What is the Best Playground Flooring?
Safety should always be your top priority when it comes to designing and setting up a playground. The structures and sets shouldn’t just be fun to play with. They should be visually appealing and match well with the rest of the decor. They should also be made out of durable but child-friendly materials. However, the sets themselves are just part of the equation.
In addition to the playsets, choosing proper playground flooring is just as important if not even more so.
Proper playground flooring can make a huge difference between a hard fall resulting in a trip to the emergency room and a scary slip that a child can simply shrug off after taking a breather for a few seconds.
Does Injury-Proof Playground Flooring Exist?
First things first, there’s no such thing as injury-proof playground flooring. All playground flooring materials carry a certain risk of injury. However, the right material, paired with a properly designed playground and adult supervision, can all combine to help make playgrounds safer for children to play in.
How to Make Playgrounds Safer
One way to minimize accidents in playgrounds is to make sure that the entire area is on a flat and level surface. It is also important to remove any potential hazard. This includes everything from low-hanging utility lines to branches. There also be enough shade to help protect the equipment from getting too hot or getting slippery.
When designing playgrounds, it’s also important to make sure that the play area surface is larger than the play structures placed. You’ll want children to land safely on their feet on your playground flooring of choice after jumping off of the swing or going down the slide.
Speaking of landing safely, playsets should be placed inside the border of the playground, and you should use a border to help separate the children’s play area from the rest of the landscape. You can use slip-resistant and skid-resistant pavers for the border area, all the while making it safer for kids to run on regardless of the weather condition.
Lastly, don’t forget about adding seating structures for adults to use so they can supervise children while playing.
For backyard playgrounds, make sure that you place them inside fenced areas that are visible from inside the house. Children tend to get distracted easily. Using fences can help deter them from going out and other people from going inside. Meanwhile, since you can see your child even from inside your home, you can intervene if necessary.
The Different Types of Playground Flooring
Perhaps the most common playground flooring material used is filling up the play area with several inches of pea gravel or play sand. Both are relatively inexpensive and low-maintenance options.
Wood chips and mulch are another popular cost-effective alternative but are riskier since they are a potential choking hazard. Also, children can get splinters from the wood chips and they’ll need to be refreshed eventually to maintain its appeal. If you prefer a similar look but want it safer, engineered wood fiber mulch is a more attractive and slip-resistant option.
A softer and more slip-resistant alternative to wood chips and mulch, as well as engineered wood fiber, is shredded rubber mulch. They’re low-maintenance and softer than other playground flooring materials on our list. However, many raise concerns about the potential health hazards posed to kids from the constant exposure to the small bits of rubber.
Natural grass is also still used in some playgrounds. But, more and more are moving away from it because of its potential hazards. In particular, how slippery they can get and how long it takes for them to dry.
Those who prefer a grass-like look are starting to turn towards using artificial grass. The only issue with this is the upfront costs of laying down artificial grass.
Ultimately, the ideal material for playground flooring remains solid rubber.
Solid rubber can either come in the form of rubber tiles or poured rubber. Regardless, both possess the correct combination of characteristics for use in playgrounds. They’re resistant to slips, easy to maintain, affordable, and can be made as thin or as thick depending on what the play area needs.
What Makes Solid Rubber Flooring the Best?
There’s a laundry list of reasons that make rubber the best materials for playground flooring.
In addition to the reasons we’ve already stated above, what makes rubber such a good material is that the material does not degrade as fast or as much. They’re also available in a wide variety of bright colors. This makes them more attractive in the eyes of kids and easy to pair with the rest of the area’s theme.
Rubber tiles and poured rubber are also given excellent fall safety ratings by many safety regulatory bodies.
As a bonus, solid rubber flooring and surfaces are usually even and level by default. This also makes them more accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.
One common issue with using solid rubber for playground flooring is the price.
This kind of playground flooring does not come cheap. This is especially true if you use high-quality rubber. However, the initial upfront costs are offset by the lower upkeep compared to other kinds of playground flooring. Also, since it’s easy to find solid rubber flooring in any color you want, the visual appeal is there.
There also aren’t as many health concerns raised in using solid rubber tiles or poured rubber compared to other kinds of playground flooring.
Conclusion
Of course, the best material to put on your playground still depends on you. However, if it were up to us, we would recommend solid rubber, with rubber playground mulch coming at a close second.
Both materials are capable of absorbing great impacts and are both low-maintenance. They’re also available in several color options and the lifetime cost is comparatively low.
Regardless of your material of choice, we recommend always prioritizing safety. Although we adults would prefer material that looks good and is not cost-prohibitive nor costly to maintain, all these factors should come after safety.
This is why you should take your time looking for the right playground flooring material. This way, your children and other children are as safe as can be on the playground.