Pro and Cons of an Outdoor Wooden Play Set

Hi M., I bought one for my daycare kids, and it was good gfor a couple years, but then it started warping, and got wabaly, was full of spider webs every morning, so in the spring I am going back to the old fashion swingsets that lasted for years with my children. J.

We got an old Rainbow set for free two summers ago. It's great. It's a big one, with two decks, two slides (including a tunnel), etc. Ours was 12 years old when we got it, hubby had to replace some wood, but it is now in almost new condition and I know we will use it till the kids are 11 or 12 (they will use the swings).

Short answer: rainbows are worth the cost, and get a big one that they can grow into.

Okay so I thought, incorrectly, that wood is wood. I bought a fairly expensive set, around 1,000 dollars and put it together myself. I though, incorrectly, that the cost difference was in the install so I was really getting the same quality as a Rainbow.

Yeah, not so much!

The wood was a softer wood so it fell apart a lot quicker than my brother's Rainbow. The kids were at least old enough that I told them to suck it up and we will get a pool the next year. :)

Thing is the harder the woods the more expensive they are because they grow slower. So there can be differences in the lumber. Differences more than enough to take at least 5 years off the life of the set. My brothers is still there and ours has been down for five years. I can get back to you when his finally falls down but I have a feeling my brother's grandkids will be playing on it at that point.

Oh, if you have a Costco membership and wait until the spring they always have a really nice Rainbow set fairly reasonable. I want to say around 1,200.

we have a rainbow-that was a hand me down. It must be at least 14 yrs old. Ours has a fort on top, a slide, a climbing wall (that we added), a swing on one side and a hangy swingy bar on the other. at one point we had swings on both sides. Yes-it is still used. My kids are 10 thru 4. we also put the little tykes sand box under the fort. The 10 yr old only plays on it when they make a water slide in the summer. The 4 yr old plays on it everyday. The grass under neath, the swings/slide/stairs will be gone.

You can buy the best one on the market...but they still get full of spider webs!

We got one (forget where, DH ordered it) for SD when she was 8. I doubt he paid more than $500 and installed it himself (well, with my help). She doesn't play on it much anymore (she's 17!) but DD uses it. It had a slide that was broken by a fallen tree a few years after it was put up. We swapped it for a climbing wall, but later added a new slide. It has a "fort" and monkey bars across where the swings connect. Two single swings and a double swing. That's it. It seems to be enough for DD and any of her little friends. I'd say SD stopped playing on it regularly when she was about 13. The only repairs we've had to do was tighten a few bolts and fix a wooden piece that was broken by the tree.

I sold a really great wooden one on Craigslist once because we were moving and the buyers of our house didn't want it. Keep checking there, you can save a lot of money by buying second hand and it is better for the earth to recycle rather than buying new. Also, tell friends and family you are looking. We know someone who was given a wonderful set from a neighbor who's son was now a teenager and they didn't want it in their yard any more. The deal was the family getting the set had to take it apart, take it away and set it up in their yard. It was an excellent deal for everyone.

Also we suggest wooden rather than metal, it was very strong, and felt more natural and earthy than the metal ones that hurt really badly when you accidentally bump in it. Try to get one that has lots of different ways to play on it so as they grow it will keep their interest. What ever age they are now, in the blink of an eye they will be older.

Have fun!

I have one from Lowes. It was a hand-me-down from some friends who were transferred to the Houston area. Their kids are grown and have kids now so they really didn't need it when they moved several years ago.

It has 3 sets of hooks for either swings, swinging bar, seat swing, etc...what ever will hook on their with it's chain fits. It has a web climbing area between the fort/deck area and the swing area. It also has a rope swing and then the fort/deck area has 2 levels, one where the main area is and another for the top of the slide. The slide has 2 humps in it. It also has ladders to get up to the top on 2 different sides. The one side where the rope swing is should have a rock climbing wall but we can't really afford that. The kids are 5 and 8 and still play on it every time they go outside.

I also had another friend who was given one by a different family that was moved during this transfer and their set was much more geared to toddlers. Even though she has continued to have children and the smaller ones play on it the older than 5 group do not. It has one swing hook and a short straight slide. The top of the slide is barely at waist height for an adult so it's just not fun for kids that are school age that have slides that circle at least twice around and are so high you can see home from the top...lol.

So, in my opinion. Get a full size one from the beginning. It will last longer and will have all the kids in the neighborhood on it playing every time you guys go out the door.

My FIL bought on for my oldest 7 yrs ago - in my opinion they saw him coming! He paid way too much for what he got. It wasn't a rainbow play set that he got and what he paid close to $3,000 for wasn't much once it was set up in our backyard. It had the fort w/a slide, a net climbing thing, a canvas fort, monkey bars, a baby swing & 2 regular swings. We moved over the summer and the thing was so warped we couldn't even move it to give it to anyone we now use it as firewood in our firepit. My girls did get a lot of use out of it, but honestly I never would've spent that kind of money on one of these. I have considered maybe buying on of the ones Lowes or Home Depot sells to put up in our new backyard.

We have one and I love it. I bought it used on craigslist for about 1/3 of the total price and then paid someone to take it apart, move it, and set it up in my backyard. Ours has two swings plus a trapeze-type bar, and then a climbing area with a slide. My kids love playing on it and it makes for some pretty fun playdates at our house. If you have the space in your backyard, it's definitely worth it.
My kids are 4 years and 13 months. It's perfect.

We have one. We paid for half, and my parents paid for half. We got it on sale for about $1000.00. We've had it for six years. Our kids have enjoyed it, but I don't know that it's been worth the money. Our neighbors have a metal frame swing set, and a large, plastic jungle gym with a big slide and they have just as much fun playing on that as they do on our wooden one. Plus, most of the time, they'd rather go to the park where they can play with other kids. Knowing that, I'd don't think we'd do it again.

We got a (non-Rainbow) play structure from Toys R Us when my son was three. He is five now, and he still plays with it all the time. And now his sister is also getting big enough to enjoy it. We paid less than $600 for ours, and it was definitely worth the investment.

For us, the must-haves was the little treehouse on top, swings, slide, and monkey bars. A nice bonus for me was that the roof of the treehouse was made of wood, not canvas.