We like a more formal landscape, so this is when we decided to border the play area and add a different surface. This is when I started reading about all of the safety guidelines, whew!

Anyone use Trex for bordering? I also though of using a concrete border, but not sure if it’s in the budget (still have to pay for that Disney trip in September!)

Thanks in advance,
Sonya

 

[Snowwark]

Hi Sonya, Welcome to the Flower & Garden board.

I read your post and gave my DH a call to get some input from him on your project. Him and his brothers have a general contracting business (50th year of being in business in 2 years!), and he was able to give me some advice for you.

Perhaps you already know this, but he recommends that you put filter fabric underneath your pea gravel, so that water can drain away. If your soil is sandy, that should work okay, but if it's clay, he said you might want to install a weeping tile drainage bed, or the pea gravel area could be a soggy mess if it rains and the water can't drain away. He also thought that Trex would work well as a border.

I hope this helps you a bit. It sounds like a great project.

Kim

 

[marydmjj]

Great idea to use Trex. Much better than treated lumber and a little more forgiving than cement. I like large wood chips for a couple of reasons. #1 - less slivers in bare feet, #2 easier than pea gravel to rake out of the grass before you mow, #3 cats generally don't like it.

Hope that helps.

 

[cgcw]

We have a huge playset in our yard and have learned through experience what has worked best for us. What we ended up doing was taking landscaping timbers (like 4" x 2" x 10' or so) and outlining the area to be enclosed. DH then doubled them up so that one is on top of the other. He drilled holes in the ends of them and found some really long spikes to hammer them into the ground with. They are even with the ground and go all the way around the area. Then we remove the grass with a sod cutter and filled the area in with lots and lots and lots of mulch. The landscaping timbers keep the mulch out of the grass. They also provide the kids with an area they can use for a balance beam. I have a home daycare and we use our backyard most every day. This area has lots of little feet running, playing and digging up the mulch almost year round.

I personally would be a little leary of using pea gravel. Not only would it be tough on a lawnmower, but I know I'd have a problem with the kids throwing it. If it's not something you think your DD and her friends would do, then it might be okay for you.

I'll see if I can get my DH to figure out how to post a picture. Maybe it'll give you a better idea of what I've tried to describe.

Cindy

 

[crzy4dsny]

I thought about this for a long time also. The options were sand, mulch, gravel, or shreaded rubber. This is what I came up with. The mulch would hold water and be messy. It may get clothes and hands dirty, but it would be cheap. Gravel would be clean and would drain water good, but it would be thrown all over and at each other. Shreaded rubber is the safest, but it is the most expensive. I decided to use sand. We have not had that big of a problem with cats using it as a litter box. Maybe once every 2 months we get a surprise. The reason I decided on sand is that the kids love to play in it. They sit quiet and play for hours. I used 4x4 lumber to frame out the play area.

 

[Us3]

Well, my DH and I are still debating the subject. We are on our way tonight to look at the Trex and lumber choices. My DH likes the idea of sand. He seems to think that the dogs would keep the cats away (they are inside at night!!). I'm thinking of all the sand that will be tracked into my house, . I like the idea of pea gravel. My DD is very good about following rules, so we wouldn't have a problem with her throwing gravel (ok, we might have a problem when the cousins come over though! lol). DH is dead set against pea gravel because he doesn't want to hit any with the lawn mower. DD doesn't like "wood chips". She comes home with them in her shoes from day school and really dislikes them.

Looks like we are down to pea gravel, sand and I'm thinking of checking into cedar chips. Any other advice is appreciated!

Thanks,
Sonya