Recycled rubber crumb surfacing offers both safety and long-lasting playground equipment flooring. Made up of durable post-consumer vehicle tires, recycled playground rubber is highly durable and will not be negatively affected by harsh environmental factors, allowing for indoor/outdoor versatility. Rubber crumb surfacing will also offer safer playground equipment flooring as it is softer and can offer better traction. It is important to ensure safe playground surfaces to reduce chances of serious life-threatening injuries. Additionally, rubber’s naturally grippy surface along with its textured surface will help prevent dangerous slip and fall accidents. Furthermore, a soft play surface can significantly reduce chances of injuries when compared to a fall onto a hard playground surface.

What is the Best Surface for a Playground?

Recycled rubber crumb the best surface for a playground due to its superior safety properties, including shock absorption and anti-slip traction. Recycled rubber crumb surfacing comes in the form of interlocking tiles and is made up of repurposed vehicle tires, making it an extremely durable and weatherproof surfacing option that can be used both indoors and outdoors. Rubber crumb surfacing retains a low compression set, allowing it to provide sufficient padding between an impact and the hard ground below the rubber surface. This is an important property to have in playground equipment flooring as most playground related injuries are the result of falls off playground equipment and onto a hard surface. Case in point, “Falls are the most common mode of playground injury accounting for approximately 80 percent of all playground-related injuries… Head injuries are involved in 75 percent of all fall-related deaths associated with playground equipment” (methodisthealth.org). A soft play surface made of recycled playground rubber can help reduce chances of serious injuries, especially severe head injuries. Recycled rubber crumb surfacing also offers excellent non-slip properties that are not affected by moisture. Rubber naturally retains a grippy surface; however, rubber crumb surfacing produces a textured surface that helps footwear grab onto the surface for enhanced traction.

In addition, recycled rubber crumb surfacing tiles are also highly weather resistant and physically strong, allowing them to remain durable and reliable protective playground equipment flooring options compared to other playground surfacing products. Rubber crumb surfacing tiles derive from post-consumer vehicle tires that have been ground up into a fine crumble and adhered back together to form a solid product. Vehicle tires experience heavy wear and tear daily without suffering damage. This same durability can be seen in recycled playground rubber. Vehicle tires are made with durable natural and synthetic rubber which gives it excellent environmental resistance properties as well as physical strength and abrasion resistance. Case in point, natural rubber offers good tear and fatigue crack resistance whereas the two main synthetic rubber polymers, butadiene rubber and styrene butadiene rubber, offers excellent “rolling resistance, wear and traction” (ustires.org). It is important to have durable playground flooring as damaged surfaces can create dangerous hazards. Rubber crumb surfacing tiles are also resistant to the damaging effects of harsh environmental factors, such as UV rays, ozone, oxygen, and moisture. Not only does this cut costs of frequent and costly repairs and replacements, but it also maintains a uniform shock absorbent surface to ensure safe playground surfaces.

What Do You Put at the Bottom of a Playground?

You should put shock absorbent recycled rubber crumb surfacing at the bottom of the playground to reduce chances of serious injuries and promote safe playground surfaces. Shock absorption is a necessity for playground surfacing as many life-threatening injuries are the result of falls onto a hard playground surface. For instance, “A fall onto a shock absorbing surface is less likely to cause a serious injury that a fall onto a hard surface…the more shock absorbing a surface can be made, the greater is the likelihood of reducing severe injuries” (cpsc.org). A fall onto a soft play surface will less likely result in a serious injury than a fall onto a hard play surface. Additionally, it is important to install sufficient padding around the playground equipment as children can be unpredictable in where they land when exiting or coming off a piece of equipment. Due to the unpredictability, a shock absorbent playground surface should extend at least 6 feet in all directions from the playground equipment (cpsc.org). This it to ensure the children’s safety no matter where they may land when exiting or jumping from playground equipment. It is a very important protocol to follow as “falling from equipment was the most common cause of injury [in the United States] and accounted for three quarters of all injuries” (cpha.ca). Considering these statistics, it is in the best interest of safety to install shock absorbent recycled rubber crumb surfacing at the bottom of a playground.

Rubber crumb surfacing tiles are the ideal playground equipment flooring option for creating a safe and soft play surface for children to play on without worry of serious injuries. The textured surface that is produced when creating recycled playground rubber tiles enhances rubber’s natural grippy surface, allowing for better non-slip traction. Due to its vehicle tire composition, crumb rubber playground equipment flooring is highly durable and will not be damaged by environmental factors, such as UV rays, ozone, oxygen, and moisture, allowing it to provide safe playground surfaces both indoors and outdoors. It also retains a low compression set which allows rubber crumb surfacing to offer superior shock absorption properties compared to other playground surfacing options. Therefore, rubber crumb surfacing tiles are the best playground surface option as it will create a soft play surface and help ensure safety.

“Eco-Safety 3-inch” Rubber Playground Tiles

• Also good for patio and gym flooring
• Can be cleaned with a broom or wet mop
• Ideal as temporary flooring, can be moved from one place to another
• Contains EPDM rubber in order to function in harsh environmental situations

Soft Surfaces for Playgrounds: With a gauge of 3-inches each, these outdoor rubber mats are the thickest playground surfacing products currently available. Given the fact that kids play rough and often fall, parents can rest easy knowing that 3 full inches of rubber are there to cushion their children’s many trips and tumbles. Each of these 3-inch tiles have been tested and approved for 7 foot fall heights, making them among the safest rubber matting options currently available on the market. It is because of rubber’s elasticity that playground rubber matting has become popular across the country.

Unique Speckled Colors: These recycled rubber tiles stand out from the competition not only because of their 3-inch thickness, but also due to their color speckled appearance. Consumers have the options of getting their rubber surfaces for playgrounds in two forms: blue and white or yellow, red, and white speckles. This allows a playground flooring to have visual appeal matching the playground equipment.

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