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  1. #1
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    Default Pea Gravel users, how much did it cost???

    After doing a lot of research, I am editing my op in hopes that what I've learned can help someone else.

    When pricing your playground equipment don't forget to factor in site prep if you plan to do any. It can easily double your costs.

    The playset we are buying is 12'x21'. the RECOMMENDED play area to mulch etc. (including the 6' on all sides) would be 24'x33'. I am compromising at 22'x30' which I feel is MORE than adequate. I am also compromising at 10" thick of pea gravel instead of 12"; again, I feel this is enough.

    Use your phone book and call EVERY company under "sand and gravel" in the yellow pages to price your pea gravel. The cheapest place I found cost less than HALF of the quote I received from another place, so it really pays to comparison shop.

    To figure out how much gravel you will need, multiply the length by the width (so in my case 22x30=660). This number is your cubic feet. Divide by 27 to get your cubic yardage (in my case about 24). A rough estimate for pea gravel is 1.4 tons per cubic yards, so multiply 24x1.4 to get about 34 tons. Voila! That is how much gravel I would need at 12" thick. You can adjust your math for various thicknesses (e.g. 6" thick would be 17 tons, 9" thick would be 25.5 tons, etc.).

    I wound up needing 28 tons, which in my area runs for a little less than $500 including tax and delivery (cheapest estimate). Don't forget to factor some sort of edging (playground edging, landscape ties) to retain the gravel into your bottom line. HTH!
    Last edited by Jo..; 03-07-2008 at 12:39 PM.

  2. #2
    brittone2 is offline Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    Default

    I don't have a number for you because we're still working on this as well. DH is building the kids a playhouse/fort w/ slide and climbing wall (we have a separate metal swingset for now). We had the chance to buy an incredibly nice Rainbow set from my brother, but it is a huge set and the amount of pea gravel needed would have almost doubled our costs (1K for his used swingset) so we turned it down. That was for a very large set, but to put down that much pea gravel was several hundred dollars, plus a weed barrier, and the edging to hold the pea gravel in. We decided to continue w/ our original plan for a smaller footprint playset vs. buying the used set from my brother for that reason alone.
    (money is a bit tight w/ DH in grad school).

  3. #3
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    Default

    I've made some calls and it looks like that amount of pea gravel would add at least $1000 to our bottom line (rubber mulch would add $3000). Ugh. I also think we are going to look at smaller sets, and I doubt we'll be doing pea gravel to a 12" depth...it's just too expensive.

  4. #4
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    Default

    Bump for op edit adding new info in hopes that others will find it useful.

  5. #5
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    Jan 2003
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    Wisconsin
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    Default

    That was useful. The depth of pea gravel you need is dependant on how tall your set is. I believe it's 3 to 4 inches per foot of height?

    I know we had a big truck dump about $400 worth of pea gravel for us and we had to truck it from the driveway thru the garage and out to the play area. That was a LOT of work!
    ~~AngelaS~~
    Mommy to 3 girls: A, G and M. (15, 11 and 8.5)

    The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense.
    – Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto"

  6. #6
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    We put pea gravel under our set and we definately ordered way too much. We have about a 6 inch amount and it is plenty. I thought we would need it a lot deeper because of what the manufac of the singsets say but I think it is still pretty cushiony. If a kid fell from the top on grass, gravel or mulch they would still probably get hurt. I don't remember the exact amount we got I think 9 or 10 ton (it was a lot or rock to move around but we have http://www.kidscreations.com/Three_Ring_Adventure.cfm this and we shrunk down the size around a little. I probably just confused everyone more. Sorry I just wanted to let everyone know that even my six inch depth is plenty.

  7. #7
    jillmk is offline Silver level (200+ posts)
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    Default Thanks!

    Jo,
    That was very helpful!! Thank you!

  8. #8
    ilovetivo's Avatar
    ilovetivo is offline Platinum level (1000+ posts)
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    bump - anyone else?

    I can't find the CPSC chart on how much you need that I thought I once saw.
    DD 7 - outgrew dairy allergy 6/13/11 - She had FPIES http://bit.ly/WhatIsFPIES

  9. #9
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    Default Great to know.

    Thanks for sharing!

  10. #10
    brittone2 is offline Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    We just did pea gravel for a 50x25ish area and it is about 9inches deep (our play structure is about 5 ft off the ground). It was about 25 tons of pea gravel, but we probably "only" (LOL) needed about 22 tons. The total cost was 1500, but we did end up with some extra. The weed barrier ran another $200. We contained it all using cedar logs from our property, so that was at no cost to us.

    It was really expensive here in NC and somewhat difficult to find. We both wanted pea gravel over mulch, and the kids are *really* enjoying playing in the pea gravel like a giant sandbox (as are the other kids in the neighborhood, including 7-8 year old kids).

    DH built our play structure himself from scratch, using some cedar logs from our property, and then we had some other cedar cut into planks at a local mill. So we did save some money as he did it himself, but the cost of the stones was extremely high here in NC.

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