Help with Playsets

sonocativo

sonocativo

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My son's birthday is about a week and a half after mine, I am looking to buy him a new swing/slide set ($200 or less) for now and a bigger nicer set later, I know the cheaper ones are metal and I prefer the wood ones. Anyone know a good place to order from? ToysRus is cheaply made... I would just buy lumber and build one but the swings and other parts cost more than the set itself????
I do have a few slides/swings from an old wood set but rather buy a decent starter set for the time being. Most have a tiny 4 or 6 foot slide where I want a larger 10 or 12 foot slide for him (he loves to slide)
So any help to locate and order something I can get delivered in time to assemble and set up to surprise him would be great. Thank you all in advance.
 
Usually hardware stores will have things like that... Lowes, Home Depot ect ect. Those are usually good quality from what I can see personally. I don't have kids, so I wouldn't know but I would check them out? :D
 
I don't have kids either but wonder if there are any kits around that have things like the swings & slides (not as individual items but a set) and then a material list where you provide the lumber. It seems if it needed to be shipped that would cut down on cost.
 
Yes Homedepot/lowes carry the kits, you buy the lumber but hoping to buy the set cheaper. All the playground companies that used to be close are gone now and in other states otherwise Id finance one to be built in place... just sucks the metal ones wont hold 2 kids anymore or they bend, cheap as hell now in materials so wooden sets are actually better, they last longer, hold more weight and can be repaired when needed with another board. I remember my set as a kid, metal and the whole nieghborhood of kids could play on it... like 10 or 15 of us at a time. Toysrus has a nice metal set but the reveiws someone says 2 small kids and the top bar bends...wow, really? thats cheap materials, probly rust out in 6 months.
 
I wondered why the switch to wood as it seems they would need maintenance to keep things like splinters from being a problem. The mention of the grade of metal being use today says a lot about both issues.
 
Jane B. said:
I wondered why the switch to wood as it seems they would need maintenance to keep things like splinters from being a problem. The mention of the grade of metal being use today says a lot about both issues.
Click to expand...

Wood is cheaper and easier to obtain, maintain or replace. Just once a year add sealer and the wood is good as new, start to rot from water/moisture just unbolt, get new wood and replace. easy. How often do you find thin walled pipe for playsets...never.

Splinters are not an issue if maintained and also sometimes the way the wood is cut. Have you ever gotten a splinter from someones staircase handrail? Nope, why? Because the woodgrain is cut a certain way and the direction it is installed prevents that. Stair threads, look at the side view of the grain, looks like it arches up...reason, so water doesnt set in the curve, soak in and rot the wood, it runs off instead... ( Carpenters knowledge ) learned in wood tech class.
 
Well, found a good deal locally, my son went with me to pick it out, all he knows is I bought a box. I put it together today while he was gone with sissy. So he will see it this weekend...good lord the parts and a diagram drawn by a 5 year old...lol
 

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sonocativo said:
Wood is cheaper and easier to obtain, maintain or replace. Just once a year add sealer and the wood is good as new, start to rot from water/moisture just unbolt, get new wood and replace. easy. How often do you find thin walled pipe for playsets...never.

Splinters are not an issue if maintained and also sometimes the way the wood is cut. Have you ever gotten a splinter from someones staircase handrail? Nope, why? Because the woodgrain is cut a certain way and the direction it is installed prevents that. Stair threads, look at the side view of the grain, looks like it arches up...reason, so water doesnt set in the curve, soak in and rot the wood, it runs off instead... ( Carpenters knowledge ) learned in wood tech class.
Click to expand...

To me all of this in the bolded is assuming that that person that constructed it knows this and followed these rules. I have run across some where the handrail is simply a narrow piece of wood.
 
Jane, are you aware that your posts tend to make it sound like you don't think Mike knows what he's doing. Both in this thread and his Hopeful thread?


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Im refering to wooden kits, but if a contractor knows his shit then it wont have any issues, I remember working with my uncle ( remember I came from a family of construction, blue collar workers ) asking him why he did it this way and that way, and he explained in detail, would even point out things other people have done wrong and explained why.
I found my spindle of 1000 CDs, I will dig through them and find pics of worrk I have done ( Aunts deck, Parents House, my 2 houses I bought and sold making a killer profit on both, might have a few extra projects I did in there somewhere) I will start a new thread on those..what should I title it?
 
Jane, I got a headache putting the swing set together. It showed a picture of the side bar being installed on the outside of the legs, then the next pic showed it was on the inside of the leg... did say you had to walk around or flip anything over, then it didnt show or mention hidden holes on which side they went until 50 steps later so you had to dismantle half the set to flip one part... see, I screw up too, but I go back and fix it later, Im not always perfect as it seems, Ive wasted $20 boards before because I didnt measure twice and cut once... I measured 3 times, lets see 46"... then mark it at 36" and cut...damnit too short??? How did I manage to do that? Dunno but I did it alot this past year.
 
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