Rubber mulch for play area (can you paint)

[arniep]

Hi All,

I was looking at some rubber mulch for putting beneath a play area. The playbark stuff comes in really pricey and saw rubber mulch which was a lot cheaper but is non-coated shredded tyres. It seems ok, the only concern is colour coming off and I was wondering about painting it. Any ideas on how as it is around half a tonne!

Thanks

[archlives]

I think it would be easiest to paint by pouring it in batches into a large container that you can then add paint to and agitate - quite a bit of effort though, you need somewhere to put it while it dries, and you'd need whatever large container you can find with ability to fully agitate to fully cover in paint. Plus, rubber is flexible, paint less so, so I'd guess more chance of the paint coming off anyway.

Alternatively, they have shredded tyres around a playground at Legoland (only place I've seen it) and there is no issue that I could see with it being dirty or black marks coming off. I don't think tyre rubber is inherently dirty or black - I think tyres are dirty because they're always on the road picking up dirt and tyres dust from use. Personally, I wouldn't worry to paint and would stick with the shredded tyres as is.

[arniep]

I think it would be easiest to paint by pouring it in batches into a large container that you can then add paint to and agitate - quite a bit of effort though, you need somewhere to put it while it dries, and you'd need whatever large container you can find with ability to fully agitate to fully cover in paint. Plus, rubber is flexible, paint less so, so I'd guess more chance of the paint coming off anyway.

Alternatively, they have shredded tyres around a playground at Legoland (only place I've seen it) and there is no issue that I could see with it being dirty or black marks coming off. I don't think tyre rubber is inherently dirty or black - I think tyres are dirty because they're always on the road picking up dirt and tyres dust from use. Personally, I wouldn't worry to paint and would stick with the shredded tyres as is.

Thanks for the input. Think I'm going to just lay it, give it a wash down so any little bits go to the bottom.