What can I use for a playground surface border?

[JTsMom]

We want to fill it with pea gravel.

[bubbaray]

We used "rough 4x6" treated timber.

[neeleymartin]

we used railroad ties(sp.) we also have pea stone within. works great and looks as good as it functions.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Landscape Timbers, 8ft long and less than $2 each! DH screwed them into the ground with some kind of spike thing found near them at Lowe's. Thy double as a nice balance beam.

[JTsMom]

Did you all find something that was non-toxic/not too chemically treated, or were you just not too concerned with that? I'm finding composite material timbers, but they are $$$- we're talking another $500-600 to do a 28X28 area for just the barrier!

Here's what I came up with on HD's page- nothing for $2 for sure!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...atalogId=10053

And here's the other kind of stuff I've found:
http://www.playproviders.com/sandboxtimbers.html

[brittone2]

we have (and love) pea gravel, and DH just cut some cedar trees (that weren't doing very well) down on our property and used the whole log, kwim? Worked well and very non toxic.

We have a sawmill in the area that also sells cedar planks, etc (we used some to build our kids' fort/play structure). If you have something like that in your area you could call and find out if they offer cedar in some form?

[JTsMom]

My eyes are spinning cartoon-style at this point! I can't believe what a pain in the neck this is getting to be. No cedar trees on our property, unfortunately. How lucky for you though, and I'll bet it looks beautiful too!

I did find a sawmill that processes cedar, so I'll give them a call.

I also saw plastic decking pieces on HD's website- I wonder if that would work.

I know everyone here said to remember to calculate the prep costs, but I'm still amazed at how it's adding up. I thought the pea gravel would be the only really pricey thing, but every element is expensive. I haven't even figured out how we're going to level the are yet. It's mostly level, but it still needs a little work.

[neeleymartin]

Landscape Timbers, 8ft long and less than $2 each! DH screwed them into the ground with some kind of spike thing found near them at Lowe's. Thy double as a nice balance beam.

that's just what we used, but we paid $17/piece!!! you got a great deal. the spike thing is re-bar(at least that's the pronunciation).

[WatchingThemGrow]

Here are the $2 landscape timbers at Lowe's. And thanks neeley for the re-bar cue. DH says my vocab is getting smaller and smaller as the # of DC has gone up! We got Landscape Fabric at Sam's as well as rubber mulch there also for maybe $8-9/bag. Oooh cool...look at this playground border they sell.

We dug down a little bit

[JTsMom]

Here are the $2 landscape timbers at Lowe's. And thanks neeley for the re-bar cue. DH says my vocab is getting smaller and smaller as the # of DC has gone up! We got Landscape Fabric at Sam's as well as rubber mulch there also for maybe $8-9/bag. Oooh cool...look at this playground border they sell.

We dug down a little bit

When I pull up the first link, they say $4 for me- maybe it's a regional price? Do you remember what they are made of? I keep reading railroad ties are soaked in creosote- maybe it's just some of them?

The playground border is perfect, except for the stinking price. At 24 ft., we'd need to buy 5 of those, so $420ish plus tax. There has got to be a more economical way!




I found this site:
http://www.abswood.com/pages/price.h...odY0FHFQ#Cedar

Looks like they are in Atlanta, and they have various sizes of cedar. I wonder what size we'd need though.