Thank you for posting this video. Grandma just bought this swing set for our baby boy and I offered to install it instead of paying $500 for a professional installation. I am gaining more confidence to do it. Just heard you said it took you and your dad 30 hours to build it, wow! I will keep you posted and if I have any questions, do you mind if I post my Q here?
I have a sloping yard and like the box & gravel idea for leveling the swing legs. Did you build the playhouse and then the gravel box and then attach the swing beams to the playhouse with the feet in the gravel and check for level?
Correct. We did the playhouse and got it level and then measured to where the legs of the swing set beam would sit and built the box and added gravel. Then we just made small adjustments by adding more gravel to add height and to level the beam leg bottoms to make sure the swing beam was level.
Very helpful thank you. Going to buy tomorrow a similar one from costco. Will set it up once snow melts here in Ontario. The one I am looking at comes pre-stained (water based). I like what you did with the gravel on the surfaces that touch the ground! I think i will do the same. Is it easy to cut the grass around? I was thinking to do a pit with mulch but your way is cheaper and less labour intensive. Or would you do the gravel area bigger so.grass doesn't grow around the surfaces? Anything you would do different in general?
Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful. I use a string trimmer around it and it's not terrible but you have to be careful because the cedar is soft so the trimmer line will definitely eat in into it if you aren't paying attention. So far I like my setup. You could definitely do some salt treated 6x6 beams as a border and put down a barrier and then put gravel or mulch on that if you don't want to worry about mowing around it but I didn't want to have to worry about my kids getting skinned up on the gravel and I didn't want the mulch sitting against any of the wood and holding moisture against it. Definitely add a coat of an oil based stain once you get it put together. The water based stain that comes on it doesn't hold up well at all. Ours still looks really good but am going to get some stain and give it another coat this summer. Overall I don't think I'd change how we did it. It's holding up well and our kids use it on a daily basis.
This is great. Looks like one we just got delivered. Did you do the oil based stain on each piece before assembly or after assembly? Ours comes pre-stained with the water based stained and I was going to seal each piece with water based sealant before installation. But maybe I should use an oil based stain/sealant instead?
I did it after. My fear would be that if you do it before then you will cover up the alpha numeric code and not know which pieces go where. The oil based stain that I initially used didn't hold up all that well because the stain that came on it seemed to prevent good adhesion. I did a full refinish last spring and restained it then and it is holding up much better this time. The stain and the anchors are a must if you're looking for longevity.
We built the main clubhouse part first and then built the various attachments and tested their position by leaning them against the clubhouse where they would attach. At that point we would mark on the ground where the gravel needed to be and then dig out holes and fill them with gravel and then attached the peice to the clubhouse. I hope that helps.
Thanks for the video. I just assembled a similar set. What brand and finish of stain did you use? Did you take apart the plastic on the climbing wall to stain?
Cabot oil based redwood semi-solid. It's held up well. It's nearly three years old now and between our kids and bees eating on the wood for nest material it's ready for a good scrubbing and another coat. Overall I'm very happy with how it's held up.
Can you show me your seesaw and how it is installed? I bought the same one for my wooden swing set which is similar to that one. It didn’t come with it.
I know this is an old video, but do you think you could move the slide to where the rock wall is? Also while searching for this set, Lynn French just took hour whole video and dubbed over it. Just letting you know.
It could be done. Keep in mind that the opening where the rock wall comes up to is 28 inches wide and the opening for the slide is only 24 inches wide. This means that with the configuration you would like the slide would definitely have room but it would be a bit trickier for bigger kids to climb inside the top of the clubhouse from the rock wall. You would also likely need to support the platform that the slide would be attaching to with a 2x4 on each side of the slide to make up for the lost support from the rock wall. The other issue is that you would have to relocate the door into the bottom of the club house. It is directly under the slide and there would not be room to get in and out from that spot if the rock wall were there. That could be done as well but that would put the entrance and exit point next to the glider which could cause problems (or injuries) if multiple kids are playing or would sacrifice a seat and table spot under the slide. My advice would be to leave it the way it is but the short answer is yes. You can do that if you're will to make the other necessary changes and accept the loss of a seat and table or the risk of a kid getting hit by a glider. I hope that helps.
The Internets thank you, and I’ll have to make the necessary adjustments because in my back yard, I have space for a narrow but longer swing set. In that current configuration, the slide would land on a hill. Haha
This link is for the 18" stakes but you can get them from 12-36" in 6 inch increments if I'm not mistaken. www.lowes.com/pd/Steel-Rebar-Pins-Common-0-75-in-x-18-in-Actual-0-75-in-x-18-in/4008133?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_--_-google-_-lia-_-210-_-masonrymetals-_-4008133-_-0&store_code=2773&placeholder=null&&ds_a_cid=119207829&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyaP63oHm6QIV2h-tBh2j1wi_EAQYAiABEgIFIPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
@@theinternets7516 any problems with swaying ? (Not related to stakes). I saw some other vids of guys putting deck screws through where there are carriage bolts to hold it from swaying as the carriage bolts have an unthreaded shoulder that would allow some shimmy
@@jbaker323, no major issues with swaying with the stakes in the ground. The only hardware issue I've had is some of the regular wood screws breaking and having to replace them with better quality screws. Overall it's held up well.
