How to Build a Playground on a Dirt Surface

It’s every child’s dream to have their very own theme park just steps away from their room in their backyard. Help make your family’s dreams come true! Building playgrounds is not as complicated as it may appear. While playsets may look complicated and cumbersome, many are actually prefabricated, painted, and ready for use after you screw in a few bolts here and there. They are far easier to assemble than the furniture purchased at Ikea! It is actually choosing the vast playground surface ideas and options that baffle most homeowners. With children jumping off swing sets, racing down slides, and running all over the place, it is important to install safety play surfaces underneath all play structures in accordance to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s standards. When sifting through playground surface ideas, rubber play-area tiles are quickly becoming the top recommended product due to its ease of installation, durability, and effective safety protection. Rubber mats for playgrounds are interlocking and easy to assemble. There are several steps, however, to install rubber play-area tiles successfully on dirt floors outlined below:

Materials

• Rubber Mats for Playgrounds

• Connector Pins (Interlocking Mechanism)

• Ramps (Recommended)

• Gloves

• String

• Geotextile Surfacing

• Tramping Machine (Optional)

• Rubber Mallet (Optional)

• Utility Knife and Straightedge

• Measuring Tape

1. Pick the Spot: Decide what area is allocated for your playground. From here determine how many rubber tiles you will need for this space. Most rubber tiles are 20-inches by 20-inches. Due to their thickness, many tiles also have ramps that connect to the outer edges. These are highly recommended to avoid children from tripping when they run onto the rubber play area.

2. Safety: Remember to stay safe and pull on your gloves before using knives. Go slow and install products as the guidelines suggest.

3. Prepare the Area: Before any tiles are laid down, remove a layer of dirt from the surface area of the playground. This layer should be the depth of the rubber mats’ thickness with an added minimum of 4 inches. When excavating this area, set it aside as it will be placed back into the area.

4. Compact the Dirt: It is vital to compact the dirt in the area so that the tiles sit upon a firm and stable subsurface. To do this, remove any large areas of debris or mounds. Dampen the surface of the dirt that you want to compact. Be careful not to oversaturate this area with water or it will become muddy. Try to maintain a uniform dark color across the entire area so that wind cannot raise any dust or debris from it. Set up a string line eight inches above the height you would like your dirt to be and place one every eight feet. This is to see how level the surface of your area is so that you can fill any obvious low points with extra dirt. After this, you can remove the line. Pack the earth down working back and forth in a grid like pattern. Do this for at least 20 minutes and then re-string the area in the same way as before to see how level the area is. Continue this until satisfactory. For professional grade leveling, consider renting a tamping machine and consulting an expert.

5. Use a Weed Barrier: Unroll your GeoTextile surface onto the area leveled out. This will prevent any weeds or growths to shoot up through your tiles. If one roll of GeoTextile is not enough, ensure that there is sufficient overlap between widths. You want to do this right the first time, so be patient!

6. Re-Compact the Dirt: Once you have laid down your GeoTextile surface, refill the excavated area with the dirt that was taken out earlier. Compact this dirt in the same way as step 4.

7. Install Rubber Mats for Playgrounds: It’s now time to lay your tiles! Start at the corner of the area to ensure that you have the correct amount of tiles in each line.

8. Insert Connecter Pins: After laying your first tile down, insert connecter pins into the holes on the side of the tile. This is why building playgrounds with rubber play area mats is so simple. If you have a concrete or blacktop surfacing great. If not, dirt surfaces also accommodate the product. Slide the connecting tile into these pins using the holes on the new tile. It is optional to use a rubber mallet to firmly secure the tiles to one another. Continue this until the area is filled with the tiles.

9. Cutting the Rubber Tiles: For any tiles that you would like to custom cut to fit the area, place your straightedge across the entire tile on the line that you would like to cut the tile with. Use a standard utility knife and slice along the straightedge, taking care to go across the entire tile in one cut. Due to the thickness of the rubber, you will not cut through to the bottom on the first try. Score the rubber and continue trimming in one motion until you cut through the tile. Do not try and carve the product. A superior quality utility knife with a new blade is all that is needed (Be careful it sharp!) While rubber naturally possesses a high coefficient of friction, it can be helpful to dip your knife in a cup of soapy water to help it glide through the rubber. Soap is a lubricant that can cause the knife to become slippery. Use gloves and be careful!

10. Attach ramps to the perimeters of the rubber play area if needed!

Safety play surfaces are essential for any backyard play area. Rubber mats for playgrounds are the easiest and most effective way to ensure that your children are best prevented from head and playground equipment injuries. To sift through multitudes of playground surface ideas, choose a product that is highly recommended and innovative — such as rubber tiles. Building playgrounds may sound like a task for installation experts, but with this guide you will have no trouble installing your own backyard adventure park like a professional!