Rubber matting is one of the better home playground surfaces for many reasons. Safety, being the utmost priority, offered from rubber floor tiles is unmatched by loose-fill playground materials like mulch, sand, or woodchips. Its flat surface not only eliminates the possibility of slipping but also makes it easy to spot and remove potentially harmful foreign objects. The spongy surface is pleasant to walk, run, and tumble on and offers a rated fall height of up to six feet!
Alongside such safety measures, residential rubber flooring is an especially convenient playground surfacing option for homeowners. Here are three features of rubber matting that make it user-friendly for homeowners:
Easy to install: Installation for loose-fill playground materials, like rubber mulch or woodchips, can be a pain. There are prerequisite conditions to fulfill (like a retaining curb and a non-concrete subfloor) before installation can even begin. When the time comes to install there are still plenty of steps to finish the job including laying filter fabric and compacting the subsurface.
Opting for residential rubber flooring skips the headache of a tedious installation. Rubber tiles are simple and easy to install due to the interlocking mechanism that connects the tiles together. Pins are placed into slots on the side of the tile and then slid and connected to the adjacent tile; this process is repeated for the entirety of the area. The tiles do not need a special surface or curb; they can be installed on any flat ground.
Easy to maintain: Cleaning loose-fill materials are another unnecessarily tiresome process. The materials must be raked, freed of foreign matter, and then refilled with material in exposed areas.
Compared to other home playground surfaces, rubber flooring is a cinch to clean. Since the surface is flat the matting can be swept with a broom to remove dirt, dust, and debris easily. For dirtier situations, a damp mop can be used to wipe the surface, or a hose can be used to spray down the tiles. The spongy rubber is designed to drain moisture below the surface to dry away from feet.
Durable: Rubber is a very resilient material as evidenced by its wide use on the soles of shoes and the tires on cars and trucks. It can take the abuse of the elements including rain, ozone gases, and UV rays. The springy, shock-absorbent composition of the tiles shrugs off physical impacts and maintains its structural integrity even over time.
Tiles, because of their durability, can also be easily disassembled and transported or relocated as a homeowner sees fit.
Considering its unmatched safety and stress-free convenience, rubber matting is the smartest choice for homeowners especially when compared to other home playground surfaces. Its ease of installation and maintenance saves parents time and energy that should be spent running around with their children!