Seeking Advice on Outdoor Playset

I don't know anything about this since we do not have one, however the following website, http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/ has info on them, and a suggestion on where you can get a great deal on a wooden one for under $300.00. Scroll down, it is toward the bottom. Have fun!! :)

My advice is that if you have the room and the budget, the bigger the better. My husband built ours from scratch 2 summers ago..it is absolutely huge. Bigger than some parks.. has like 3 spiral enclosed slides and tubes and many things to play on. We needed like 7 tons of rubber mulch to fill in the area. But the point is that my kids honestly can spend the whole day out there. We have had kids from 1-15 who can find something to do and not be bored. I have friends who spent good money on smaller ones and their young kids are bored after 1/2 hour. We also were going to go with cedarworks before he decided he could do it himself for a whole lot cheaper since they have a lot more options.

Rainbow playsets are the best. They will come to your house and set it up. (they won't let you set it up).There are showrooms to look at them . We went to the naperville one. It was super fun. Also , Toys rus sells them now. I'm sure it isn't the same quality as the ones from the dealer but if it has their name it will still be good.I saw an ad in trus for one that is $1700 . It looks even cooler than the one we got for $3300. I've heard horror stories of the other ones from trus that they don't last room than a few years and aren't very stable. Our Rainbow is solid as a rock . Good luck!

We got ours at SAMS CLUB and the kids love it. My oldest who is 8 has almost outgrown it but our six yr old still loves it.

We got ours as a kit from Lowes. We are so happy with it. It took a full weekend to put together (with 4 guys), but we love it!

We purchased one from Menard's last spring and my son and the neighbor kids love it. He is 4. The other kids range from 4-9 and they all play on it comfortably.

It even survived a move across town by being dismantled, loaded in a truck, and put back together. Can't even tell!

We just bought the kit a couple weeks ago from Menards. My daughter loves it. My husband put it together himself and it is very sturdy. He has been swinging on it with her,lol. So I guess he did a pretty good job of putting it together. With the kit and all the wood it ended up costing us around $400. We are going to add on more each year as she gets older. she just has the the little clubhouse, slide, and 3 swings.

My parents got us one from Menards and it was great.

M.-

We got ours from Costco last fall and we LOVE it! It has a picnic table under the house. It also has a section for a sandbox. I love it because the little club house on top has an actual roof instead of the little tarp. I believe you can go to their website and see it or go to any Costco and they have it put together so that you can see all the bells and whistles. My husband put it together with our neighbors it was a bit tedious but well worth it! The one that we purchased was $1399.00? I think it went up $100 this year?

Good Luck-

Jackie

M.-

It is truly worth the money you will spend on it!!! We bought a wooden one from Toys R Us last spring. Every chance my boys get they are out there. It has a sandbox on the bottom that they love. I was actually pleasantly surprised with Toys R Us' selection and the price I wouldn't have thought of buying there until a brochure came in the mail. They also offer 6 mos no financing if you open up their credit card
Good luck!

My husband and I went the cheap route and purchased the "wood" swingset from Walmart last summer for $300 or $400. Now I am regretting it and wished that we had gone at least the next step and gotten something bigger and more sturdy as I am seeing now that this won't grow with the kids and it is quite flimsy.
They are so darn expensive!
My kids are outdoor kids and they use the swingset every single day that it is nice out so I do think it is worth it if your kids go out like mine. I only wish I had asked the same question a year ago!

you can see mine on my daycare websites, http://www.freewebs.com/tarastoyland and http://www.AtoZLearningTreePreschool.com - I must say it is the most envied playground on the block and among my daycare provider friends.

Our set is a Cedarworks. http://www.cedarworks.com We custom designed it and if you ask to see the Parkman set from Plainfield, IL they will be able to do our set exactly. LOL.

Since I do daycare I needed this set to be a long term purchase. I went with Cedarworks because the wood - Northern White Cedar - is the ONLY type of wood that will never splinter at all. We have had the set almost 5 yrs now and not a splinter yet. We have never treated it, stained it or done anything but make sure bolts are still tight and it's in perfect condition. I liked that they used true 4X4's - lots of other companies don't. I also liked their hardware, the safety features and the play value.

My kids are now 6 1/2 and almost 10 and they still play on it all the time. The daycare kids will spend ours out there every day playing if they can.

We looked at every other brand there was. I didn't like a few things about Rainbow - I got a huge splinter in the show room there, I bumped my head a few times on the demo sets due to poorly placed cross beams and I didn't like that they had rope ladders to no where and play items that just didn't make sense (climb up this thing and go to nowhere?). I liked how our set combined both sides with the tunnel up top.

I know it can be confusing because there are so many options out there. We bought a Rainbow about 4 years. My oldest was 3 and son 2. Now my kids are 7, 6 and 4. The set was expensive, but worth every penny. We did have the option to put it up at the time, but had Rainbow assemble it, which was not cheap, but again worth the money as my husband never finishes a project. The set is very sturdy and my husband and I can both play on it with the kids at the same time. We are not very heavy, but not light either. I like the features that Rainbow offers. At the beginning we had a baby bucket swing. We added on a penthouse about 1 year later and when the kids are old, we can add a bench swing. I've been told not to get the wood canopy, because wasps will make their nests in it. We have the rainbow colored vinyl and have not had wasps. They suggest to take the top down in the winter and we have only done this one year and the top is in pretty good condition. I do have to say that the wood fades and to up keep it, we have stained it every year, which is kind of time consuming and a pain. At the store, they told me that the kids coordination and strength benefit from a playset and I believe them. My daughter (7) can go across the bars and back. Although is guess they would benefit from any playset. My kids even play on it in the winter, so I think even though expensive, we have gotten our money worth. Good Luck.

We liked the Rainbow Playsets. There are many different options to choose from. They are a bit more expensive than the ones from Toys R Us, but they are much better quality. We know people who have had the Toys R Us ones and the ones from Menard's and the wood ended up splintering after a year or two and they had to rebuild it. Starting in the spring, there should be ads in the paper for used ones which are much cheaper than brand new. You normally have to go and take it apart yourself but you will save a lot of money. There is a Rainbow showroom in Crystal Lake where they have a bunch of them put together indoors and the kids can play on them, you can also get a book there of all the different sets and options available. We got ours 2 years ago, and my 6 year old still plays on it.

we got ours from Sam's club and love it.It is so sturdy,
and it's huge.They have one right now displayed at Sam's club a different style,but just as big.
For 1200 Dollars!
I was doing a lot of research last year.
I'm very happy with this one.

Although pricey, Rainbow Play systems are great. They offer many different configurations to fit various budgets. We still have one in the yard and our sons are now 14 and 17. It has held up well and was a very good investment.

I am not sure what you are looking to spend - the prices vary immensely on these sets!

We bought ours last year from walmart, and LOVE it. It had great reviews - much better than any of the sets at TRU. The website says not available in stores, but check your local store anyway - ours had it and we saved the shipping charge.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8222491

We bought ours at Sam's Club about 4 years ago and it's worked out great, the kids love it! I have a 2 and 6 yr. old and usually have allot of other kids over playing on it too. We just had to re-stain it last summer but it's help up great and I like the plastic roof instead of the material ones that get ripped and fade. It does take allot of work to put together but it's well worth it. I know Costco has a similar one now too.