Ten Questions From The Sault

Rubber surfacing over an existing surface in the Sault Ste. Marie area commonly runs between eight and sixteen dollars a square foot for pool decks, patios, walkways, steps, driveways and garage floors. Playgrounds are much thicker, so they run about fifteen dollars a square foot up to thirty or beyond. A minimum applies on small jobs. The free site visit produces a written quote, and that quote is the price for your surface.

Yes, it is made for it. The surface flexes with the freeze instead of cracking, water drains through it rather than freezing on top, and salt, which eats concrete, does nothing to it. Eleven feet of lake-effect snow can sit on it all winter and be shoveled off with a plastic-edged shovel.

Two granules are used. EPDM is a virgin rubber, coloured through, stable in sun, and it comes in greys, tans, blues, greens, reds and blends, so it is the visible layer wherever colour matters. SBR is shredded tire, black and the cheaper granule; it forms the cushion beneath a playground and makes up a garage or gym floor from wall to wall. The colour is in the granule, not painted on, and traffic cannot wear it away.

A pool deck gets 3/8 to 1/2 of an inch, and so do patios, walkways, steps and driveways. Garage floors and gyms get more, up to 3/4 of an inch, depending on what is dropped on it. Those numbers are written into the quote so there is no question about what was poured.

Feet are fine the morning after the pour. Anything heavier, meaning vehicles, furniture and hard use, waits until 48 to 72 hours have gone by. Cool nights in May and September stretch that a little, so we give you the hour when we finish rather than a rule.

Concrete, asphalt, pavers and interlock, stamped concrete, wood decking, a compacted stone base, even old rubber: rubber surfacing goes over all of them. Whatever is there now stays put and serves as the base, and nothing gets hauled away. What the base must be is sound, clean and dry, and stripped of any sealer, paint or oil, and clearing that is the first day's work.

It flexes, so it spans hairline cracks and cracks that have stopped moving, which covers most of what clay heave leaves in a Sault driveway or patio. A crack still growing, or a slab section still lifting, has to be repaired first, because rubber surfacing hides a crack but cannot hold a slab in place. We check this at the site visit.

Rubber surfacing is hosed or swept, and a mild detergent handles anything stuck. Keep harsh solvents away from it. In winter a shovel with a plastic edge is best, and salt is fine. A new coat of binder rolled over the top every few years adds years to the surface, but how long it lasts is decided mostly by the preparation on the first day.

Playground rubber surfacing is never thinner than 1.5 inches, and under tall equipment it reaches 4 inches or beyond, because the fall height dictates the depth. A toddler structure sits low and gets by with less than a tall climber or a swing set. We measure every piece of equipment at the site visit and write the thickness for each zone into the quote.

Rubber surfacing needs a dry slab, air at ten degrees or better and warming, and dry weather through the cure, which in the Sault means roughly mid-May to early October. A house job usually takes one or two days. The calendar fills from the first warm week, so the best time to call about a summer pour is late winter or early spring.