Should Seattle Consider Artificial Turf for Its City Playgrounds?

Seattle’s beautiful parks and playgrounds help make our city a unique destination for visitors and a cozy home for families. City planners are dedicated to keeping our parks and playgrounds in top shape for decades to come. One of the most significant considerations ahead of them now involves selecting a ground cover that’s beautiful, safe for children, affordable, and environmentally friendly. 

In this article, we’ll make the case that artificial turf is an ideal material for public playgrounds. Its durability, natural appearance, safety, and reasonable cost make it the common-sense choice. 

Benefits of Synthetic Lawns for Seattle City Playgrounds

While outdoors-lovers long to keep all aspects of their outside experience as natural as possible, they often come to recognize the advantages of artificial turf for city use. 

Flexibility & Adaptability

Artificial turf can be cut to shape the size of any public playground. Should Parks and Recreation departments or city planners want to add a community garden, an outdoor amphitheater, or a new path, the artificial turf can be trimmed or removed easily. Damage to the (very durable) turf can be fixed as easily as replacing a piece of carpet. 

Superior Drainage

The large quantities of rainfall in the Pacific Northwest have a way of turning parks into mud-pits. Seattle parks need a landscape with excellent drainage so that the parks are more usable more quickly and also to avoid costly landscaping and equipment repairs.

Artificial turf dries quickly and, with a proper drainage system, drains better than nearly any other ground cover. Its sophisticated materials help minimize slips and falls, as well as the formation of puddles. As an added bonus, parents don’t have to worry about mud and grass stains.

Allergy Relief Comes with the Turf

Grass-related allergies are common in both children and adults, making some playgrounds unwelcoming to families. By choosing the right synthetic lawn, parks can become more inviting to those affected by pollen. An allergy-free zone creates a safe and healthy space where children can play together.

Budget-Friendly

City planning requires careful budget considerations, which is another reason why artificial turf is an ideal choice for city playgrounds. Synthetic lawns offer ongoing cost savings. With no need for mowing, fertilizing, and the endless maintenance of natural grass, cities save significant labor and materials costs. 

Rain typically erodes ground covers over time. However, artificial turf is highly resistant to such damage. As a result, city parks get more hours of play out of these surfaces than other standard infill materials. 

Safety

Artificial turf offers a safe, flexible surface for children to play. More, by law, it must be compliant with the American Disabilities Act, which tests the turf regularly.

SYNLawn’s organic, plant-based infills are non-toxic, which makes them healthy for children to play on. Additional features, such as HeatBlock™ technology, make the surface even safer by keeping the ground 20% cooler than other ground covers.

When wet, sod becomes a soggy, inaccessible playing surface. Mud, rain puddles, and uneven areas can result in injuries. After heavy rain, some playgrounds can even become unusable or suffer extreme structural damage. Artificial turf minimizes these issues. IPEMA Certified, it is suitable for use in all municipal playgrounds.

Easy to Clean

Artificial turf is simple to clean and requires little maintenance. Antimicrobial infill material minimizes the presence of germs. By following an easy maintenance schedule, cities can keep playgrounds looking like new all year-round.

1. Use a broad, stiff brush to remove debris, such as dirt, leaves, stones, and twigs.
2. Sweep against the grain with a broom to restore the blades to their upright position.
3. Spray down soiled areas with the hose.

A weed barrier is built-in, which deters insects and reduces maintenance costs further. Living grass, on the other hand, involves extensive maintenance such as weeding, mowing, reseeding, watering, aerating, and other related expenses.

Artificial lawns are stain-resistant. In rare instances, some stubborn stains may require repair assistance from an installation professional. Pieces can always be replaced as well. 

More Sustainable

Environmentally conscious communities can improve their water conservation efforts by installing artificial turf in playgrounds. There’s also no need for pesticides, fertilizers, or other chemicals that can harm the ecosystem. 

Get More Play Time

Natural grass has a limited lifespan before it becomes worn and needs to be replaced. Playgrounds also have to close when landscapers need to spray fertilizers or perform other maintenance tasks. Different surface materials, such as wood chips, gravel, mulch, and rubber, don’t offer the same safety features as artificial turf. 

Synthetic lawns stay clean, deter weeds, drain quickly, and provide one of the safest surfaces for children to play. This ground cover also offers the most savings, which city planners can use to invest in other municipal projects. Meanwhile, kids get to spend more hours in city parks.

Final Thoughts

The numerous benefits of artificial turf make it a money-saving, beautiful choice for Seattle’s playgrounds. Wet conditions can cause slipping, sliding, and falling on sod, mud, grass, and ground covers. However, synthetic turf provides a cushioned, shock-absorbing surface that helps prevent injuries.

Low maintenance requirements are another factor that makes this material the perfect flooring for city playgrounds and their budgets. There’s no need for landscaping equipment and labor expenses are minimal.

To learn more about Artificial Turf for City Playgrounds, contact the experts at SYNLawn at 425-466-9581. Our professionals are happy to answer all of your questions.