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backyard playsets...do your kids use yours???? (considering spending $5K and wondering)
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Anonymous
By the way, we are really happy with it and would not spend the big, big money on this if we had to do it again. |
Anonymous
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I think you will get a lot of use out of it, but $5000 seems very high. You are paying $1000 for mulch! Sure it's rubber, but look at what your kids play on at the park.
I suggest researching an option B that is lower cost across the board. I bet you will be just as happy with something half the price. |
Anonymous
| we got one when my kids were 5 and 2 and they are now 9, 6 and 3. Its probably the best money we ever spent. And we did mulch under it and bordered it with 4x4s. The mulch is for safety, but they love to dig in the mulch, too. in nice weather, they are out there at least every other day. |
Anonymous
| My kids have outgrown the one we had, but I have to agree with many others here. I'd spend much, much less. We also got ours at Lowe's for less than $1k and it was great. |
Anonymous
| We have ours on grass, and I don't worry about safety. I think the risks are low. When I was a kid all the playground equipment was on asphalt. I think this wrapping kids in cotton wool can be taken too far. |
Anonymous
| We bought a cheaper costco one at the time kids were 3 and 5. Now 8 and 11 and they still use it (mostly 8 yr old and friends.) So good investment but if you can do cheaper than 5k I would. Only thing to think about is the mosquitos. There were times in our old house where we could not use it because mosquitos were so bad in summer. Spring, Fall, and sunny winter days were fine. |
Anonymous
| I bought one six years ago. Great investment. Kids are always on it. |
Anonymous
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OP here
That's for all the great feedback. We are looking around to see if we can find a used set maybe on craigslist. |
Anonymous
| We never did buy one and our kids are preteens. We put that money into their college funds instead and took them to the park nearby. |
Anonymous
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I originally did not want to build one. Everytime we were driving around I would look into people's yard and I NEVER saw kids playing on them, ever. Everyone out where I live has one. DH really wanted to do it. We bought the one from Costco and installed it ourselves. The kids love it and are on it every chance that they get.
The safety side of me wanted to get the rubber mulch but we never got around to doing this. Most people we know do not have the mulch. I think it depends on whether you have a backyard where the kids can play alone outside with you inside or whether you would be outside with them anyway. |
Anonymous
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This is a great thread, thanks OP for starting it. We are also looking to install one (our kids are 5, 3 and less than 1 yo). Thinking it will be a great investment.
On a side note, does anybody have any opinions on installing a pretty cool tree house vs. a play set? We have the wooded space and I think my husband has dreams of having a tree house with maybe fun things like a slide attached...I don't know though... |
Anonymous
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5K is WAY too much.
Just buy the one Costco stocks for $1,100. Also, your estimate on rubber mulch is WAY too low. We have the Costco set and if you follow the safety guidelines, you need a pretty large mulch permiter around the set (something like 25x25) Once you fill that with the rubber mulch the reccomended 3inches you are looking at more like $1,800. We too did the grading because our backyard slopes. We did it ourselves and had to rent a backhoe, then we had to create a perimeter with pressure treated lumber and of couse a retaining wall (Slope=retaining wall) we then had to put a layer of gravel approx 3in deep that sits under the rubber mulch or else it would have turned into a mudpit/swamp without proper drainage. This sort of pre work is very expensive, which is why my DH did it himself. IF we had hired out everything, our estimate was: 1K-playset $700-playset set up (ONE handyman cannot do this) $2,500 ground prep $1,800 rubber mulch Total $6,000 |
Anonymous
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We have one and use it ALL the time.
But, we did not buy it new. We found someone selling one on Craigslist and finally found a decent set for a nice price (less than 1/2 what we'd buy in the store). You have to look around b/c some delusional people are asking almost full retail for their used set that has been sitting out in the rain and snow for years. My DH replaces some bolts and a couple pieces of wood. We bought all new (except the seesaw) swings. We put it on a level area and use wood chips. We are out there almost any nice day. Well worth it. |
Anonymous
| Why is it dangerous to put it on grass? |
Anonymous
If you have several inches of rubber mulch, head and other injuries from falls can be less severe. You have to put down enough depth to match the height of the fall potential. I have never seen anyone actually put down the mulch. |