I have a few questions regarding yard prep and installing a play set. I'm buying a used play set here in a few days and I need to do some yard work to get it ready. The location I'm thinking of putting the play set in is a low area(~ 500-600 sq ft) that will typically hold water after heavy rains or a few days of rain. I would guess it is maybe 2-3 inches low. See picture.



My questions are. If I want to place the play set here Do I need to build up the area? I'm planning on using landscape timbers to enclose the play area and fill it in with something. If I do that would filling it with whatever I decide cause more issues?

Also, What is a good product to fill that is relatively inexpensive and looks good? I saw on Entergy's website, you can request free wood chips from trees they have cut down, but it would be a mix of random trees. Would that be an issue?

I recently built one and did not properly prepare the ground. Well, I thought I did, but the week after I finished it rained like crazy and washed out area around play set.. Now, it has a bad lean, and I'm going to have to disassemble and re square. I'm putting in the shredded rubber mulch around ours as it has good give for the kids to fall on..

From your pic I would first solve the drainage issue. Perhaps a French drain to draw the water away?

Next I would put in a good base of rock or decomposed granite.. Tamp it down good and level. Once the play set is up, put in anykindnof mulch you want. I avoid sand because cats like to poop in it and treat your child play area as a litter box. Rubber mulch is nice but pricey. Shredded cedar works well too and naturally repels bugs.

Good luck.

I'd agree with the above post on fixing the drainage first, wet soil will cause some long term issues.

I'd avoid sand as well, rubber can get hot. Cedar mulch is good if it's not an allergy issue. If you use wood mulch, make sure to keep ant bait/ poison on it. They'll likely move into the mulch area if not treated, especially if it's a high ground in a wet area.

Bulk pine straw might be a good option under the play set. I'm not certain what else would be a good option. Rock/ pea gravel has it's downfalls as well.

I wouldn't put rubber mulch in unless you have a plan for getting rid of the rubber mulch in a few years when your kids outgrow the playset and you take everything out.

We put rubber mulch in around our son's playset and had a hard time getting rid of it when we sold the playset and converted the yard back to grass. We had to work out a deal with the playset buyer to take some of the mulch and then took a couple of weeks giving it away to anyone that would take it.

When I built mine (from a kit) for my son and future kids, I leveled the kit with 1 sq. ft concrete blocks from big box store (Lowe's, I think). I put 8-9 of them down at key points. My yard was/is mostly level, so I could put down crushed granite and then the block on top.

1) Keeps the wood off the ground. Helps prolong the life of the unit

2) Makes leveling the whole thing easier, as I can put granite under the block

3) Protects the playset from yard work. Weedwacking can destroy the wood; having the blocks keeps things away from the wood and me away with tools.


Another suggestion I would make is to get Spar Urethane and coat everything with 2 really good coats (maybe 3 on the roof parts). Mine is kinda showing through on some parts I didn't do a good job with painting, but the ones I did do 2-3 coats, still look brand new. Adds about 2-4 days of work, but will allow the playset to look really nice for a while.


~egon

1. You need to address the drainage first. No matter what you do there, failure to address the drainage will simply result in a compounded issue that is significantly harder to deal with after your equipment is installed.

2. I'm going to disagree with the posters that don't recommend sand. I say that because at some point, you'll get rid of the playground. A sand base (or sand/clay mix as it were) is something you can leave in place and either allow grass to overtake it or use as a landscaping area. Anything like DG or rock is going to be a lot of problems over the long run, especially with lawnmowers.

My kids' playground is in a lower area of the yard as well, so I put a double high layer of landscape timbers as the border, then put 4" of sand down and did a light compaction. All of this was over a double layer of weed fabric to, at the very least, slow the growth of weeds through the base layer. Then added red shredded mulch on top.

This pic is from right after I finished. I need to go get some more mulch to refresh the top as it sits today, but all in all it's held up well and the last couple of monster weather events didn't have much of an effect on it. Another benefit of the sand is that it drains water so the interior doesn't get too wet for too long.