Posted: 5/20/2014 7:37:40 AM EDT
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All set to put one of these monsters together but wasn't prepared for all the prep work on the ground.
Is it really necessary to dig out a hundred square feet of earth and lay down a foot of mulch? Any first hand experience with theses things? |
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Quoted:
All set to put one of these monsters together but wasn't prepared for all the prep work on the ground. Is it really necessary to dig out a hundred square feet of earth and lay down a foot of mulch? Any first hand experience with theses things? Its a swing set not a city play ground. |
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Just put the swing set in as-is. Kids feet will scrape the grass away under the seings leaving ruts that turn into mud pits when it rains. When the kids outgrow the swing set, fill in the ruts and reseed the lawn.
Make sure you anchor the frame to the ground so big kids don't tip the whole thing over when they go crazy and double up on a swing. |
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Quoted: Its a swing set not a city play ground. Quoted: Quoted: All set to put one of these monsters together but wasn't prepared for all the prep work on the ground. Is it really necessary to dig out a hundred square feet of earth and lay down a foot of mulch? Any first hand experience with theses things? Its a swing set not a city play ground. +1 Grass is plenty soft enough and kids are resilient. |
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Quoted:
If your kid falls out and lands on his upper back/neck area he's going to wish pops had put that soft mulch down. Really, as an ambulance chaser I've seen too many life altering injuries out there to skimp on this. All those whacky "studies" from the late 70s and early 80s that resulted in the playground safety craze of the 90s have been pretty much debunked in their entirety. No matter how much people bubble wrapped playground equipment and the surrounding area, kids continued to get hurt in exactly the same (really low) numbers. |
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Yeah, I'd go with mulch. Our last house had a swingset on a concrete patio. I spent time in the emergency room with a toddler who thought swinging on her stomach was just like flying. Which she did, to a one point landing on her chin. After a couple of car wrecks came in I figured we'd be triaged to midnight. Finally got in touch with her pediatrician who strapped her in a papoose gizmo and tried to suture a bobbing chin while listening to............
LET ME OUT! I WANT TO GO HOME! yeah, mulch might be a good idea. |
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My kids are still using the same swingset my Dad welded out of drill stem pipe 40 years ago that I played on. It's strong enough to pull fence post out of the ground with a hoist.
We had a grass yard and our swingset is on grass. I have serious doubts that even 3 feet of mulch is going to help you very much if you try to jump off that thing at peak apex and land on your head. Or you could just not have a swingset and your kids will climb trees, fences, your house and jump off anyway. |
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Just grass around mine.
However, from just a convenience standpoint, the barrier and mulch idea might be better in a long run. Trimming around each post, the slide, the stairs, the sandbox underneath the club house is a pain. Work now or work later. I wouldn't do it for "safety", though. |