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Under swing-set ideas??
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Posted by lisa120 6 Mass. (My Page) on Sat, Apr 10, 04 at 21:50
| We are looking for some ideas for what to put under our swing set besides dirt and patchy grass. The problem is we have LOTS of cats in our neighborhood and the kids LOVE to dig.
Someone mentioned pea-gravel????????????
Any ideas???? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| Here is a good site that recommends safe amounts of surfacing materials. It seems as if sand, pea gravel, and bark mulch or wood chips is about all that's out there. I did some research on this a while back for my church. At that time I thought the shredded rubber mulch looked pretty good as a new product. But now I have read that it smells unpleasantly like hot rubber tires in the sun, sticks to kids and their shoes, etc. http://www.kidsource.com/CPSC/playground_surface.html |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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- Posted by JillP 5/6 OH (My Page) on
Sun, Apr 11, 04 at 19:49
| Pea gravel is a real pain. It rolls under the kids shoes, they fall. It get stuck in shoe treads and pants cuffs. When the school had it, I was alwasy picking pea gravel out of the washer. I would go with a thick layer of wood mulch. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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- Posted by mjsee Zone 7, NC (My Page) on
Mon, Apr 12, 04 at 18:49
| wood mulch--you just have to add more periodically. melanie/my swingset days are past--until we have grandkids! |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| Here's an 'off the wall" idea which might work. Construct a frame of treated wood sized to fit the worn area. Secure a piece of remanent indoor-outdoor carpeting around the frame and tacked to the inside of the frame. Now, excavate the worn spot and set the frame just below ground level working sand underneath it for drainage. Tamp all down so everything is at ground level and safe for little ones. This should last for a few years until the they become intent on hitting baseballs through the neighbor's windows. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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- Posted by mjsee Zone 7, NC (My Page) on
Mon, Apr 12, 04 at 20:47
| Nandina, that's so crazy it just might work! melanie |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| Cedar chips, playground grade- available at professional quality landscape supply stores. - install at a thickness of 6 to 8 inches deep. - Recc. by in the know homeowners, landscape architects and goverment agencies . Directly under the swing place a precast 2x2 concrete paver.
Go to Home Cheapo - Purchase a set of their interlocking 2x2 ( actual dims are 2'- 4" squared ) and glue with epoxy two or three layers of the dense colored foam ontop of the precast 2x2's. Done. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| We have a rubber material that we use in our park system that works GREAT under playgrounds ... it is installed with cement trowel type tools and then sets firm . The surface can be colored ... it's bouncey and safe if the kids fall on it .... Let me know I'll check the name if you are interested. Good Day ... |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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We had a Rainbow play system installed a couple of years ago and used rubber mulch (shreaded tire rubber).
In contradiction to a previous post, I believe it to be the best covering for such a play area. Falling on it is like a fall on a gym mat, water drains through nicely, bugs seem to dislike it and since it was placed over landscape fabric (and uses a rubber landscape timber around the perimeter) nothings ever come up through it.
About the only bad thing I might say is that it does get hot in direct sun...and yes, if you stick your face in it when hot, is does smell like tire rubber... well, that is what it is.
I'll confess that using rubber mulch is a bit upsetting to my "organic sensibilities", but now believe that it is far safer than any other covering...Abbey's taken a few bad spills out there and has bounced back up pretty well. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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Thank you for all the great ideas, however, the biggest problem is that I have two little boys that love to dig!! I bought a small toys r us sand box But it just didn't do the trick.
I think pea gravel is really my only choice.......hope cats won't like it......does anyone know for sure??? |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| I vote against the pea gravel and for wood mulch. Mulch is softer than gravel, but the real advantage comes in the future. Eventually your kids will grow up and stop using the swingset. When that day comes would you prefer to pack up and truck away a bunch of rubber / gravel or would you prefer to start gardening right away in a wonderful bed where organic material has been breaking down for the past decade? I have wood mulch under my kids swingset (with no weed mat and I have no weed problem) and the soil there is the best I've ever seen. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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You can always go down to the Agway and buy a couple bales of horse shavings, they are clean and smell nice.
As for keeping cats out of sand and the like try to find some oil of lemongrass it is a natural repellant, cats dislike anything smelling of citrus. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| What's there now? Just dirt? Grass? My kids don't like to wear sandals to the adventure playgroud here because they get the pea gravel caught in their shoes, and it's too slippery for my toddler as well. If your kids like to dig you could leave the whole area bare with a box of digging tools nearby--tonka toys etc,... swings get tied up and you have a nice play ground. Swings come down and away they go! I like the elongated goudge that runs under each swing from plain dirt. It looks nice at a distance. Landing from on high would be safer with a straight surface. No slivers, easy to rake clean and an additional digging factor. But the best part is that your kids are going to be swinging whichever you decide! Great! |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| We have a new playground and are also debating what to place beneath it. We bought about 8 bags of mulch at The Home Depot and realized once we started to install it that the girls could no longer play barefoot in the area. Hundreds of splinters (well not quite than many) were all over our feet. OUCH! We have a large lawn area and want the kids to be able to run barefoot which they love to do. We are considering rubber mulch or small round pea gravel. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| do I install the swing set first then place mulch around it, or install mulch and put the swing set on top of it? |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| I'm sure you have already done so, but you will want to install your swing set prior to placing your surfacing around your play area. This is because mulch, sand and pea rock will move and\or deteriorate causing anything on top of it to shift over time. You will however want to place a weed barrier down before you install your play set. |
RE: Under swing-set ideas??
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| This is way late but for others this is my experience. My kids had lawn & swingset secured in cement at each pole even with ground. DS was bit of a daredevil & thought it cool to go over the top. DD got a large swing set with a huge slide with treehouse at top. Weedcloth & redwood bark was put down.So kids couldn't go barefoot, they played a few weeks & the grass/kind that trails & gets in everything & weeds came up anyway. Palm trees shed from neighbor's, dead baby critters were knocked from them in winter winds. I was over cleaning out for about 5 yrs until they were interested in other things. It was a pain & bark had to be replaced often. Lawn would have been so much better. When we took the set out at our house we had to put in few shovels of top dirt to level things out with some grass seed & short time later couldn't tell it had ever been there. Same with above ground pool, removed it when the time came & took up the sand & put some fill dirt in from neighbor's putting in block wall, thrilled we took it off their hands & lawn was fine in short time. I don't like mulch all over the place & haven't found one that isn't.GK's school had rubber surrounded by curb of cement & chainlink fence, kids were taught not to kick it out & it worked very well. I saw a kid jump from moving swing & thought OH,NO, he got up & walked away like nothing happened, seems he had done that before a number of times according to GD. Gravel hurts & cats love to pee in it!! Ugh!! |
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