While I was deployed to Iraq My wife would take my daughter to the playground every evening to burn off some energy before bedtime ."I want to go to the playground Daddy.....Yea! Daddy lets go.... Woo Hoo!.......!!!" is the first thing I hear when I come home from work every evening. Our local public playgrounds for the most part are Poo skidsmarks down the slide nasty.  So recently I've checked the web and all the local sources around Ft Hood/Killeen area for the preassembled DIY wooden playset kits for the backyard. I've even looked into using some blueprints, gathering everything up myself and building it that way. So far the prices are high as Giraffe Pu$$y. I know you've just gotta fork over the loot sometimes on things but man there has just gotta be a more affordable way.

409 spray would be cheaper. I mean clean the slides and other equipment . It is a lot cheaper.

Might be an out-of-work deck builder who would set you up at a decent price.

I was in the same boat for my 3yo daughter and 1yo son.  Rainbow sets and the other wooden sets are too expensive. Even the ones you can DIY from Home Depot. We ended up going with an old school style metal A frame swing set from Toys R US. approx $200 and they love it. It has 2 regular swings, a Trapeze that we swapped out for an infant swing seat, and teeter totter, and a small slide. Best $200 weve spent. We can just go into backyard and swing whenever we want.



It used to take forever to bundle everyone up in the car and get to the local playground, to have them swing for 15 minutes and get bored. This works out much much better.



http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3436416



The website always says out of stock. We ordered one and it drop shipped to the store in a week.

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I don't think they're worth it personally, kids like to go to the park because there's other kids to play with, everyone I've ever known who spent a bunch of money on playground equipment had one of two things happen, either it never got used after the first week or they ended up with a bunch of neighborhood kids falling off the thing on a regular basis.

OTOH I've got several nice parks within a few miles of my house...

All that said I'll probably build a treehouse at some point, I built my own as a kid. It'd be fun to build a really first rate treehouse.

Costco sells pretty decent kits I think if you're determined.

Your thread title made me think this was going in a completely different direction.

Yea I might need to edit that title

Drive farther to a better playground.

I got a cheap set from Wal-Mart for $200 and it's lasted through 2 kids who are now 11 and 8.  By the time the set falls apart the kids will be old enough to move on to other toys.  All they really want is for you to push them "up high" as my son used to say.

They grow up quick.  Enjoy! and...thanks for your service.

Rainbow playsystems are great for older kids (4-10+).

We were looking at a $5K set and had serious heartburn over the cost.  We put an add in our local paper and found someone with a 4 year old $5K set (the same one we wanted) that they were looking to get rid of it.  They wanted $1K.

The catch being that it needed to be moved from their yard.  Well, I'd say it was a fun job that my father and I did but that really depends on your definition of fun.  Rainbow sets are expensive because they are heavy and built well.  We moved it into our yard within 4 hours and set it back up within 3 hours.  It was a lot of hard work and heavy lifting (the deck was really fucking heavy) but it was worth it.

We refurbished the ropes and bars, and I restained the entire system with Rainbow stain.

For $1K plus a lot of sweat equity, we now have a $5K Rainbow system.

I'd recommend this route as I see lots of people who are done with their systems and are looking to get them off of their lawns.



BTW, we have a three swing set.  Three adults can swing full tilt on this set without upsetting the structure.  That is why you spend the money on a Rainbow.  When kids (10+) swing the playset does not jump.  It's perfectly stable.

Corey

I had the pleasure of designing a play area for a local church.



I used this:



http://www.swingsetsdepot.com/all-swing-sets.cfm



Very high quality for a lot LESS than other places.

Check Craig's List for used sets. Most of them these days are made with treated lumber and delivered to the site as pre assembled pieces. Final assembly is done on site. They can easily be disassembled and moved to another location. You might get lucky and find a nice Cedar set for cheap.

Otherwise, get a set of plans and build one yourself. With basic skills and some basic power tools, it isn't that hard.

+1... I've gotten one off CL so far, and I am looking for a couple more to put together for the massive playset of all playsets. The first one I paid $200 for, but I had to dismantle it myself.

Tag thread. I'm in the same boat and looking to find something for my son. Ive been looking at Craigslist but always seem to be the second person to call.

we used to sell these at my work and dont anymore but alot of people come in saying how much of this shit gets put on craigslist once the kids get older so id look there

Thanks for the responses guys.........Yea I'm still looking