I was reading another woman's question about swing sets and saw lots of responses about using rubber mulch. Where do you buy this? How do you put it in? How far around the set does it need to go? What do you use as a border? Do you hire someone to put it in, or do you have to do it yourself? I'm clueless here! We received a used swing set and climber from a neigbor, and it's currently over grass. I checked with the swing set manufacturer, and they said that's fine. Is it? Thanks for your advice, moms!
Hi D., don't buy the recycled tire mulch. My son's preschool used it and it was a mess! Your entired child will be covered in black soot by the end of playtime.
Hi D.,
I don't know much about the specifics of rubber mulch, but the purpose of putting anything like that down under a swingset is primarily to make a softer cushion for when the kids fall. The other main reason would be for looks and to keep the dirt/mud at bay. The grass will quickly disappear under the swings, especially, and then there will be a mud issue. A lot of people use wood chips for mulch. You want to use something a little larger than your standard garden mulch. You also need it in a pretty thick layer, 3"-6" deep, I think. You can do the mulch yourself, and a simple inexpensive black tube edging is fine to contain it. We got wood chips free from our town. They have a pile and we just loaded up the back of our van (on a tarp). Just a word of caution, if the swingset you received is made of wood, you might think of having it tested for arsenic. For years it was used to treat outdoor decking and swing sets and it is HIGHLY toxic. It is only recently (2004, I think) that they have stopped using it. Hope this helps!
It's fine over the grass...the more complicated thing is then mowing around/under it. My concern with the rubber mulch is it scattering out into the grass and then not disintegrating so becoming messy because it's hard to pick up ALL the little pieces that scatter. We put our swingset where a pool used to be, there were little rocks around the pool that have been a pain to clean up...could see rubber mulch being so as well. Maybe others have thoughts on this if they've had the rubber mulch for a while...seems pretty new though or at least the people I know haven't had it for long. Was wondering if it scattering would be an issue as the kids play. As far as where to buy it and how to put it in...a friend said Cosco is a good place to get it if you have access there, that they sell it in nice big bags there and then you bring it home and spread it like mulch.
I'm not sure if having anything under our swing set would have helped, but about 2 weeks ago our daughter fell off the trapeze bar/rings and broke her arm. We just had it over grass. Needless to say, my husband felt very guilty for not mulching sooner, and just finished the work himself a couple days ago. We looked into rubber, but it was just way too expensive. We did the regular brown mulch, and dug out the ground a few inches, then deeper under the swings, bars, anywhere kids could fall from. It is way softer than just grass. Not trying to scare you..who knows if she just landed the wrong way and it would have broken anyway...But it does look alot nicer and like I said, alot softer.
