Preparing to lay bark chippings

[greemyamochop]

I'm preparing to lay bark chippings in a 60m2 area of the garden that i'm converting into a play area for the kids.

At the moment there's about 40-80mm of small pea gravel on top of a cloth liner that the old couple we bought the house off had laid to be low maintenance.

Do i need to get rid of all these stones before laying the bark or will they not come through?

I've already moved a load to be re used as a sub base for an area I've laid out for slabbing.

Any ideas?

 

[r896neo]

Be careful using gravel as sub-base, clean stone with no fines is not a good sub-base as it does not compact. If your heart set on re-using it try and mix it 50/50 with MOT sub-base.

The gravel would make its way through to the top as the bark gets kicked around but You could happily throw some membrane over the stones and then bark on top of it. The large 4.5m wide rolls you get at builders merchants is pretty cheap, probably do that area for 30quid or so.

The bark should be a little bit deeper, like 75mm for a play area anyway to make it more forgiving for toddlers faces bouncing off it.

 

[greemyamochop]

Not got my heart set on it, just thought if it could be used it would save tipping it then buying similar and seen it used in some B&Q video, what's MOT?

Allowed for 100mm of bark at £61 a bulk bag, see below?

 

[greemyamochop]

Be careful using gravel as sub-base, clean stone with no fines is not a good sub-base as it does not compact. If your heart set on re-using it try and mix it 50/50 with MOT sub-base.

The gravel would make its way through to the top as the bark gets kicked around but You could happily throw some membrane over the stones and then bark on top of it. The large 4.5m wide rolls you get at builders merchants is pretty cheap, probably do that area for 30quid or so.

The bark should be a little bit deeper, like 75mm for a play area anyway to make it more forgiving for toddlers faces bouncing off it.

Started now and thinking of turning the stones into the ground, leveling, put a whacker plate over it then laying a membrane then the bark.

That sound ok?

 

[r896neo]

I wouldn't bother, you will achieve nothing but make the ground a stoney nightmare should you ever want to turn it into lawn when the kids are bigger etc.

A wacker will not compact gravel like that it will simply bounce on it and partly ram it into the ground if its soft. Just leave the gravel where it is and fabric over the top your better to keep it seperate so at least its easy to remove for you or the next mug years down the line.

Rake it level then lay your fabric, A 4 inch layer of bark will be plenty to absorb any small undulations

 

[samball2000]

Not got my heart set on it, just thought if it could be used it would save tipping it then buying similar and seen it used in some B&Q video, what's MOT?

Allowed for 100mm of bark at £61 a bulk bag, see below?

Anyone know where to get a bag this cheap today?