Playground Question

[Sandmannd]

For those that have swing sets, what do you put down around them? I was thinking of framing it in and putting sand down. Easier to mow and softer if they hit the ground. I've heard of other "Playground" Material, but don't know what it's called. Just looking for suggestions.

[Ryan_V]

I brought in a truckload of pea rock. more spendy than sand, but nice and soft and no cats/critters digging/crapping in all the sand. I still do have a sandbox inside the playground under the "fort". I framed mine up with 2 levels of landscape timbers.

[IFallsRon]

I'd go with the pearock, too. It doesn't get carried into the house like sand and rain drains away faster.

[jwhjr]

We've had nothing around it going on 4 yrs now. The kids have worn some nice patches in the grass where the swings are. We've always meant to frame it up with some landscape timbers and bring in some sand or pea rock, but just haven't done it.

[juddH]

You can go with wood chips, that is what most schools use. You can also purchase rubber chips. These are both soft and should last a while. They are also easy to pick up if tracked into the grass.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

I have about a 20' x 32' area around ours and priced some options...

pea rock about $350

mulch about $450 and you will have to add more as it compresses and decomposes.

Are you sitting down?

Rubber rock/ rubber mulch.... $1500 to $2500

I did not price sand as we already have a sand box.

[lawdog]

YIKES, ok the rubber stuff is OUT.

I am planning on going pea rock too with landscape timber framing. The guy at Rainbow told us to avoid sand and he made a real good point about sand I thought. It gets REALLY hard when it packs in and can become more dangerous. He advised a separate area for a sandbox if we want one.

How did you guys secure the bottom level of landscape timbers? and how did you attach the second and or third level to that?

[Surface Tension]

I'd go with pearock also. On the land scape timbers, predrill and use 3/8ths rebar.

[IFallsRon]

I used rebar and 6 or 8-inch coated screws.

[lawdog]

Hoepfully I'm not hi-jacking this thread too bad...

Do the landscape timbers come in lengths other than 8'? That's all I've seen and I was thinking 32x20 also and I really don't know if I like the idea of cutting them in half.

[IFallsRon]

Eight-footers are more economical. I've used a 12-foot 2 x 4 as a base and staggered the 8-footers over the seams. That gave me a solid base for fastening everything else.