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Good evening all,
I'm hoping someone may be able to help me find a more cost effective way of creating a play area at the bottom of my garden.. When we had the builders in doing our extension we got them to create a small (2.5x5m) area that I could then lay some rubber playground tiles on to make space for my daughter to play, put her slide, etc.
The area is currently composed of hardcore and compacted sand on top (I think!). However, when I've come to buy the rubber tiles they're coming out at anywhere between £50-150 per sq m.. (depending mainly on thickness/supplier from what I can tell). Most of the websites seem to be for commercial applications and the unit price is eye watering unless you're buying 100s of the things.
The base is in now and deteriorating each week that passes and nothing goes on top of it.. Any words of wisdom for me or do I need to suck it up and pay the price?
Thanks
Chop up some old car tyres, avoiding the metal bits, obviously! Or bark chippings?
Fake turf would be my plan
We did similar alongside our garage, approx 4mx5m and used rubber chippings (recycled tires chopped up with the wire removed)
We got them from somewhere that specialises in horse training ground/yards. Had trouble with delivery but worked out around £150 for a proper ton bag, enough for the whole area ranging from approx 50-80mm deep Other than moving it all by hand they work great.
The advantage with chippings is you can build up any ground that isn't completely flat
If you are anywhere near Bristol there is a skip full in my local park. Just been ripped up but looks usable to me.
Bark chippings or for really low cost ask a tree surgeon for shredded branches and trees prunings. We just had to have a large tree cut down and now have 3 very large metre high bags of trees chipping for mulching beds etc.
You can buy chippings either in 1m cube bags or 100 litre bags from garden centre, B&M or wherever. B&Q or B&M deals are usually the same price or cheaper per volume than getting a bulk bag delivered but you do the lugging. Expect to top them up a bit every year but reasonably soft landings under our garden swing.
Last year I put rubber tiles down on my balcony thats almost exactly the same size as your playground. These tiles:
Castleflex - Castle Composites
I bought 52 including delivery for a bit under £500. Worth emailing them direct for a price (Think I first saw them on eBay). They also do playground versions although the balcony ones were soft enough for kids to play
I used bark (many years ago now) and was told at the time that chippings can pack down to be a bit hard whereas bark remains spongy.
The problem with those materials though is that stuff can and will grow in it.
On the plus side when we no longer needed a play area it just grew over with no intervention from me.
Are you looking to mitigate head injuries or just have something softer than "hard"
I'd expect artificial turf over foam will be the most cost effective as a clean play space that gives decent fall protection.
Bark chippings on a budget.
The price of any surfacing for playgrounds and outdoor gyms has gone through the roof in the last 6 months, much like everything else.
We sell them. I'll try and remember to price them up tomorrow I'm sure they are 500mm x 1mtr x 50mm 👍
Thank you very much for all of the replies and suggestions everyone. I hadn’t considered artificial grass but as noted it should do the same job in terms of creating a clean/safe area. I think some form of bark/chippings will be plan b for the mo as assume I would have to do something with the current surface so it didn’t all just get mushed together with the sand.
Thank you @robbie if you’re able to that would be great 🙂
Depends what risk you are trying to mitigate. We used something like this https://www.halfords.com/tools/garage-equipment/garage-essentials/halfords-6pc-black-floor-mat-set---120cm-x-180cm-336870.html to protect from bumps and scrapes (but obviously wouldn’t do much for falls from height). We had it outdoors for about 8 yrs before we felt no longer needed and it was only just starting to breakdown (interestingly on the underside not from uv - ours was blue not black). We put it on top of slabs. If you don’t have a finished surface you may need something thicker.
would have to do something with the current surface so it didn’t all just get mushed together with the sand
Just put some weed barrier/plastic sheet down on top of the sand then wood chip on top. Very effective IME.
However, the chippings do need to be recessed a bit down around the edges/have something to stop them spreading round the garden everytime the kids walk/jump/drag their heels on/off.
Do remember that safety surfacing is not just these things - bark, sand, grass all meet standard.
Do also remember that all have downsides. Yes bark or sand can have things growing or bit messy. However those tiles can get (burning) hot, stay frozen in winter, off gas, leave black marks and slime over. On balance there's a lot of play suppliers moving away from the rubber tiles.
My last comment is that if I offered you a waste material considered mildly toxic, would you choose to put it in childrens play area? Melted down old tyres and glue are not great foundations - they're a cheap / profitable ways of reusing a waste material. Again, we're seeing more calls to investigate rubber/recycled materials in children's play areas.
For all its downsides, woodchip or grit/sand can work really well, grass if not.
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Surely this is the point where womeone should come in and talk about growing up in the 70/80's with concrete playparks, witches hats, massive climbing frames and not dying to death?
I used bark around my kids climbing frame. A few weeds here and there are not a big deal and the bark certainly saved a few A&E trips, which is just as well as I was in so often with kiddie scooter / bike / rugby injuries that I must have been close to getting on a list.