Wooden Swingsets, landing materials and wasps

We are putting up a wooden swingset / play structure in our yard for
our boys (ages 4-11yo).

I'd be interested in hearing the pros and cons of various materials to
put under the structure (to soften landings in case they fall off).

Also, is there any safe way to discourage wasps from nesting under the
wooden platforms in the structure?

Thanks,
--Robyn
..

In article ,
Robyn Kozierok wrote:

We are putting up a wooden swingset / play structure in our yard for
our boys (ages 4-11yo).

I'd be interested in hearing the pros and cons of various materials to
put under the structure (to soften landings in case they fall off).

Also, is there any safe way to discourage wasps from nesting under the
wooden platforms in the structure?

Thanks,
--Robyn

In our case, we use sand since the yard consists of topsoil over top
of a layer of sand, so there wasn't a lot of work involved in going
this route. We do have to make sure that it is fairly loose to be
softer though. We haven't had anyone fall from a height where there
was any injury that couldn't be fixed with ice and a freezie though so
I don't know if it is the best approach.

Wasps haven't been a problem. I'm not sure if it is because we
periodically restain it, or we are lucky, or we just don't have a lot
of wasps around (although given the state of the school garbage cans
in June, I doubt this). We did however get earwigs last summer.
Giving the kids bottles of water with dish soap to squirt seemed to
fix that problem though.

Carol Hulls

In article ,
Carol Hulls wrote:

In our case, we use sand since the yard consists of topsoil over top
of a layer of sand, so there wasn't a lot of work involved in going
this route. We do have to make sure that it is fairly loose to be
softer though. We haven't had anyone fall from a height where there
was any injury that couldn't be fixed with ice and a freezie though so
I don't know if it is the best approach.

Unless we just leave it as grass, whatever we put down we'll have to
buy and transport. We may be able to get free wood chips, but they
seem undesirable to me in terms of splinter potential, etc. I am
interested in the recycled tire rubber mulches, but I haven't priced
them out yet, and suspect that will be a big downside.

Wasps haven't been a problem. I'm not sure if it is because we
periodically restain it, or we are lucky, or we just don't have a lot
of wasps around (although given the state of the school garbage cans
in June, I doubt this).

They seem to nest in many of the wooden play structures at the schools
around here. They are also nesting all along our roof/attic right now,
but that is soon to change. So, I do think this is a legitimate
concern for us. The exterminator we asked said to basically just
watch for them starting and deal with it as it happens, but I was
hoping someone here might have a more proactive suggestion.

Thanks,
--Robyn
..

On 2005-06-30, Scott wrote:
Robyn Kozierok wrote:
In article ,
Carol Hulls wrote:

In our case, we use sand since the yard consists of topsoil over top
of a layer of sand, so there wasn't a lot of work involved in going
this route. We do have to make sure that it is fairly loose to be
softer though. We haven't had anyone fall from a height where there
was any injury that couldn't be fixed with ice and a freezie though so
I don't know if it is the best approach.


Unless we just leave it as grass, whatever we put down we'll have to
buy and transport. We may be able to get free wood chips, but they
seem undesirable to me in terms of splinter potential, etc. I am
interested in the recycled tire rubber mulches, but I haven't priced
them out yet, and suspect that will be a big downside.

The local park near my house has that rubber mulch,
and I hate hate hate it. DS comes home from playing
at the park and he is absolutely filthy from the
black rubber.

A quick google for
rubber mulch playground
reveals that the stuff costs about $800 (including freight) for a
pallet of 60 20-lb bags: "One pallet (60 x 20lb bags) covers
approximately 300 sq. ft. 3" depth."
(information from http://www.detailedplay.com/AccMulch.htm)

They claim that their product does not rub off on clothes.
Other suppliers of playground mulches make similar claims:
Unlike black tire rubber, the coating process for NuPlay locks in the
rubber. The rubber won't chalk or oxidize because of the UV
protective coating.
[ http://www.rubberificmulch.com/nuplay/nuplay_faq.asp ]
I suspect that you can find cheaper sources of rubber mulch that do
have that problem.

The rubber mulch is safer than sand, since it retains the ability to
absorb shock without having to be rototilled every year. (Sand tends
to pack down and get very hard.) Recommended depth of rubber mulch is
4" for a 6' ladder and 6" for a 12' ladder.

------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.

In article ,
Scott wrote:

The local park near my house has that rubber mulch,
and I hate hate hate it. DS comes home from playing
at the park and he is absolutely filthy from the
black rubber.

Thanks, that is useful feedback!

The ones I was looking at online come in multiple colors, but then
I guess you'd just get dirty in that other color. ;-)

The last time I made this decision we ended up with pea gravel, but
it was quite expensive, and then we moved before we got much experience
with it. I was hoping there might be a better alternative out there
today, but things aren't looking too optimistic.

I think we can get free wood chips, so that might be the best
approach. At least if we hate it, we won't have spent and arm and
a leg getting them.

--Robyn
..

In article ,
Kevin Karplus wrote:

The local park near my house has that rubber mulch,
and I hate hate hate it. DS comes home from playing
at the park and he is absolutely filthy from the
black rubber.

snip

They claim that their product does not rub off on clothes.
Other suppliers of playground mulches make similar claims:
Unlike black tire rubber, the coating process for NuPlay locks in the
rubber. The rubber won't chalk or oxidize because of the UV
protective coating.
[ http://www.rubberificmulch.com/nuplay/nuplay_faq.asp ]
I suspect that you can find cheaper sources of rubber mulch that do
have that problem.

So, of course the question arises as to whether the Scott's playground
has is the stuff that claims not to be messy or not.

The stuff is a substantial investment, so I'd hate to buy it and then find
out I "hate hate hate" it (which I certainly would if it leaves color on
skin and/or clothes). I guess if we decide to go that route, we would
attempt to purchase a small sample first.

One more question for Scott or anyone else who has experience with this:
with the black rubber mulch, does it get unpleasantly hot sitting out in
the sun all day? This seems like one factor to recommend getting a lighter
colored version, but the colored versions are even more expensive.

--Robyn
..

On 2005-07-01, Robyn Kozierok wrote:
In article ,
Robyn Kozierok wrote:

Also, is there any safe way to discourage wasps from nesting under the
wooden platforms in the structure?


Any thoughts on the wasps? This seems to be an issue with other wooden
play structures in the area, which is why I asked. We spoke to an
exterminator who said to just watch for nesting and deal with it if
it occurs, but obviously, I'd rather discourage it if possible, so I
was hoping the folks here might have some creative ideas.

One thought on the wasps (and on splinters). There are new materials
that consist of wood fibers and recycled plastics that do not splinter
and presumably are not attractive to carpenter bees. These might be a
good choice for playground equipment. They are sold primarily for
decks, but I think some of the playground equipment manufacturers use
them (mainly to reduce liability for splinters, I believe).

------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.

Robyn Kozierok wrote:
One more question for Scott or anyone else who has experience with this:
with the black rubber mulch, does it get unpleasantly hot sitting out in
the sun all day? This seems like one factor to recommend getting a lighter
colored version, but the colored versions are even more expensive.

I suspect it would -- at the neighborhood park, the
mulch is pretty well shaded by trees, so it never
gets direct sun in the summer. So I guess I can't
answer your question based on personal experience.


Scott DD 11.993 and DS 9