Landscape Architect Articles

LASN Playground Safety March 200403-01-04 | News

Interlocking Safety Surface Tiles

Bicentennial Chuck Creasey Park, Grand Blanc, Michigan

45th Street Tot Lot, Philadelphia, PA

Most rubberized surfaces are made from recycled rubber, EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) and binding agents. The interlocking tiles from SofSURFACES in these photos, according to the company, have a unique three-step compression molding that produces a tile with a higher degree of density for longevity. The tiles come in thicknesses of 1.75, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.25, 4 and 4.5 inches depending of the fall requirement (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 feet).

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One of the major safety drawbacks of many playgrounds is hard surfaces. Clearly, creating softer surfaces for playgrounds makes safety sense and is more enjoyable to play on.

Coming up with the idea to put soft surfaces in playgrounds was logical enough and laudable, but the rub is in the execution. How do you create such a surface?

Senn Park, Chicago, Illinois

45th Street Tot Lot, Philadelphia, PA

In the mid-1980s, the concept of poured-in-place safety surfacing emerged. It basically consisting of a base coat of shredded recycled tire with a topcoat of EPDM rubber and a urethane resin to bond them.

In the late 1980s, a number of companies sought ways to advance safety surfacing. Poured-in-place safety surfacing is a fine product and is installed on many playgrounds. It is considered by some to be the best safety surfacing, others feel it has shortcomings, particularly when it comes to installation costs and installation constraints (weather).

The SofTILE KrosLOCK is the result of over 10 years of formulation and design modification. Its key features are exceeding ASTM requirements for impact, durability, and vandal resistance via the locking design.

Senn Park, Chicago, Illinois

The tiles are meant to be permanent, otherwise people would take them home! If a tile were somehow damaged, it could be replaced by removing the tile with a knife, cleaning the interlocking channels on the adjacent tiles and poppping a new one in.

The idea was to come up with an alternative method of placing safety surfacing. It would have great durability, be cost effective, have simplicity of installation and be reasonably easy to replace. One idea was putting down individual tiles. The problem there was how to keep them down, i.e., make them permanent and theft resistant.