We are looking to purchase a play structure for our 4 year old and 4 month old. Has anyone bought a wooden play structure from Costco/Toys R Us/Sam's Club or Rainbow? Any other places I should check out? I'm trying to decide what the maintenance would be in such a dry climate and how well the wood will hold up over the years for such a pricey purchase.
Rainbow Play Systems seems to be a great option, but are VERY expensive. At Costco, I can get a decent structure for the price, but don't know how the wood will hold up to the dry climate.
I'm hoping to get something that the kids will play on for several years.
I looked at Rainbow & Playnix and decided that Costco's set was just as good (and more for the $$). So we purchased the set from Costco. We are in the process of putting it together and deciding where it should go in the yard.
Thanks for all the help on this one!
We bought a play structure 5 years ago from Rainbow. We've since moved it twice, by Rainbow. We've had it resealed by Rainbow 2 times, (with each move). It is very solidly constructed, though it is starting to show some wear and tear. My kids play on it at least 5 days a week. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't last another 5 years.
Rainbow is nice because you can start with a basic system and add to it as your boys grow.
We purchased a big system from Sam's 2-1/2 years ago. It took about 40 hours to assemble (and my husband is VERY handy). Really just organizing and laying out all the pieces took hours. We love it though! It was a wonderful purchase. We bought it before we had any furniture and still agree that was the best thing to do. We have had two birthday parties centered around it too. Friday I did notice the wood is looking a little worn and we should reseal it soon. A few weeks ago we also noticed that new one at Sam's is even better and only about $100 more than we paid. I don't think you will ever regret buying your kid's a nice playground. They get so many hours of fun on it. Good luck.
As a girl I had a swing set purchased from Playnix Toys off Hampden and Santa Fe. It held up really well and is now in a third families yard. It did require painting every year with wood protector. Also, every few years there were nails that needed to be put back in. It held up really well as long as the maitenence was kept up with. It was always VERY stable!
We were given a Rainbow play set last year that is 15 years old and is in almost perfact condition. The previous owners put a sealler on it every fall and that seemed to work great.
