Children's Outdoor Playset

[Knight9]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

I'm planning on building a similar playset for my three kids. One thing to keep in the back of your mind is the "long term" effect. I figure my kids will play on it for say approx 5+ years. After that what???? I don't want to keep the "playset" up if the kids aren't going to play with it. Thus I'm doing some planning to ensure that whatever I put up can be partially dismantled and then have an arbour top or something put on it instead. This way it can become part of the yard in a useful capacity. This may be hard to do if you put your posts in concrete and notch the posts or drill a lot of holes. I'm thinking about putting metal deck supports in concrete and bolting in posts so that they can be removed and new arbour posts be put into the same apparatus. Not sure yet.

Just something to think about.

Kevin

 

[PaulT]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

Kevin,

You're almost there, but not quite. Instead of doing all that worrying and planning before pouring footers, just go ahead and build the biggest, baddest, sturdiest playset you can. That way you can justify the purchase of the 4672 backhoe for your 'Bota, and just dig out those footers/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Knight9]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

Hmmm....never thought of it that way. You know, there is a used B4672 backhoe at my dealer right now!!! If I get it now I'll be an expert on it by the time I have to thrash the lawn to remove the concrete piles! /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

But the backhoe cost would impede the amount of $$ I can spend on a nice garage/workshop /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif ....which I really do need.

Decisions, decisions.... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Kevin

 

[shade2u2]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

I ended up right at $1000 total. I collected scrap framing lumber for year. I bought the treated lumber mostly from 84 Lumber's junk or blemish stock which usually was about 1/2 price. I think that the only thing that I paid full price for was the siding & stain. It started as a little treehouse & then I got carried away.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif The house is 8X8' & the deck is 8X8'. Their would have been less posts if I could match up 4 trees to anchor to.
We will also be putting in a slide, pully system, swings & steps in the spring. We have 75' "cable slide" on another tree already. My 7 yr old loves it. I didn't wont to connect to the tree house because of the heighth!!!
She parks her gocart under the deck...

 

[MarkV]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

In my past life I worked for a city recreation department for about 10 years. We had numbers of the wooden children play structures at varies parks around town. The kids love them and it is a great project to build as a family. There are a couple of things you may want to consider as you plan a child’s play structure though. As I looked at the accidents that happened on the park equipment I decided when I built my own I would; 1. Run a router with a round over bit on all the edges, 2. Use only carriage bolts with the nut and bolt ends recessed into a larger hole, 3. Provide a landing zone of wood chips at least 4-6” thick under the structure. If this had been done on all of the wooden play structures the city I worked for had, the accident reports would have been cut in half at least.

MarkV

 

[Jeff396]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

I'm 39 years old....I still remember the swings that had the large wooden seat that must have weighed 5 lbs. Man those things could do some damage if you weren't paying attention!

Jeff

 

[DaveNH]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

Keven writes "I figure my kids will play on it for say approx 5+ years. After that what???? I don't want to keep the "playset" up if the kids aren't going to play with it.

Why not just have some more kids?/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MossRoad]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

I used screws and bolts to build ours so that I can dismantle it when/if we move. The four main legs aren't cemented in. They are buried 3' into the ground in holes that were 4' deep with a foot of crushed limestone at the bottom for drainage. Very solid.

 

[Harv]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

Well, it's not looking too presentable after the recent rains (and 7 years of hard use), but I've attached a picture of the swing/slide set I built when my daughter was 2. I, too, was blown away by the prices for the "kits" (and I had money then), so I just looked at a bunch of pictures and designed my own. I did buy the actual swings, rings and A-frame bracket (<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.world-playground.com/Swingnslide/index.html>SwingNSlide</A>) from a local lumberyard store, and picked up the rest of the hardware and lumber from whoever had the best price at the time.

I got the idea for the PVC pipe slide from a Sunset Magazine article. Their design was for a straight slide, but I decided to modify it by forcing a curve, as you see in the picture. The first time I saw my little girl wobbling at the top of the slide, I decided to add some PVC guard rails to get her off to a straight start.

Under the platform is a small sandbox, currently hidden by weather-beaten toys. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

My daughter is now 9, but still uses it regularly. No longer satisfied with just swinging and sliding, she either swaps a swing for the rings (I made 'em detachable) or as you can see in the picture, she wraps one swing over the top and sort of slings herself over it and swings by the armpits. Doesn't appeal to me, but I'm not exactly 9 any more, either. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

My boy started using the baby seat (not shown) when he was old enough to sit up, and now at age 4 tries to do everything his big sister does. It's fun to watch. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

The whole thing is assembled with nuts and bolts, so when the time comes, I can just disassemble it and plant new lawn again. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Re: Children\'s Outdoor Playset

Harv,

Way Cool/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif. I really like the slide and your modification.
Maybe you could get a spot on the "We don't make the..xxxxx....We make it better" commercial.
Al