What is the Best Playground Surfacing for the Winter Season?
As the winter season is coming, so is snow. PlaySmart has gathered all the information you need in order to help you decide on your next project and help you maintain your school playground surface or trail in a snowy environment!
Let’s dive in and take a look at your options:
Jungle Mulch Bonded Rubber Mulch
Bonded rubber mulch like our exclusive Jungle Mulch rubber, is a great surface for a playground due to its safety flooring and slip resistant surface. Rubber mulch is made from shredded recycled tires and our brand, Jungle Mulch, is water permeable and has the look of natural bark due to larger pieces of rubber granules. We use a unique organic colouring process which ensures vibrant rubber mulch colours that stays bright for a long time.
Bonded rubber mulch provides excellent slip resistance whilst being fully wheelchair and buggy accessible. We can install JungleMulch at a range of fully certified depths to provide fall protection to suit your requirements for critical fall heights
On top of all this, it’s also got a lower price tag than many other surfacing options and is the best surface for children’s play areas this Winter.
JungleMulch is a no-fuss, reliable safety surface leaving thousands of our clients satisfied. Available in a wide range of vibrant colours, made with eco-friendly materials, and supplied in the UK solely by Playsmart, the benefits speak for themselves!
Easy Colour Maintenance
We all know that in the winter months weather can become a bit dull and dark, No leaves on the trees, plants shriveled and dead, and grey skies can all contribute to a depressing and boring-looking play area.
Jungle Mulch provides a great colourful solution to distract from the monotonous winter scenery by brightening up your children’s outdoor play area or other outdoor surfaces!
Available in a range of 11 different shades, it can be easily adapted to stand out from the crowd, or match the shade of its background. When you haven’t seen blue skies since October, and you’re defrosting the car every morning… a colourful playground is sure to brighten up your day!
Safety Surfacing Perfect for the Winter
With winter comes the harsher weather conditions, like snow, sleet and ice. As you’ve probably experienced, these can make for some treacherous ground conditions. Luckily, rubber material does not absorb water, so your Jungle Mulch won’t freeze over or create a puddle of water! You can walk across your rubber mulch all winter long without needing to worry about your feet flying out from under you!
Strong, Resistant Rubber Mulch
As Jungle Mulch rubber mulch is a recycled product made from shredded rubber tyres, this surfacing solution benefits from rubber mulch’s natural hardiness and powers of withstanding. After all, rubber tyres are designed to hold up in any climate – and our Jungle Mulch is no exception!
The rubber substance means that the safety surface will be slip-resistant and weather resistant. You won’t have to spend time waterproofing it, or fixing extensive weather damage – it’s simply ready to go!
Simple Maintenance
To add to its expansive list of benefits, rubber mulch is a very low-maintenance product, saving you time on looking after it and more time spent playing!
It’s a better way to bypass the maintenance problems with artificial grass.
The area can easy be kept clean and tidy by regular sweeping to remove debris and grime. You should also occasionally wash your surface to ensure no build up occurs. Washing the surface on low pressure with hot water, followed by medium pressure on cold, can wash through to the base and away from the surface for a clean wet pour surface.
As you would with any surface, be aware of any causes for further damage to the surface – things such as oil, chewing gum and so on. For a relatively low level of maintenance, JungleMulch is truly the safety surface that keeps on giving.
Corkeen
Exclusively provided by Playsmart, Corkeen is a cork based safety surface made from the outer layer of the cork oak tree.
This renewable and natural material provides a safe and durable outdoor playground surface. With its flat and shock absorbent surface, Corkeen guarantees full accessibility for children of all abilities ensuring safety surfacing requirements are met.
With its excellent drainage capacity, Corkeen is a great solution for snowy weather as the melted ice water will be drained, ensuring a slip resistant and soft play surface for children to play.
SmartPave for Cycle Paths and Rural Trails
PlaySmart also has the solution for paths and trails for all seasons!
SmartPave is a water permeable surfacing solution used for a range of outdoor sports and activities, including cycle paths and rural trails.
Our blend of naturally decorative aggregates and recycled rubber granules from used tyres to create a firm surface with good grip and slip resistance. When constructed on a suitable base, SmartPave is fully porous, meaning it meets the requirements for Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUD’s) meaning that the melted ice can be drained giving the trail as slip resistant as possible, and preventing surface runoff and standing water build up
Our three standard colours are Red, Yellow and Silver, however special colours for your playground needs can be ordered subject to lead times and minimum order quantities.
SmartPave is a top of the range resin bound gravel. We use the highest quality aggregates and specially formulated resin binder, creating an even surface that looks very appealing and is an excellent alternative to traditional paving methods. The high-tech resin we use is environmentally friendly and forms a firm, attractive surface. We have 20 colours available for our resin bound gravel, meaning you’ll have lots of choice when it comes to updating your driveway or slip-resistant path!
PlaySmart’s Mission
We strive to continue to innovate and promote only the best products to ensure quality and safety is met.
Learn more about our products or check out our FAQs for any burning questions on maintenance, price point or safety and accessibility.
Or you can also get in touch today with our handy contact form or by calling our friendly team of advisors on 01564 721811, we’ll be happy to help and guide you in your next playground project.
Best wishes, the PlaySmart team!