If you have ever walked on a playground with the rubber mulch or rubber compound used for its surface, then you have felt the “cushiony” or “bouncy” feeling solid rubber playground surfacing delivers.  It’s a fun feeling and far more attractive and safe then other materials such as ground up, recycled car and/or truck tires.

Since this material is compacted together and made to stay in place, it creates a many more benefits as well.  Kids can’t pick it up and throw it at each other, it will not find its way in the kid’s shoes, and there’s much more traction on this type of surface resulting in less slips and falls.  But it’s not really the top surface of it that gives it that cushion.  It’s what’s underneath.

During this phase of our Tanglewood project we installed the recycled SBR granules which are exactly what’s underneath that top layer.  This layer is what the majority of the rubber depth comes from and the exact depth is determined by the equipment fall heights.  For example, with the swing we repaired and reset during phase 1, swings typically require a depth of 3.5″, a 3′ critical fall height, and only 2.5″ of rubber.  This is something that has to be done carefully to make sure every measurement is exact and the surface has a smooth and level finish.  Having this layer is a huge benefit when it comes to keeping injuries to the extreme minimum.  Recycled SBR is environmentally friendly by its attempts to reuse and be reused and as it says on my website, all materials are locally produced.

Safety Starts w/ Stability!

Kurt Karriker
704-589-7455
Creative Playscapes

The post Tanglewood Refurbish Phase 2 first appeared on Creative Playscapes.

After seeing the shape Tanglewood playground surface was in I was very excited to get this remolding started so they would have a nice, fresh, and appealing look as well as reassuring a safe surface.  First thing we needed to do was get rid of the entire old surface so we brought in the Bobcat.  Boom, boom, boom and things were really moving along smoothly.  The guys really got a good work out with this one because we removed a total of 30 tons of rubber which is 4500 sq. ft.!  Kept us busy and that’s just how we like it.

There was an existing swing that needed some repair and needed to be reset that we took care of.  It’s very important to us to make sure every single little detail is noticed and evaluated before moving forward not only for the benefit of the facility but most importantly, the safety of the kids.

Now after getting the swing to perfection, we began to prepare the asphalt’s surface to effectively receive the new rubber surface.  This is something that needs to be done accurately to avoid any unwanted maintenance at a sooner than expected date.  We definitely don’t want any sitting water hanging around so our next step was to prevent that problem from occurring.

We installed French drains around the outside asphalt base which is very popular and effective.  This is basically digging out around the base and filling it with gravel that is around a perforated corrugated pipe and covered with commonly used filter fabric.  This whole phase of our project took us two days to complete and I am very pleased to say everything went as planned.

Safety Starts w/ Stability!

Kurt Karriker
704-589-7455
Creative Playscapes

The post Tanglewood Refurbish Phase 1 first appeared on Creative Playscapes.