mum-2-olly Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 hi ladies and gents! i am planning to use play bark chippings after reading advice on here, b and q sell them for about £5 for a 56 litre bag. not including the huge house, the run is just over 2 metres long and 1.2 metres wide. would anyone be able to give me an idea how many bags i would need please? the base of the run is soil so bark would be on top. thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gongladosh Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 1 bag should be fine for you. My WIR is 9 feet by 6 feet and 1 bag pretty much covers it all, a bag and a half covers every s"Ooops, word censored!" of space. I'm not fully convinced with B&Q bark chippings though - they're frequently soaked through and often have spores on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan08 Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Don't expect it to stay nicely on top either I have had numerous bags in our 4m run but you can't see any of it now, it has all been dug in. It looks great when you first do it all though. I used bark, but didn't know about the spores before I got it. Planning to fashion a tarpaulin roof over the run at the weekend and add some auboise to the bark/soil/mud mix. Will also look at woodchippings for the Autumn / Winter to try and stop it getting too muddy, but really struggling to find a local supplier, (Wirral) the DIY chains dont seem to stock it, which is why I ended up with bark last time. I do think the girls prefer being on the soil though, they love digging and make the most enormous holes, Chilli likes me to fill them up with water when I am changing the water so she can have a dig about for morsels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanTheDiver Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 I get my play bark chippings from Wyevale, they are 3 large bags for £12, this seems cheaper than B & Q. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mum-2-olly Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 thanks ladies, i also got an email from a lady called barbara that said you can get wood chips from b and q and they are a bit better. thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 B&Q do 2 types of wood chippings - softwood which will need changing more frequently (as they rot down) and hardwood where you have to change them much less frequently - so I use these . Both varieties are the same price. I have read elsewhere that bark is not recommended as it retains moisture and can cause infection in the girls feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Is there a friendly tree surgeon near you I get my chips from tree surgeons, sometimes free, sometimes I have to pay................£1 a sack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gongladosh Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 heh, careful what you ask for! I once read a posting on the forum about someone who asked their local tree surgeon for bark chippings (who was very keen to help...). They then received 17 or so vanloads of barkchippings in a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 heh, careful what you ask for! I once read a posting on the forum about someone who asked their local tree surgeon for bark chippings (who was very keen to help...). They then received 17 or so vanloads of barkchippings in a week. Whilst that didn't happen to me I do have at least a ton of chippings on my drive that I didn't ask for I was out walking the dogs & my daughter phoned to say that a "nice man was dumping woodchips on the drive & was that ok" Could hardly say no when the deed was already done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
