What is the Best Ground Cover for a Playground?
Whatever surfacing your playground needs, PlaySmart has the solution for you. Our expert installers have over 20 years of installation experience and can help guide you and assist you on your journey to the perfect playground flooring solution!
The Best Surface for Children’s Play Areas
In school playgrounds or public children’s outdoor play areas, safety is the core element that we recommend your surface option should provide for. Falls are common on any playground as kids run around, climb, and have fun. So keeping them protected and reducing risks of injury is vital for any children’s play area
Playground installation companies take a survey of the ground quality and the critical fall height of any playground equipment. This informs the process of selecting the appropriate safety flooring. On different qualities and types of ground cover, your surfacing options may need adjustment to meet sufficient playground safety standards.
We recommend a combination of our SmartPlay system of playground rubber grass mat surface options for ground cover underneath play equipment with a critical fall height above 2m or with poor ground conditions. EcoSmart heavy, durable grass mats provide critical fall height protection of up to 2.25m. However, in areas with poor ground conditions, we recommend SmartPlay shock pad underlay installation to provide the required extra layer of protection to ensure a safe space to play for all!
For general safety concerns with a special playground design vibrancy over larger playground areas, wet pour rubber surfacing like RubbaSmart is our recommended playground surface option. Larger playground projects benefit in many ways from the child-safe guarantees of our surface options! This surface provides unbeaten UV, ozone, and weathering resistance without the worry of toxic materials or residue.
Durability in Heavy footfall
Play surfacing should offer a long-term return on investment as a durable surface with minimal maintenance requirements. JungleMulch Rubber mulch maintenance is very low compared to loose fill surfaces often used to save money on installation.
The durability of JungleMulch means that we have seen a lot of popularity in uses on pathways, embankments, and erosion-control-areas. The unique organic colouring process of the rubber playground surface means that your play area or pathway remains consistently vibrant. It also reduces the risks of harmful colourants leaching into the ecosystem over time.
Meeting Accessibility Requirements
Public spaces should be fully wheelchair and buggy accessible so everyone can enjoy the outdoors equally. Providing smooth, flat, slip-resistant surfaces across our product lines, PlaySmart is the go-to for your accessible spaces that will last and remain safe and stable over time, with fewer risks of cracking or sinking than other options due to our high-quality aggregates and installation.
For some accessibility requirements, additions can be made to your playground design to cater for full inclusivity. For the visually impaired, bright colours or raised, textured bumps can be installed along paths, and for those with reduced mobility, ramped edges provide access to raised areas of your play surfacing.
Flooding risks
In low-lying areas or sites expecting heavy rainfall, typical play surfacing may not provide sufficient drainage for your playground. Porous design is important to reduce puddling and subsidence of your outdoor flooring, the unique design of our range of products.
From the grids of our rubber grass mats, to the internal microstructure of Corkeen, JungleMulch, and in particular, the Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) compliant SmartPave, water permeability is one of the reasons many of our clients value our services.
Sustainable Flooring
Many existing and new build play areas are looking for ideas and innovative designs to help their local area go green! We use shredded recycled tyres in our Jungle Mulch mulch and rubber chippings for play areas, but our major Sustainable Flooring Option is Corkeen. You can find out more about this amazing, eco-friendly play surface option in PlaySmart’s Guide to Corkeen Play Surfacing.
Incorporating Nature
In playground design, the presence of nature in the outside world should be included in many different ways. PlaySmart’s products put an emphasis on working with nature and not restricting grass growth or damaging surrounding plant life.
Rubber grass mats allow grass to grow naturally through the grid structure so your playground maintains its natural look. To emphasise this natural look even further, hybrid grass in the UK is a very popular playground surface option. Natural grass is free to grow alongside artificial fibres to provide a year-round fully green appearance of a grass lawn.
Around vegetation and trees, rubber mulch is a great solution. The rubber play bark allows water through to provide groundwater for roots, while also protecting surface root growth from wear-and-tear.
Discover the Best Ground Cover for Your Playground with PlaySmart’s Experts
Do you think that our play surface options may address problems you find on your site? Don’t hesitate to request a call back or quote with our handy contact form.
