Synthetic turf playgrounds seem to have become popular overnight! If you’re wondering how this happened, you’re in luck. Here are 5 of the top reasons to choose Synthetic Turf over the alternatives:
1. Curb Appeal
Let’s be honest, seeing green grass on a playground will always look more presentable than mulch. It looks safer, more appealing, and those parks typically have more traffic than playgrounds with mulch or rubber material. Customers seem to agree too, as Synthetic turf as been taking the playground surfacing market by storm!
2. Safety
There has been multiple reports and even controversies revolving around the safety of artificial turf for kids in playgrounds and athletic fields. Those reports revolve around the crumb rubber infill, or use of recycled tire in the making of infill for turf. Here at Perfect Turf, we take the safety of your kids seriously. Thanks to our PerfectPlay® playground system, we use padding made from recycled materials in athletic shoes and silica sand infill to provide your kids with a green and safe playground solution.
Also when the temperature gets cold turf shines as the safest surfacing. Almost every surface constricts and loses most of it’s fall height attenuation at low temperatures, but PerfectPlay® doesn’t!
3. No Mess
Wood chips and Germs and Mud, oh my! Something parents and teachers alike dread about kids having fun at the playground is the mess. Loose materials are the worst. Everyone has seen (and probably helped cause) messy floors littered with wood chips. They cling to cloths and kids will even carry them in with them to hide in their desks or throw at classmates. While poured in place rubber doesn’t have that issue, all of these materials are porous and can become very filthy by absorbing spit, vomit and animal feces. Even worse, many animals will go out of their way to defecate in wood chips, and some even bury in them.
Our Playground Turf has antimicrobial agents built into the yarn to assist in keeping it sanitary, and doesn’t have problems with bugs or animals burrowing in it. Animal feces are unlikely, and not the sort of thing that can go unseen within mulch or sand.
4. Low Maintenance
Maintenance on playgrounds can be expensive. Loose materials constantly need to be replaced and poured in place rubber cracks during the winter if outside. Turf is the most durable surface, and when combined with the lack of raking and topping up that is needed for loose materials save a lot of money over time. Turf costs similar amounts to poured in place rubber, but tends to last longer, especially if outside in areas that snow in the winter.
You obviously need to clean up trash off the turf, and when children make a mess on it you’ll need to wash it off with a hose like anything else. That said there’s no needed maintenance specific to turf.
5. Price
If we had unlimited money you could surface your playground in memory foam mattresses and I would be sipping margaritas on the beach instead of writing this article. Sadly money matters, so I’ll finish this article up and tell you what makes sense economically.
The lowest upfront cost is wood chips, followed up other loose materials. Turf and poured in place rubber can’t compete on upfront cost.
However when you factor in maintenance and lifespan, turf outperforms every other material at various rates. That’s not even factoring in the superior quality of the product itself.
Conclusion
Is it really a surprise that turf is taking over the market when it comes to playground surfacing? Synthetic turf playgrounds have grown from practically no market share 10 years ago to one of the fastest growing choices for playground surfaces today!
Check out PerfectPlay vs The World for a more in depth comparison to the other material choices if you’re up for more reading. Otherwise contact us for more information about our PerfectPlay® Playground System and get a free quote today!