The fall height protection is different for each situation, playset, ages and number of children, and possibly a number of other variables. You may have just a smaller swingset, or a larger play structure. If you're like a lot of residential playset purchasers these days, you may have picked up one of those larger wooden structures from one of the warehouse stores, that have the upper level about 5-6 foot high, maybe with a hand safety rail and a roof on top. This describes a typical playset with a maximum fall height of about 12 feet, maybe a little higher or lower.

While your younger toddler might not have the ability to yet climb over the safety rail or onto the roof, yet, it's been proven all too often that older kids can (and all too often do) when playing on their own, unsupervised. That's why it's up to parents and adults to provide the safest environments that minimize childhood injuries.

Why is this important? Good question. There's a higher likelihood that a child of a younger age will (and should) have adult supervision at all times, especially during playground activities. At a certain age (and it may be different for every child), children may be now allowed to go out and play on their own. This is the time they learn to explore things on their own, do what they want, maybe try things they might not completely think through all the way. No kid goes out to play thinking, "I'm going to get hurt today while playing." It just happens. Unfortunately, too often. All we can do is provide the best safety, for that moment when it's needed.

All loose-fill surfaces (which offer the safest fall height protection) are affected by "kick-out" effect, or variance during normal play (high and low points), although this is something not too many companies even talk about (although it's very important). These other "one-size-fits-all" products that are not produced cryogenically (like ours) can have "kick out" of up to +/- 4", while our smaller and smoother particulates typically have a "kick out" of +/- 2" (or 4" overall variance).

By choosing SoftStuff from EcoGreen you end up with a more uniform overall surface area, and if you have a younger child, a parent or adult present can simply swipe their foot across a high area to fill in a low area around the play area (especially if a lesser thickness of say, 4", is used initially). However, it's very important to take the relative kick-out effect of each applicable loose-fill fall height safety product into consideration when children play unsupervised. This goes back to how kids never plan to get hurt, and they most certainly won't likely stop to level-out the safety surfacing high and low areas. So by accommodating for kick out, you can increase the relative safety.

Perhaps a more circular or oval area may more easily provide the 6' distance from structures than a rectangle (saving 15%-24%+ in overall area) especially in critical and likely fall areas around play structures. You may even choose to utilize the natural curve to even extend to more than 6 feet in front of a long slide, or around swings, where it might be likely than a child can travel more than 6 feet from the structure.

If you have an existing lawn, try marking out the area you will be placing the play structure, taking a string that's 6' in length to go around the playset perimeter. If you were to look at this from a bird's eye view, you might see the shape more as a rounded-off square or perhaps semi-circular. As mentioned in the previous item, you may want to increase the distance from the play structure in some places, like those critical fall areas and the middle of each side, creating even more of a circular area. The added benefit is no sharp corners or corner brackets to contend with, and possibly even reducing the overall safety area somewhat, while also increasing safety.

A quality synthetic lumber bender-board is the best, longest lasting and cheapest perimeter choice, like this one variety that's available in 20-foot lengths, is 3/4"x 3-1/2" in dimension, with a full radius on the 3/4" edges, with notches in either end for overlapping consecutive lengths. These are usually about $20.00 or so for each 20' length, and a dark redwood color. This material is extremely durable, extra safe, and can be anchored with concrete-form stakes (those flat steel stakes that are 18" to 24" long, with screw holes near the top). Select the best length stake based on your particular soil and situation, then pound these down so the head is below the upper portion of the bender board, and put some wood screws through the holes into the bender board to anchor it.

This is so important to plan for well in advance, because it's not so easy to take everything out and start from scratch again, at some point in the future. Let's say you have one of those playsets with the 12-foot roof, and your child is a toddler right now. Plan for the 6" depth, and maybe just put in 4" depth right now. Then you can add another 2" later on, to bring it up to 6" depth. Let's say you used a 20' bender board, which when turned on it's side provides 3-1/2" in height. If you've got a lawn, you may want to place the bender board so that it goes 3-1/2" above the lawn level. Anchor it into position with the steel stakes and put in the wood screws. Rent yourself a sod cutter. It will save you lots of time and headache, and you can end up with a more uniform depth into the soil. The idea here is to not go down as far as you need to so that you can achieve the overall safety surfacing depth you need. If you ultimately need a 6" application, want an extra inch or two to keep the material within, then you might want to go down 3-1/2" to 4-1/2" into the turf and soil. This would yield an overall depth of 7" to 8" to take the 6" application, with an inch or two more to contain the material during playtime.

If you want to install strictly above ground or on another type of surface, you can easily stack two levels of 3-1/2" bender board to yield a 7" height, brackets may be chosen to hold the two layers together. It would also be a good idea to then staple the geotextile all the way up to the lower portion of the upper bender board, to avoid pressure and spillage between boards.

Loose-fill surfaces can and will push into moist dirt, and basically disappear. So, using some sort of material, or geotextile fabric, is what you want to use on top of the dirt before you lay down the loose-fill surfacing... preferably something with a 20 year, 25 year, or longer warranty. What's recommended most for the best material is a heavy-duty slit-film woven fabric, like Mirafi 500X, which is often carried by contractor & landscape supply yards on 12-1/2' wide rolls, and sold by the foot. Another comparable product, available in 6 foot roll widths is something called SRW SS5, which is available in 100-foot length rolls at around $93 per roll. This usually ends up costing about the same as other material that might not last, and carries a 25-year guarantee. If you use the cheaper materials, like a thinner weed fabric, this doesn't have the dimensional stability and therefore cannot handle the elements and abrasion very well, so they tend to disintegrate within 6 months or so.

If you've chosen to use the 20' synthetic lumber bender board, then you can create the best possible scenario, something like an inverted drum. By using a heavy-duty stapler with rust-resistant staples, you can staple the geotextile fabric to the inside of the bender board. Into this is what you then place the loose-fill surfacing, the weight of which now helps to anchor the perimeter, while making it virtually impossible for any mulch to squeeze out (or anything to get its way in).

This is perhaps the easier part of this whole thing. If installing a 6" thickness, the 50 lb. bags are roughly 6" thick, so all that needs to be done is place the bags next to each other throughout the entire area. Go along and slice open a long edge of each bag, then pick up the opposing corners to empty the bag. If you're blending two colors (which a majority of our customers do), just place the bags in a checkerboard pattern before emptying them. If you want, you can use a stiff landscaping rake upside down, to help distribute and mix the two colors a little, without potentially catching on and tearing the geotextile fabric. After a little playtime, the rest of the mixing is usually accomplished. It's generally recommended as a good idea to simply spray the mulch with some water after installation, letting it dry ovenight before play the next day, just to rinse off any potential paint dust which may have been present from manufacturing, packaging and transit (even though it's completely harmless). Remember that for commercial, public, or any playground where you have a max. fall height of 10 feet or higher, you'll want about 7" thickness when installed, which will result in about 6" in average compacted depth.

That's right, with SoftStuff from EcoGreen, there really isn't any maintenance for many worry-free years of the best fall height protection available anywhere. However, as with any loose-fill surface, there will always be some small rate of attrition, in shoes, pockets, etc. After anywhere from 3-5 years, you may want to add a few more bags of SoftStuff. Not only does this make sure you always have the proper depth installed, it also rejuvenates the overall color with fresh material added on top. With wood chips, not only would you require 9"-12" installation depth to yield less safety, it's also recommended that this be re-applied every 4-6 months to maintain that level of safety. The problems is, most playground locations rarely do this, waiting for it to be almost completely ineffective for fall height protection before they even start to think about doing anything.

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