Dingdongler

I've recently built an outdoor play centre thing (climbing frame, swing, tower) etc for the kids. Though it's on grass the soil can get quite hard and the highest point is about 8ft and my kids are small and always playing silly buggers.

Now you might think I'm making a fuss over nothing but I'm a little worried about one of them smacking their heads on hard ground. There is also the prospect of potential litigation if one of their little friends does the same and I have not taken adequate precautions.

Anyway there are a number of different options and none of them are cheap and I'm trying to find the most cost effective and easy to install/maintain solution.

I have found these rubber grass mats. They are tested to some BS standard and meant to limit the chance of significant head injury. So my question is this, if you were to stack one mat on top of the other would this increase the effectiveness of the mat and by what factor?

http://www.grass-reinforcement.com/i...rubber-matting


Thanks

zip106

Couldn't it be that the more mats the firmer the overall surface becomes, i.e less 'give'?

I always think the best stuff for these situations is actually play bark.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Stacking them should roughly double their effectiveness for two, triple for three.

I think the relevant theory is F=kx where k is the "spring constant" and x is the distance compressed.

As for testing in practice...jump up and down on some stacked and see

Dingdongler

Zip, Luminous thanks. I'll await some further comments.

Dave I take your point however my line of work means that I see the one kid out of a hundred that doesn't 'bounce'. It stays with you, believe me. I intend to encourage my kids to play all contact sports and breaking the odd bone here or there is no big deal, however a traumatic head injury is something one should take active steps to try and prevent

what would scooby do

stack them to the highest point of the building/play apparatus - job done.

The more sensible option would be a reverse gravity well generator from the Vindyne corporation, kids fall, kids suspended in mid air

PaulC72

just build a small fence round the play area so they cannot escape once in.

zip106

Bit of razor wire on top for good measure?

scoobyvirgin

Be a skip rat and grab a few abandoned mattresses!

mart360

Sorry, you should rip the thing out, consign the kids to the sofa feed them chips and do sod all...

Its your own house, and your play thingy, if other kids choose to use it, its at there own risk, not yours...

stop worrying about being sued .....


if they dont like it, then tey wont go on it


Mart

speedking

Helmets?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Bouncy surfaces increase the risk of brain damage......have a google on contra coup brain injury (It's late and I think that's how it is spelt).

Plain grass / dirt is one of the best surfaces to land on

Shaun

spufus

iTrader: (2)

Buy a petrol shredder. A good one - not an eBay special.
Put everything you cut down from your hedges through it. The mulch it spits out is fantastic.
Soft to land on & feeds the ground too.
No BS00001 unfortunately, but will help the kid bounce.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

What about some kind of bubble wrap jump suit and a marshmallow helmet for every child theat enters the playzone ?

Dingdongler

It's amazing isn't it? Ask a question on here these days and 80% of answers will consist of people trying to be funny, people accusing you of being a bad parent and others just giving completely factually incorrect replies.

People telling me that kids all 'bounce', to sod the safety of other people's children and that a soft surface causes worse head injury than a harder one ffs! No it doesn't btw.
and I'm very well aware of what a contra coup injury is.

Thanks to those who have made useful suggestions.

I really don't need parenting or life skill lessons from anybody on here. They are my children, it's my garden and it's my money and I'll do as I please. If I wanted advice on how to manage any of these I would ask.

When a question is asked on nsr I only respond if I know the answer and can actually be helpful if not I move along. I really wish people here would extend me the same courtesy, it's very rude imho to clog up my thread with useless comments. Especially ones where people really think they are in a position to tell me how I should bring up my children. You do what you think is right with your children and I will do the same.

Thanks

Ant

Do you read your children books out loud too? That's frowned upon by some nsr members too

But answer to your original question it would be more effective if there was a little gap between the two.

DARB

One of the pitfalls of posting on a public forum, people have their opinions and will voice them whether you like it or not

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

How old are you Dingdongler? If you are over 30 then just think back to what was under the climbing frame and 30ft slide in the local council owned park when you were a kid, or what was underneath the conker tree you used to climb as an 8 yr old in the same council run park and use the same for your climbing frame. Just out of curiosity did you survive going to the council owned park as a kid or did you suffer horrific life threatening injuries from playing in said park?

Chip

Councils around here use bark or wood chips. Easy to do, cheap and seems very effective.

Chip

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

We used to have lovely soft concrete to land on when I was younger, it was only when they swapped to those rubber mats that I fell of the swing and broke my arm trying tom impress some girls.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

I can understand your concern, friends of mine lost there daughter when she fell out a bouncy castle in another friends garden ......

speedking

Sorry.

1. Why would anyone sell a mat that was only half as effective as it should be?

2. The problem with mats is that they move around, you then have gaps between the safe bits. Or you fix them down, but that creates hard spots. So you need a border completely filled with mats to prevent them moving.

3. Bark also gets shifted around. A large amount will end up in your house. Normally you see that under swings there is very little cover as it gets scraped away by swinging feet. You need to be an enthusiastic raker to ensure its effectiveness.

HTH.

Leslie

I would have thought that putting double mats down would increase the resistance to injury. All you can do really is to try it yourself by falling sideways onto the mats singly and then double to test the response.

Les

Dingdongler

Thanks to those that have given useful advice. I'll go for one thickness of the mats as that should provide some protection and require the least maintenance.

Dingdongler

I know exactly what you are saying Wurzel and remember those times well. At that time we never wore seat belts, there were no such things as child car seats and I remember my dad regularly driving when a bit sozzled. All these things were normal then and yes I survived all of them without horrific injury.

Yet if I told you that I behave like that now what would you think?

There is a balance somewhere isn't there? So that kids can be free to learn their limitations and discover their environment but not expose them to unnecessary risk, I'm very comfortable with the balance I have found. I find the idea of a three old falling a total height of close to 10ft onto his head onto very hard dry soil an unnecessary risk.

Dingdongler

Thanks SK. I thought the same, if stacking two together significantly improved the performance why don't they just offer an option that is twice the thickness??

The mats do weigh 19kgs, will these really move around given their weight? I could fix them to each other with ties, this should surely prevent any movement?

Thanks

Littleted

how about Bark, its cheap and good as Rubber but soaks the damage up

mamoon2

Shredded tyres like they used at stables. I've seen my cousin fall off a horse without a problem on this stuff and she's only 11.

Also a CCTV camera if your worried about being sued.

Personally i'd not do anything.

jonc

No amount of rubber mats is going to help a 3 year old kid from a 10ft fall on to his head! If you're that worried why did you build/get one so high in the first place?

Also if you're worried about litigation from other kids parents, don't let them play on it or have the parent sign a disclaimer!