wheelchair on soft ground?

[LizzieII]

Does anyone know of a heavy type of material that can be rolled out or spread on the ground to make it possible to push a wheelchair over somewhat “squishy” grass-covered ground? (Im pretty sure there are voles, the much smaller field mouse-sized cousins of moles, that tunnel that have made the ground soft in places) I DO realize installing a wooden ramp or a permanent hard pathway would be the best solution but for a variety of reasons, those are not possible right now. (It's also not possible to get rid of the voles and even if we could, the ground would still be soft from the existing tunnels that are about 2-3 inches across.)

There is a fair amount of ground between the back door of the house and the paved driveway that needs to be traveled in order to avoid a set of somewhat steep steps that also lead to the driveway. (I’d guess the length of the ground to be traveled is 15-20 ft., maybe a bit more, and going out the front door won’t work either.) It’s pretty flat if going the long way over the ground to avoid the steps (the incline is very slight—at most a couple of degrees over the full 15-20 ft) but the ground is a little “spongy” in places so the wheels (or a single wheel) of the chair will sink. (The PALS weighs about 170lbs plus the weight of the chair. She can still walk but can't manage the steps and is afraid to walk on rougher and squishy outside ground and that makes sense to me.) As long as it is somewhat weather proof from rain and wet ground we'll have this spring, it doesn’t matter if it looks super-nice as long as it works. It can be left in place (if it kills the grass that's OK) as this would be in the backyard of a privately-owned house. I’ve tried googling but haven’t really found anything made for this situation (except one product available in the UK made to roll wheelchairs in muddy gardens but I’m in the US.) I’ve also seen portable metal ramps but the ones I’ve seen would be prohibitively expensive for this long a span. (And if they WERE long enough, they’d weigh a ton and not be portable for anyone I know.) I’d be grateful for any suggestions. If people have tried things that DIDN'T work for this kind of situation, it would be helpful to know what those things were too so we don't waste our time and money. Thanks.

 

[Tokahfang]

If killing the grass is ok, old carpet works great.

 

[hn7609]

If you are talking about a manual chair then merely turn the chair around, tilt it back so that the front castors are off of the ground and then pull them across the problem area.

 

[dalvin]

There are paving stones available at most home improvement stores. They come in a variety of sizes. 1 ft by 1 ft would probably work good if laid out in two rows with the stones touching in each row. Lay them out so the wheels will be in the center of each row. For the moles or voles you can get what we used to call whirly gigs, the toys that you would blow on and the little pinwheel would spin. I'm told the vibrations from the wind spinning them drives them away. The vibrations are transmitted down the stick into the ground. After a while the ground will settle and firm up on its own

 

[Mariak]

Try those mats meant to put under office chairs for rolling on carpet. If you can find an office that's renovating it would probably be free.

 

[jamesonmedical]

Its very difficult to ride comfortably with wheelchair around the ground. Nowadays various stylish wheelchairs are available in the market which have ability to move anywhere without any problem.