128 Wheelbarrow Trips 0 Regrets

Posted on 06 06, 2006 under Doodads by Noodad | Comments

So you broke down and bought a swing set for the kids. Whether you paid someone to put it together for you or you decided to brave it yourself, the hard part is yet to come. Because the hardest part of installing the swing set on your property is the preparation of the area.

That is, of course, if you decide to follow the suggested "safe-area" requirements established for residential play structures. I did. It took me a total of 30 hours of hard labor, 8 cubic yards of wood chips, 128 wheelbarrow trips and 8 tablets of Alleve. But, it is finished and the kids and I could not be more pleased.

 

Before I go any further, for further clarification, let me explain what I"m talking about when it comes to swingsets. These days, swingsets are not what we were used to growing up. These aren"t aluminum slides that burned the backs of your thighs in the heat of summer. These are industrial grade plastic slides that don"t fry your backside but still cause tremendous static as little butts slide down. These are, essentially, community playground quality playsets that can cost upwards of $5000! I"m all for getting my kids quality things (Especially when safety is concerned), but when I can buy that industrial grade deck-inset Weber grill with built-in fridge and bar for that price, I have to re-align my priorities.

When I was a kid, my sister and I had a swingset from Sears that was some sort of Olympic Decathlon themed. There were monkey bars, rings, 2 swings, and a slide with blue screen printed divers and gymnasts. By the time we were finished with it, the rusted thing had a bent frame (from the time, as a high school student, I tried to do pullups on it) and a warped, busted slide (from the time, also in high school that I tried to ride my bike down it). These new sets are made of wood and have installed safety precautions like tube slides so that idiots can"t try to ride their bikes down them.

So we bought a basic playset and had it installed by the manufacturer. Then came the careful planning of the play area. There are 3 things to concern yourself with: clearance, edging, and ground coverage. This article will highlight what I decided to do for my yard. Take what you can use noodads.

CLEARANCE
They say you should have a 6 foot clearance on all sides of the swingset. This includes clearance of fences, tree limbs, sidewalk, etc. Great if you live on a 60 acre estate with wide open fields (much like the people who were photographed for the installation manual). But for people with more modest homes and land, this could be an issue. I cleared out an area roughly 24ft X 36ft. This gave ample room for the playset but did not necessarily give me 6 feet of clearance on all sides. You obviously need to use you best judgement. The requirements are in place in case your kid decides to jump off the slide platform onto his head. If you can"t secure that type of land then you need to police your kid more.

GROUND COVERAGE
When it comes to coverage, the depth is determined by the material used. I looked into getting the synthetic rubber mulch. It has many benefits including lifetime guarantee, no color fading, and heavy enough to not blow around in the wind. The main problem is the price. I was quoted a price of $38 a cubic yard. As opposed to the $18 a cubic yard of wood chips cost. The advantage of the rubber mulch is you only need 3 inches of depth. With wood chips they recommend 6-8" of depth. That can add up. You could also use a pebble stone but those get everywhere and actually hurt pretty bad if you fall on it. I don"t know about you, but my feeling is no matter the size, rock is rock. I decided to go with the wood chips for 2 reasons: cost and aesthetic. My house sits in a fairly wooded area. The wood chips created a more natural look. And the $20 a cubic yard I saved didn"t hurt either.

EDGING
They recommend either the railroad ties or the metal edgers to mark off the play zone and separate the safety coverage from the rest of your yard. You really don"t need to have anything but edgers allow you to contain the ground coverage. I opted to dig deep (about 6 inches) into the ground and make the wood chips flush with the grass. I did this for the following reasons: railroad ties would require me to make a big rectangle in my yard. I thought, given my environment, it would look unnatural. And my wife feared my kids would trip and hurt themselves on the metal edgers. Most swingset places sell plastic edging blocks.These are upwards of $20 a piece for a 2 foot long piece. The cost factor prevented me from even considering these.

I used a hard steel edging tool to make the edge and then used a shovel to shovel out the grass 2 feet into the play area. I then dumped the wood chips over the interior grass and the exposed dirt on the outside. I chose to make the chips flush with the grass because I wanted to make a curved edge to my play area and it looks pretty neat inset into the grass.

The hardest part for me, was I couldnt get  the truck to dump the wood chips directly into the pit. Because of the location of my septic tank and the trees that pepper my yard, the truck had to dump it onto my front lawn. Which means I needed to wheelbarrow all of it one wheelbarrow at a time. In all it took 128 trips back and forth. Considering the wheelbarrow held approximately 10 shovels full each, you can do the math. Let"s just say Billy Blanks would have been psyched at how ripped I was after that. My back ached for 2 weeks.

Remember, you can choose to follow all 3, some, are none at all. My advice is to do it all at once, before your kids play on the darn thing. And the first time your kid falls off the ladder onto their back, you will realize it was time and money well spent.

 

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Viewing 4 Comments

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    excellent tips indeed!
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    I am about to start a blog and your blog gave me much hint how to do it. I really loved to visit your blog. Hope to see more inputs from you in your blog.
    regards
    sears parts
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    Don\'t forget to level the area. Installed on even the slightest of inclines, these sets get all out of whack pretty quickly.

    I bought a set from Costco a couple of years ago. Rainbow (one of the top manufacturers) designs a set exclusively for Costco each year. I had already plunked down a deposit on a $2,500 set somewhere else when I found the one at Costco for just under $1,000! It had more features and better construction. If you\'re in the market for one of these, check out Costco. Be prepared to work, though.

    The set came in four long boxes plus the slide and weighed about 800lbs total. You will need a pickup truck or a commercial-type van to get it home. I found the hardware and sorted it into brown lunch bags by each assembly step. I was able to watch \"The Gangs of New York\" in its entirety just sorting the hardware. I persuaded some friends to help me, and the next day I had a crew of no fewer than three people at any one time. It still took about nine hours.

    I usually follow the rules, but I didn\'t in the case of preparing the site. The site is level and I have the recommended clearance on all but one side, but I didn\'t put anything underneath (mulch, pea stone, etc.).

    Noodad is right about these sets. They aren\'t like the steel tubular sets of yore. I do have fond memories of my insidious tetanus-shot-waiting-to-happen, though. My neighbors used it in their yard when their cousins were selected to be in a Tide commercial (yes, just like on \"The Brady Bunch\"). I also remember that you had that beast really rocking when the legs would come off the ground, which usually took all four kids swinging in unison. Yikes!
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    When deciding on edging or not and bedding, I would also consider weather and drainage. Also if you have wild and crazy kids like mine were when they were younger, the edging will allow at least some barrier to keep a portion of the substrate in the area it is suppose to be in.
    :)

    I bought one of those huge playset kits. One that you buy the hardware kit and directions, then the lumber and put them together. First let me say that it was well worth it, between the 2 girls, I got about 9 years use out of it and it helped sell that house when we moved. I learned a couple of things while building it.

    One thing I learned is that no matter how handy you are with a hammer, bring a friend. Being a good carpenter has nothing to do with handling large pieces of wood. A project that should take a few hours becomes handicraft night from hell. Tomorrow is a birthday and you can\'t put it off. heh
    The second more for comedy than anything else, when you put 2- 2x8x16 pressure treated pieces of lumber together you get a fairly formidable beam. Add to that a ton of hardware fastened to and drilled through the entire 16\' length. Now you have a fairly formidable beam that weighs a bajillion pounds. Finally imagine the moment just after I finished assembling this monster beam........in my garage.....because it would be quicker than carrying 2 saw horses, a saw, a drill and a box of screws all the way to the back yard.
    :eek
 

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