Playground Soft Fall Mulch – does your playground meet Australian Standards?

When it comes to the safety of children at school and at play, it’s essential to use the right materials in your playgrounds and outdoor activity areas.

You need to know that your playgrounds are safe, clean and have soft, impact-absorbing surfaces to protect children as they play.

Is your playground:

Compliant with Australian Standards?
Clean and non-toxic?
Impact-absorbing for safer play?
Protecting children from injuries and abrasions?

You have many responsibilities when it comes to the safety of the children using your playgrounds and outdoor areas – we can help make this one easy to manage.

We supply, deliver and install playground mulch and sand for schools and local councils across WA. Thanks to our innovative machinery, we can install any quantity of softfall materials fast and efficiently for top-quality, safe and fully-compliant playgrounds.

Tested & Accredited to Australian Standard
Natural, non-toxic materials
Impact-absorbing surfaces to prevent injury
Provides cushioning for trips and falls

Our softfall materials are made from top-quality Western Australian materials, and are used by Councils, Parks, Schools and Playgrounds all over Western Australia. We only use materials that are accredited to Australian Standard certification – which means that they are fully tested for their quality and safe use in playgrounds to standard fall heights.

We also have the flexibility to operate outside of school hours and during holiday periods, so your playground mulch will be safely installed while children aren’t on the premises.

Safe, Fast, Clean & Precise Installation

Thanks to our specialised equipment, we can do things differently.

Our state-of-the-art blower trucks use a pneumatic system to accurately install large volumes of soft fall mulch around playground equipment – which means no wheelbarrows or loaders on site! Depending on the access to your playground area, we can even position our trucks up to 200m from the installation site, preventing incidental damage to equipment and the surrounding landscape.

Manned by a single expert operator, we can complete multiple playground sites in a single day, after school hours or during holidays, so your install is done and dusted without interrupting any of your usual operations.

You won’t find a faster, safer or more efficient team to install, maintain and top-up your softfall playground areas than PMB – your local Perth mulching experts.

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Installing The Best Types of Soft Fall Mulch

We work with Perth’s top suppliers to source a range of premium Soft Fall Mulches.

Selected for colour, uniformity, impact-absorption and longevity, we offer the following playground mulch varieties:

Crushed Softfall Chip (hardwood timber)
Pine Bark Softfall
Pine Chip Softfall

If you need assistance in selecting the most appropriate type of mulch for your playground, or you’re not sure what type of mulch has already been used, our expert team can provide you with recommendations based on your needs and preferences.

Protect them while they play

We look after schools and playgrounds all over Perth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the safest material for playgrounds?

We recommend choosing only materials which are tested to Australian Standards, and mulch or sand are two of the most popular and safe material choices for impact absorption. Choosing the right material does depend on a few factors, such as location, use and maintenance requirements. If you are unsure, we can help you make the right choice for your outdoor play areas and needs.

In which play areas should I install Soft Fall?

Soft Fall should be installed in all play and activity areas where a fall from more than 60cm may occur from playground equipment to a distance of 2.5m away from the equipment – as some falls may not necessarily occur straight down.

How do I measure my area for playground mulch?

If you would like to do this on your own, simply:

Identify the ‘fall zones’ in your play areas, and look for indicator marks on your play equipment.
Measure the area of the ‘fall zones’ in the playground. These may have been provided by your equipment supplier, if not, we recommend measuring a zone of 2.5m around the equipment in all directions.
Measure the fall heights. If the fall height from a certain piece of playground equipment is greater than 4.7m, you’ll need to increase the depth of the application in that area.
Measure the ‘high traffic zones’. The usual recommendation is to install a 300mm min depth for materials, but in heavy traffic areas, you’ll need to install materials to a 360mm min depth.

Then provide us with the above measurements and information and we will be able to work up a quote for you. Not sure? Just get in touch with us and we will do all the assessing and measuring for you!

How often should I maintain or top-up my Soft Fall Mulch?

The easy answer is ‘as required’, but we all know it’s a little more complex than that – so here are some quick tips to help…

For maximum safety and compliance, you should maintain a 300mm layer of un-compacted mulch within the fall zones at all times. This usually means raking the mulch every few months, reduces any compaction, and helping to keep it aerated or ‘fluffy’.

Proper top-ups are usually required every 12 months, particularly for high-traffic playgrounds (i.e. large regional playgrounds or school playgrounds).

It is normal for the Soft Fall to displace, compact, and deteriorate with use and exposure to the elements, this is why it is so important to regularly inspect and measure the areas so that you can top it up to maintain a high level of impact protection. Check the levels after raking by inserting a half-metre ruler into the fall zone areas until it hits the ground and check the depth. If it is below 200mm, it is time for a top-up.

Not sure if your Soft Fall Mulch is due for a top up yet?

Call us to have one of our expert team visit your playground to assess, advise and provide you with a quote to take care of it for you – either as a one-off service or ongoing for your yearly top ups.

Soft Fall Mulch- for safer schools, playgrounds and play