Swingsets

BigBody79

BigBody79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Location
Lumberton
I'm looking at getting a swing set for my youngin's.

I've kinda looked at some on C/L and I doubt we'll be able afford a new one.

What should I look for in a used swing set?

Any tips restoring fixing up old pressure treated wood?

This is very rambly.
 
How much is a new one? A friend of mine has 5 kids and they don't really make swingsets for 5 kids...so I built him one. $400 later:
afbcdn_sphotos_f_a.akamaihd.net_hphotos_ak_xpf1_v_t1.0_9_103768096d38874f49a5b40d1d661a5e014e1.jpg
 
We bought a used one on Craigslist, your standard a-frame deal like above made of treated wood.
I took it apart, rusty old bolts and all, brought it home in a truck and set up it.
To set it up again, I found I had to replace about 1/4 of the boards. Several nails couldn't be pounded out for I had to cut them off and ground down the tips. Used a ton of wood screws to hold it together. Discovered the center beam across the top was rotten on top, had to plate over it.

After going through all the work, it really wasn't worth buying it used... at least for the wooden frame. PT 4x4s are pretty cheap.
However - swings, plastic-covered chain, plastic horse-shaped swiings and what not all add up, that is the big cost in these things.

So my advise would be to plan to buy all that crap from somebody, and make your own frame.

Also - make it as TALL AS POSSIBLE. This dictates the swing arc for the swings!
 
What Dave said. A coworker GAVE me his. I took it down over a couple days and bought all new wood. The swings and slides are the most expensive parts of a playset. I think I had around $500 rebuilding this one. I used some of the old wood to build some planter boxes and gave the rest to my daddy to build treestands with.

playset1.jpg
playset2.jpg
 
This is one of those... "Honey it ain't gonna fit in the U-Haul" items that get sold when people get ready to move for cheap if you can catch them on CL. How I got mine and love it. Just if the top is 2 - 2x10's / 12's whatever, set it back up and throw in some decking screws and roll for they tend to warp and separate. The slide seemed to be the most desired playground item. You can find without slides for nothing and with slides you have to be quick.
 
Oh if we're talking whole "playsets"... yeah I went through that jjust like Brian once too.
Coworker had one in her back yard, "Hey, my daughter is grown now, if you can get it out of the yard its yours." She of course had added a fence since putting it up, doh!
So yeah I completely disassembled it, carefully labeled every board and moved it... and once I replaced a few boards... it would not fit together any more b/c it had all twisted and bent together, ther now-straight boards threw it all off... buddy and i had to use my winch to pull it sideways and get bolts to fit back, lol...
It wasn't worth it, I shoulda just built a whole new set and just kept the slides and swing etc.

... now that I think of it why the f$ck didn't I remember that lesson when I got the swingset mentioned above for the new house lol.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Oh if we're talking whole "playsets"... yeah I went through that jjust like Brian once too.
Coworker had one in her back yard, "Hey, my daughter is grown now, if you can get it out of the yard its yours." She of course had added a fence since putting it up, doh!
So yeah I completely disassembled it, carefully labeled every board and moved it... and once I replaced a few boards... it would not fit together any more b/c it had all twisted and bent together, ther now-straight boards threw it all off... buddy and i had to use my winch to pull it sideways and get bolts to fit back, lol...
It wasn't worth it, I shoulda just built a whole new set and just kept the slides and swing etc.

... now that I think of it why the f$ck didn't I remember that lesson when I got the swingset mentioned above for the new house lol.
Click to expand...

Yep, coworkers kids are 15 and 13. He just wanted it out of his yard. Only had a 3' wide gate. I had to completely disassemble it to haul it out. It was pretty bad twisted when I took it apart. I decided it was worth it just to get new wood instead of trying to fight it.
 
One im looking at has the slide and rock thingy. And ill be able to trailer the large part and I have a backhoe here to take it off and move it around.
 
When I was 4 my dad had one made by a local welder shop....simple A-frame of 2-3/8" pipe. It's still at my mom's house (holds a porch swing now). Still holding up 47 years later.
 
I built one of these in ~2000 for my daughter. When I moved to my current house, Yager loaded up the tower section in the back of his F250. Just backed up to it, tipped it over, and away we went. Obviously I unbolted the 4x6 arm that the swings hang from first. That thing is still in the backyard at the current house and solid as a rock. Points being (1) the older pressure treated wood is pretty tough, and (2) if you can find one where the tower section will fit in the back of a pickup, moving is fairly easy. Final point would be that, as someone else mentioned, I'm sure you can find one for the low low price of FREE if you're patient. Just keep your eyes peeled for a good one.
 
the thing is that the slide is $200 bucks and the rock thingy is like $350.

Personally I see some pressure washing and painting and i'll be miles ahead of making my own.

That's just me.
 
If you can get one with slides, swings, rock wall thingy for cheaper than you can buy one slide new, go for it.
 
I bought a kit had all the brackets and I supplied the woid. Think I was into for 700. But it is built with decking and 4x4s.
 
There's a TV show about the guys that build those sets. I was up WAAAAY too late one night watching reruns of that and Airplane Repo. One of those nights I just couldn't sleep.
 
sgtbriangreen said:
If you can get one with slides, swings, rock wall thingy for cheaper than you can buy one slide new, go for it.
Click to expand...

^^ This.

And the one above the single tower + swings... is identical to the one I had back in NC. Very simple construction.
 
If you're handy with a hammer and saw and don't mind the work ... google free plans and spend the weekend doing something w/the kids they get to keep and use.

Or, if yer really cheap and have trees .... Every wheeler I knows has a pile of useless tires.
A tree and a rope and yer did!

But really, there are some cool free plans on the good ol' WWW.

Matt

btw - I like the one with the log ... I think I would find straight timber and do the whole thing in logs.
 
Lizooki brought up a great point. Definately let the kids help you build it. It will be a long fun weekend and the kids will have a blast helping daddy build thier playset. You can see in my pictures that both of my daughters and my daddy helped. They loved it.
 
I built mine the weekend of Maggie's 3rd birthday. She helped me carry boards and would get screws that I dropped. Sure helped me from having to climb down every time I dropped a screw.
 
If you're willing to drive a little bit, you can have everything from mine if you'll haul off the wood too :D
Has a slide, twisty slide, rock wall, two swings, a double "horse" swing and maybe even a baby swing.
 
Back
Top