Home Playground equipment - need some

[Angel]

So I'm looking online and at Lowes-Deepthroat at what is out there...

omg.

I love my sons, a lot, but not enough to pay more for a swingset than my car is worth..
(and, wife and I just dont have that much).

I see the low end kits coming in at $500 w/o lumber
High end assembled sets for $6k.

anyone else surprised ? (litigious owners perhaps ?)

Wife and I have tried sniping craigslist and local garage sales - the demand is just too great - all the sets (All of them) are sold before we call/garage sale opens.


I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, I maintain my own cars, built #1 son a sandbox last year, and have a basic spread of wood tools (or access to good ones). #1 spn is 2 yrs old, #2 son is 6 weeks old.

Can anyone suggest some plans that I could buy and build something myself ? If I were closer to school (in age) I'd draw something up in "Solid Edge" but I've lost most of those skills. I could take a few hours (alone) wandering the hardware store to see what kinds of brackets and such are out there, but designing my own thing is kinda time consuming. Thats what I'l looking at right now though.

Ideally, It'd be just a basic set with 2 or 3 swings and a platform with a slide on one side and a ladder on the other. if I did it myself, it might balloon wildy out of that scope =)

How to get a swingset on the cheap ? Any other ideas ?

-John

[Mistress]

Contact John Doe or G-Benz, they both have kick- butt outdoor activity sets for their children.

[G-Benz]

This a Rainbow playset.



Note that this particular set is over 10 years old, and aside from periodic re-staining (about every three years or so), it has required ZERO maintenance!

They are pricey, but worth every dollar. My daughter was 3 when I purchased it, and even now, it still gets occasional use.



I paid around $3 - 3.5K back then. The local franchise comes and sets it up for you. They will even dismantle it later should you move and want to take the playset along!

I recommend finding a local dealer and checking one out. The materials are A-1 quality!

http://www.rainbowplay.com/index.php/swing-sets/

They no longer make this particular model, but have comparable ones.

[SwampYankee]

I picked up ours at TimberGyms in October a few years ago during their season closeouts. $3500 set for $1500 (it was the demo-others were 40-50% off). If you can wait until then it's definitely worth the wait.

I'm disappointed with myself that I haven't stained it because it is showing signs of weathering and it's all due to my negligence. Otherwise it is holding up well.

[John Doe]

Mine's not quite as trick as G's but I bought the bracket kit and hardware through a company called PlayStar. I had a line on the lumber and ordered it separate, per the directions in the kit. Paid $200 for the kit--4x4' deck playhouse, slide and three swings, two climbing walls. Total cost was about $1K, but to have the company that sold me the kit precut the lumber and set it up would have been $2200. My father was in town for 2 wks around xmas so it was a fun project for us. I would strongly caution designing it yourself, because of primarily the bracketing required for all the funky angled beams and supports unique to swing sets--I don't know where you would find such unless you fabricated that stuff. I'll be glad to elaborate if you need more info.