Has one here built a swingset?

[Deleted]

H and I bought one of those super nice all wood/play house/all the features included ones for Ruby.
Holy hell it's a lot of parts and lumber and work. It does seem really nice. H is out there now just cutting the lumber and getting started.

Tell me it'll be worth it in the end. Actually, I know that. Those $200.00 metal pipes ones don't last real long in the Little House on the Prairie wind.

Also, if you have one, what's under it? Pearock, grass, rubber chips? We're thinking about leaving it just grass. It's all we ever had and nobody died. Mulch is out. It just disinegrates with the weather here and looks constantly messy.

[bunnymendelbaum]

My sister is in Fargo. She just had grass/snow under hers. They built it themselves and said it was a huge pita!

[SusanBAnthony]

We did one in Mpls. We bought the kit from Costco. It took three men, two of whom know there way around wood and power tools, an entire loooooong weekend of work.

The smartest thing we did (on the advice of reviews we read online) was line up all the parts in order of the direction steps, so that we made sure we had the right parts in the right places. Tat alone took half a day. But, at the end, we didn't have twelve wrong sized bolts left.

We put ours on grass. Everything else is too high maintenance and ends up looking crappy IMO. We moved when it was two years old and sold it for 70% of the purchase price, so not a bad deal.

[emoflamingo]

My H and FIL did 3/4 of one in 2 days (no monkey bars up yet). We just have grass under it.

[sierramist03]

I know when my cousin bought one on Craigslist it took my uncle my dad and my cousin almost a full day to put it back together and it wasn't even completely apart. I've never seen more than grass under them around here

[Deleted]

Thanks girls! H spent 3 hours on it today. He got all the lumber cut to size, sorted into pile/assembly order and the playhouse roof put together.

He said the directions were really detailed but simple to follow and well done. He also said he started with the hardest part first, so it should go faster now. It's all just time consuming.

H is having fun. Non farm projects are good for him sometimes.

Problem is he has such little free time the damn thin will be in my garage until July.

It's Playstar (a Menard's brand) by the way.
It was a good value for the money (bolts, accessories, screws etc) and the quality is what you make it because you pick whatever lumber you want. It was half the price of Rainbow (I don't have 3k for a swingset..ha!)We'll see how it holds up.

We're going to leave it grass for now. It seems the easiest. Like PP mentioned everything else just makes a huge disaster. If you do anything we'll timber border it out and add some pearock..but maybe next summer.

[lmbml]

I had one growing up, we just had grass. It was fine we never got hurt!

And bunnymendelbaum your sister lives in Fargo? Thats where i'm at! Do you ever visit?

[emoflamingo]

The one we got was from Wal-Mart (thanks MIL!) and it was actually produced here in Kansas. I didn't realize it, but apparently a lot of them are.

[Dumbledork]

A few other girls and I built a wooden set for our GS Gold Award when we were late teens. We bought ours from Menards too, but I don't remember the brand. It's still standing ten years later and seems to get quite a bit of play, so that's a plus. I think we were required to do a ground cover for safety reasons, and we did a timber border with mulch. Really, I think the most important thing is to anchor the sucker down. That was the worst part of the whole thing, it seemed to take forever, but it was a great project. Good luck to your H! I'm sure your DD will love it, the kids here seem to really enjoy it.

[bunnymendelbaum]

May 5, 2013 22:48:36 GMT -5 lmbml said:

And bunnymendelbaum your sister lives in Fargo? Thats where i'm at! Do you ever visit?

I've never visited! It was a temporary move for her DHs work and they will likely be there less than a year more. She said they are leaving the playset tho. She doesn't want to disassemble & reassemble it.

[InBetweenDays]

We have one in our yard. It was a bit of work to put it together but not too bad. But we didn't have to cut the lumber to size. It was WELL worth it though. The kids are constantly out there.

We went with the cedar play chips under it. I didn't want grass because I thought it would be a PAIN to trim and mow around it. We were thinking of going with the rubber mulch but didn't for several reasons. First, I was worried about the smell and off-gassing from the rubber. Second I would think it could get hot in the sun. And third I've read they can be a fire hazard. Not that they catch fire easily, but if they do ever catch fire it is very difficult to put them out.

[Dumbledork]

On the rubber mulch, the child care center I worked at was in the process of removing theres because they found so many pieces that had metal wires poking out. Teachers would collect the pieces in buckets and every teacher filled theirs at least once. It took the company almost a year to give in and replace the stuff. If you choose it, make sure you buy it from a quality place.

[Deleted]

Thanks girls.
I think we'll just stick with grass. It's easy, affordable and while it's more to maintain but easier than the other options.

Good to know about the rubber!

I already mow and weed trim 3 acres of yard every summer. two passes under and around a swingset isn't a big deal to me.