So what do you *really* have under/around your swing set?

[Karenn]

So I've looked at a lot of swing sets on line and IRL in the last few months, and almost none of the sets that I've seen actually meet the safey standards recommended by cpsc. I was just sort of curious what people here were really doing.

Here's a link to info from CPSC. I believe they recommend 9 inches of mulch/padding and a six food perimeter around the set, perhaps more around the swings. [http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/playground.pdf]

We fit in the nothing yet category. We have the six foot perimeter and are planning on putting in pea gravel. Honestly though, 9 inches of pea gravel seems like an awful lot, so it may not be quite so deep.

[Karenn]

OK. Looking at the votes so far, I feel better already. :)

[amp]

Me too. We don't have one yet, but are looking and I know that DH has no intention of putting in 9" of anything! We may do something or nothing, but I had no idea that was kind of the norm. That makes me feel a bit better.

[dr mom]

Mulch under the set, probably 6-7" deep. And due to an unfortunate miscalculation during site preparation, our enclosure is 6' from the set on two sides, but only about 2-3' from the end of the slide and the ramp. I console myself by reasoning that if DS falls off the end of the slide, he's only about 12" from the ground and not as likely to get hurt.

[deannanb]

Our backyard is basically dirt (for now) - soon to be grass.

We thought about putting the tiny rocks around it - but decided it would make our yard too small. --- so we are leaving it - soon to be grass.

DS is 18 months and has had no major problems so far.... nothing that the washing machine can't clean!

[VenusElon]

White sand from the local gravel yard. It was $50 and I'm not sure how much-I know we made two trips in the pickup. It was between 1-2 tons I think. It's about 3 feet around the perimeter and maybe 6" deep surronded by four wood planks from Lowe's. Works great for us.

Venus

[smilequeen]

We are planning to do the 9 inches of padding, but I'm not sure we'll get a full 6 feet all around. We are having our backyard relandscaped before we buy though, so it makes it a little easier, if not I'm not sure what we'd do. I'm more paranoid about the padding I think.