Hello LEEDUser Hive - I am working on a series of public schools that have outdoor play areas. The play areas will be finished with a base of crushed stone and a thick top layer of playground wood chips. These ares are not "landscaped" as they are structured with playground equipment on top.

Two questions:

Can these areas be considered part of the hardscape used to caluclate Heat Island Reduction?

Is there a rule-of-thumb SR value for wood chips (loose/natural wood, not synthetic)?

Post a reply

emily reese moody

Sustainability Director, Certifications & Compliance

Jacobs

LEEDuser Expert

469 thumbs up

Fri, 05/15/2020 - 07:51

Hey Brian, I believe I've included areas like this as hardscape in previous projects. The only sort of 'standard' value I've seen accepted for this credit is for asphalt and concrete (as listed in the LEEDuser's Viewpoint intro page for the credit, for any newbies reading in). From what I've seen, anything that doesn't have the info available from the manufacturer will need to be tested if you want to show it in the calcs. I know I've had wood as hardscape and had the same question at some point...this post was in v3, but you may still be able to use it as reference: https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/forum/sri-wood

Brian Salazar

President, LEED AP, WELL AP

Entegra Development & Investment, LLC

LEEDuser Premium Member

43 thumbs up

Wed, 05/20/2020 - 16:53

Thanks Emily - I have reviewed the link that you provided. Seems that wood products do have an SR, but it's not widely advertised. If anyone out there has a resource for the SR value for natural color (non-dyed) wood chips, it would be greatly appreciated, and would likely benefit many projects that have natural surface playgrounds.

Add new comment

To post a comment, you need to register for a LEEDuser Basic membership (free) or login to your existing profile.

You are currently logged in under an enterprise account

FAQs about SSc5 :

Mulch Play Areas as Hardscape?

You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?

Add new comment