Loose Mulch Under A Swing Scatters And Thins Where A Child Lands
Rubber surfacing stays where it is poured, so the cushion beneath the swings and below the slide's exit is the same depth in October as it was in May. Wood mulch and pea gravel at a Sault schoolyard or daycare get kicked away from the swing zone, tracked into the building, and packed down hard in the two spots that take every landing. In April, loose fill holds the meltwater from a winter of lake-effect snow and turns to mud.
Poured rubber surfacing drains through itself, can be shoveled and salted, and a stroller or a wheelchair rolls over it. It is also the only surface that a supervisor does not have to rake back into place every Monday morning.
A Playground Rubber Surface Is Sized By The Fall It Has To Catch
Playground rubber surfacing goes down at 1.5 inches where the equipment is low and 4 inches or beyond where it is tall, and the height of the tallest platform or the top of the swing decides the number. That is a completely different job from a patio at less than half an inch, and it is why playground rubber surfacing is quoted by the square foot at a higher rate. A toddler structure at a daycare sits low and needs less than a tall climber at a park.
We measure the fall height of every piece of equipment at the site visit and write the thickness for each zone into the quote. Thinner than that, the surface looks right and does not do its job.
What A Playground Rubber Surfacing Job Involves In The Sault
We pour playground rubber surfacing in two layers: a black recycled rubber base for the cushion, then coloured EPDM, roughly half an inch of it, over the top to take the wear and the sun. Each layer is blended with polyurethane binder at the site and spread by trowel to the thickness the quote promises, and the edge is finished flush to the border, the concrete or the grass. Colours are chosen from the granule samples, and shapes, paths or a hopscotch grid can be troweled in.
Playground rubber surfacing is a summer job in this region, from roughly mid-May to early October, and school and daycare work is usually booked for July and August when the yard is quiet. The surface takes children once it has cured for two or three days.