Things You Need to Think About Before Purchasing a Backyard Playset By Catherine Eames, Triplet Mom Originally printed in July 2003 Backyard playsets are costly, expensive or just plain outrageous!! As with so many things in our lives, the first question to think about in your decision to purchase a backyard playset is your budget. Remember, it is not just the cost of the equipment you purchase and the material it is made of, it is also the cost of prep work to clear and level the appropriate sized area in your yard, the ground cover under and around the playset, and how much of the work can you (or your beer-drinking friends) do. This article is meant to give you a road map so that you can purchase the highest quality, most fun and memory-making playset you can afford. Site Considerations Your budget will dictate the size of your site – if your yard is small or if your town considers the placement of a playset as a structure and regulates placement near property lines, you will have lower site prep costs because your site will be smaller. Don't forget to take sun versus shade and the amount of supervision your children need into account. Most playset manufacturers recommend adult supervision for all people using the playset. Others state (for older children) that a person must be able to view at least 75% of the play area from regularly used door or window (like a kitchen or family room window). The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued guidelines on minimum recommended sizes and site allowances based on the length, width and height of your playset. Many manufacturers recommend increasing the minimum site size by 10% or more in each direction. Site prep includes the following: first, removal of whatever is currently there – grass, rocks, brush and bramble. If the site does not have good drainage, you may have to dig deeper and put pea gravel, crushed stone or some other drainage agent down before building the level back up. After clearing, you have got to make the site level. This doesn't mean eye-balling things – it really means leveling with weights, strings, stakes and levels. It also means compacting the site to make it as firm as possible. The more level your site, the safer and more sturdy your finished product. If you hire an assembler, the assembler will expect that this will be done upon arrival at your house (unless you have contracted for the assembler to do that also). Finally, after completion, you have got to top dress the site with some kind of ground cover. Some people go with basic yard mulch (either treated or untreated), while others go for sand, shredded tires or other synthetic material. Your budget should include enhancement or replacement of this ground cover annually. Materials and What to Buy There are four primary materials used in playsets today. In order of least expensive to most costly, they are: metal, pressure treated (chemically treated for longer life, limited splintering) pine or other wood, non-chemically treated wood (either red cedar or redwood), and plastic. Metal playsets have advantages: they are relatively inexpensive, easy to assemble and move because they are smaller and contain fewer parts, and are readily available at retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us. However, they often rust and are not as durable as playsets made of wood or plastic. Expect to pay $200-750 for these playsets, less over the internet or during special holiday sales. Delivery and assembly is usually quick and straightforward through the retailer from whom you purchased the playset. The wood and plastic playsets require a bit more thought. Your budget, your do-it- yourself tools and skills (and those of your friends) and your available time must be considered because you get to decide what you are going to purchase from the playset manufacturer. You can purchase these playsets in the following ways: 1.) Just the plans, with a complete bill of materials, "easy to follow" instructions, and cutting diagrams for each piece of wood, including full dimensions. You get to take the bill of materials to a variety of lumberyards for quotes and choose the one that offers the best price and materials. I know people who have done this, but they are the same people who think nothing of turning their attached garage into a family room. "Easy to follow" instructions are in the eye of the beholder and you really have to know what you are doing. Remember, your children will be asking you, "When can we go on our new swingset?" every waking hour of every day from the time the lumberyard drops off the materials until you complete the job and then use a metal detector to find all of the stray nails, bolts and screws you dropped while assembling. Expect to pay $200 to $1000 for plans, the most expensive being those that you have some input (custom designed for your site and budget). 2.) This is another do-it-yourself, but this time, you pay the playset manufacturer for the plans, hardware and accessories. In short, you get everything from them but the lumber. Again, you get to go to lumberyards and get the best price and service on the lumber. A lot of the cost here is the accessories you purchase and the size of the playset. Your cost can be as little as $300 or as much as $3,000 or more. 3.) This, too, is a do-it-yourself, but you get everything including lumber delivered to your home, usually by common carrier. The trade-off here is the common carrier charge (depending on what size playset you purchase, this charge could be $150- $500 or more) versus your desire and comfort to purchase the lumber on your own. You have purchased an unassembled playset; expect this to cost half (or slightly less) of what option 4 costs. This option is available for either wood or plastic playsets. Plastic playsets costs 30-50% more than wood because they are literally indestructible heirlooms, meant to be passed down for generations. However, for children with wood allergies, this may be the only alternative. Better yet, check out the best and newest playgrounds in your area and go there. 4.) The most expensive option is the purchase of a wood or plastic playset (either a stock set or a custom designed playset) through a locally authorized dealer and arrange for assembly through them or a list of their recommended assemblers. Although I have not assembled a playset, I witnessed the disassembly and re-assembly of one in my yard last summer when we moved into our new house. The playset needed to be moved and it took three experienced assemblers about eight hours (24 hours, collectively). Most of the websites I visited with do-it-yourself assembly recommended allowing 40 to 100 or more hours to count and layout the parts and assemble to playset. This did not include site prep or placement of ground cover upon completion. So, now that you're armed with questions and answers about how much work you're willing to do yourself, site considerations, materials and how much you can afford, look in the Yellow Pages for local playset distributors (this is a great family activity and you can see the kinds of things your kids gravitate towards) and check out company websites for possible playset choices. Some websites even attempt to hook you up with nearby customers of their product so that you can talk and meet with another homeowner and satisfied customer and try it out in their yards. The important thing to remember – you'll probably only purchase one playset in your lifetime. Buy the best you can afford, especially if you want your family to spend lots of time outdoors. Remember, most of the sets are modular so you can buy the core essentials now and generally add to it later. Have fun!!