Outdoor living spaces are essential to life for most southern California residents. For the majority of people who currently live here or who are planning to move here, the weather and the ability to spend significant time outside of your home is a major factor. As a result of this way of thinking, many homeowners in our area choose to improve their living spaces with outdoor-related items like putting greens, pools and play areas for children. For those with children seeking a home to purchase, or those who are planning on having children in the near future, an outdoor play area dedicated specifically to the safety and comfort of your child is an improvement that they are willing to pay a higher price for. In a nutshell, these types of planned out outdoor spaces add value to your home both now and at resale time.
For parents, the safety of their child is their top priority. A parent wants their child to be able to run and play within areas that are able to be monitored as well as that are going to provide a defense against injuries that typical children receive when playing. The most obvious is the trip and fall, and any parent can tell you it is more than common. Children are going to run and they are going to fall, and because a small amount of foresight can dramatically reduce the amount of potential injury from those falls many parents who are planning outdoor play areas consider ground covering surfaces that will absorb impact. A child falling on concrete will almost always result in injury, and ground coverings like crushed rock or dirt do not provide stable surfaces for children to run on. Additionally, they are not as soft and comfortable for your child to spend significant amounts of time sitting or crawling on. Carpeting does not provide a surface that will wear very well outdoors, and even though it is far better than concrete as far as absorbing impacts, it is not practical to use in an outdoor space. The answer to the problem is synthetic grass and artificial turf.
Synthetic grass makes an ideal surface for play areas, due to the fact that it simulates real grass in it’s look and feel, but without the care and maintenance that must go into real grass lawns. Because it is not a growing plant, there is no need to trim or mow the play area, which would always be extra difficult due to the added elements that may be within the space. Toys, jungle gyms, swingsets and other elements are probably going to be left in the space, which makes care and lawn maintenance extra difficult. Artificial turf is installed using an underlay material which is compacted so as to be flat, as well as a weed barrier. The turf itself is adhered to a backing that allows liquids to flow through it to prevent pooling. These elements combine to make a surface that is impact absorbing, semi-soft and yet also stable enough to not slide under little feet. Artificial turf is the choice of smart parents in their outdoor play areas, and also the smart choice for homeowners who are looking for improvements to make their homes appeal to new parents at resale time. Contact us today for more information on synthetic turf play areas.