Blue Rubber Mulch

Description

Blue rubber mulch

Blue is the one children notice. Put it down in a play area and the ground stops being background — it becomes part of what they are playing on, which is a large part of why schools and daycares ask for it.

It also does something no natural material can. Around a pool surround, along a dry creek bed, under a climbing frame built to look like a boat, blue reads as water. People build whole ideas around that, and it is the only color on this list that lets them.

How it is packed

A pallet is 75 cubic feet whichever way you take it. Fifty bags of one and a half cubic feet, or one super sack holding the pallet in a single lift. Both cost the same, so the choice is purely about how you plan to move it.

If the job is you, a wheelbarrow and a Saturday, take bags. Where a loading dock, or a forklift and a pallet jack is on site, the super sack saves you fifty separate lifts.

Freight

Already counted. The delivered price on this page includes the truck, and nothing further is added at the checkout.

Seven pallets is the most a single online order carries. Past that the freight stops being standard and we price it by hand, so send the quantity and the delivery ZIP and we will come back with a figure.

Depth under play equipment

What protects a child is not the material on its own, it is how deep that material goes. A deeper layer absorbs a longer fall. That single relationship governs every playground specification there is.

The fall height rating and its matching depth travel with the order when a site needs them. That is the paperwork a school board, an insurer or a licensing inspector will want, and it goes out without being chased.

Outside the playground

Blue does not behave like a landscape color and is not really trying to. Used as a border, a path, or the water in a dry creek bed, it is a design decision rather than a background.

Where it does behave exactly like the rest is in weather. It does not float away in a downpour the way bark does, and it stays on a slope instead of collecting at the bottom of one.

Getting the quantity right

Square footage multiplied by depth in feet gives you cubic feet. Three inches is a quarter of a foot, so 300 square feet at three inches comes to 75 cubic feet — one pallet exactly.

Play areas run deeper than beds, so the same footprint will want more. The calculator on this site handles it, and if you would rather not do the arithmetic, send the measurements and we will.

Over the years

It does not rot, so it does not disappear into the soil and need replacing each spring. What goes down stays down.

It does not crush flat underfoot either. Wood chips break up and compact; this gives and comes back.

It does travel, though. Swings, slide exits and the corner everyone cuts will all go thin in time. The fix is a rake and a little topping up, and that is the whole job.

Where it comes from

Recycled tires, cleaned and shredded, with magnets pulling the steel belting out and air classification lifting the fabric away.

Placing the order

Choose the state, the packaging and the number of pallets, and the delivered price assembles itself as you go.

It arrives curbside anywhere in the lower 48. The driver sets the pallet down at the end of the driveway, and the distance from there to the play area is the part you plan for.