Building a backyard playset??

[joee12]

I am looking into building a new backyard playset for my daughter. If buy it from a dealer(Home Depot, Lowes. Private company, etc)and have them install it is going to run me about $1400. I figured I can save about $700 by doing it myself. Here are my options:

1) buy the plans online and build from scratch.

2) buy a kit that has plans, fasteners, swings and all brackets.

3) buy the whole thing, wood, slides, fasters, etc.

Option number two seems to be the best and most ecomonical one. Does anyone have experience with these things? Any comments, tips or suggestions? Thanks, Joe

 

[Shannow]

My father built one years ago out of treated pine.

A "fort", about 5' high, with a slide into a sandpit (ladder was alongside the slide, so my disabled sister could "bum" her way to the top of the stairs. A swing canitlevered off the top rail of the fort.

We had a great few years on that equipment.

 

[Al]

Kids tire very quickly of the slide, forts, and all the neat looking junk. Build the highest swing you can and they'll spend more time on it than the other stuff. If the child is say younger than 5 or so the stuff you put up now will be "yesterday's news next year"

My former son-in law used to buy this stuff by the ton..looked purdy..but didn't get used.

When my kids were young, I built a swing set from scratch with 4 inch pipe. Took two men and a boy to assemble it but my 2 kids used it til they were in high school.

 

[Kestas]

I too vote for a high swing... good memories.

My dad made a swing in the basement, hung from the I-beam. I got a lot of mileage from that... also good memories. It made a lot of sense, 'cause our climate made us stay indoors most of the time.

$1400 or $700 seems steep for kiddie entertainment. With some imagination and ingenuity, I think you could get a lot more bang for a lot less.

 

[ryansride2017]

I built a rather extravagant playset for my boys a few years ago. I bought the kit at Lowe's along with all of the lumber. Cost about $800-$900 for everything. I put it together myself (very simple with step-by-step direction) working leisurely in two days. The only time I needed any help was when it came time to put the tower upright. Using treated lumber it was probably 500 lbs.!! It sure beats having my wife run the kids to the neighborhood park.

 

[NJC]

I built a free standing A-frame style swingset. I got the basic idea from the 'net and then customized. I used 4x4's for the A-frame at end; 4x6 for beam (12' long??). Bolted 4x4 bracing from 4x6 beam to end.

You can buy A-frame hardware too. The whole nine yard was <$200 CDN.

 

[1sttruck]

Avoid having places where yellow jackets can build nests, like the ones that stung my son half a dozen times with a relatives set, avoid ones that generate splinters on playing surfaces, and consoder how long the kids will use it vs cost. If you do something like a 'playhouse' you can use it for storage or a graden shed later.

 

[NJC]

Here's what I was referring to:

 

[kkreit01]

For $1400, you can have a small Rainbow set. I'd shop around. I built our kit 4 years ago. It was a Toys R Us kit. I would NOT suggest it. It was a $350 kit. The wood and H/W is very poor quality. At the time, we could have gotten a very nice set for $700 from Costco. The Costco kits (Sunray?) are made by Rainbow. Buying/builing from scratch will be large task.

 

[cfromc]

I put one up this summer. It came with the wood, fasteners, slide, swings, etc. Basically, everything was included. Has a sand box, little climbing wall, 2 swings, a little fort on the top, 2-person swing and 2 monkey bars that the kids can go from rung to rung (like a horizontal ladder). I would much prefer to have one of these kits so I don't have to keep running to the hardware store/Home Depot. This one takes up a big chunk of my small back yard and took a good 12+ hours to put up. It looked easier on the instructions and there were a couple of errors on the instructions that made me take some pieces apart and I probably lost an hour or two. I don't know how much it costed because it was given to me.

Someday, when I retire, I wouldn't mind taking the time to build one from scratch. Right now, I thought the 12-14 hours it took was a long time.