Need suggestions for kid friendly ground

17 years ago

Hi all! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I'm re-doing my 2000 square foot back yard; I've hired the contractor and I've done the design myself. I have a 500 square foot area that I want to be "child friendly," as I'm planning to install a wooden playstructure and let the kids (age 5 years & 19 months) do whatever they want there. My problem is that I can't figure out what to install on the ground there. Ideally I will have something that is soft so that if somebody falls off the structure, they won't crack their head open. I do not want grass; I don't want to have to install irrigation on that side of the yard and I don't want to have to mow or weed around the playstructure. My options so far:

1. Playground tiles - Would be my preference, except it will cost me $4000 on materials, alone

2. Playground mulch - My second choice, will cost me $2000, except: will it get tracked around? We have cats, squirrels, raccoons and possums living back there, will they dig into it? Will they eat it? Does it smell? Can you ride a bike over it?

3. Waterless grass? My husband hates this idea, but my questions are the same as the playground mulch, plus what if it gets cat pee on it? Will it stink? Does it get torn up?

What are my other options? Any suggestions are most welcome, thanks!! :)

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Comments (9)

The_Mohave__Kid
17 years ago
Where I work in the parks under playgrounds we use :

http://www.totturf.com/safety.html

What about clean playground sand ?? You may have to rake it and weed some but it will save a lot of cash.

Good Day ...
mjsee
17 years ago
Ummm...playground sand and a cat? ONE big kitty litter box. I wouldn't use sand.

If I had the money I'd be tempted to spring for the playground tiles. THAT said--when my kids were little we just had a combination of grass and mulch. My guys are still alive.
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Brent_In_NoVA
17 years ago
Did you see the thread linked below? It is mostly about mulch and pea gravel. I love my kids but $4k and $2k would be more than I could justify.

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: HELP! Ground cover for kids play area????
jillsmo
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks all for your suggestions. I did read that other link, actually, and I had ruled out pea gravel because it's essentially just rocks, not fun to fall on, easy to dig into and carry around, and hard to get rid of. I agree that even $2K is way too much, so I'm kind of considering wood mulch now. Does it mold? How often do you have to replace/refill?

Also, does anybody know anything about waterless grass? I'm intrigued by the idea....
bahia
17 years ago
The higher end fake grass substitutes are not cheap to install either... I'd suggest that bark mulch is the most practical, and if you lay it over compacted earth sloped to drain as if for a patio, with weed fabric on top and 3 to 5 inches of bark it should work fine. You will have the incidental bark mulch getting tracked into the house, depending on the coarseness of bark you choose. You probably will only need to top of with new every other year or so. If this mulch is in a full sun location, no need to worry about mold, unless it doesn't drain well.
Brent_In_NoVA
17 years ago
My experience with wood mulch for a playset is that you will have to add a 3 to 4" layer every two years. I have not had a problem with mold...but I have had some rather stinky mushrooms pop up. Oh well...penis shaped mushrooms will give the kids something to laugh about! Google "stinkhorn mushroom" for more info.

- Brent
bob64
17 years ago
Wood chips can often be gotten for free.
There are also "mulches" made from crumb rubber which is basically little crumbs of rubber. Some people even amend soil with it in high impact areas at golf courses, etc. just to mitigate compaction. Any mulch will have to be replenished at some point due either to decomposition of the mulch getting spread out. Sand is what was used for us kids back in the ancient days of the 1970's and it worked out o.k.
1fullhouse
17 years ago
I am also reading through all the threads on play area ground cover. My issue is that I live in Phoenix, and well... that myth about frying an egg on the ground in the summer isn't that far off. I plan on putting some kind of shade cover over the top of the area, but I still want to make sure that I get something that won't get too hot.
karinl
17 years ago
Don't know if this EcoLawn is what you mean with waterless lawn, nor whether it will work in the climates in question.

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: EcoLawn

Need suggestions for kid friendly ground

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