We are looking into wooden swingsets for the kids. With birthday money and thier savings i reckon we could budget 600 but that needs to include all fitting and surfacing beneath(i think the rubberised tiles are the way to go.)

I have seen sets from plum, wickey and others but reviews indicate this is a minefield and prices are all over tbe place. Priority is quality/long lasting and ideally want at least 2 swings and a slide.

Anyone got personal experience and reccomendations?

Can you DIY? The crossbar of ours is 11ft from the ground, it’s a beast, made with 4″ 3.6m posts, stainless hardware and bought swing seats/chain.

Cost worked out about £250 all in, including the second hand 3m slide, paint and bits of wood for the platform and ladder to the slide. I expect this will outlast us, and it’s certainly a far sturdier structure than any of the ones in my customer’s gardens.

Hey Dan.

I am a more than reasonable diyer however as much as mrs muz is happy for me to build things like decking, slabbing and large veg beds this will have our babies hanging off it and i have been advised to buy not build.

Plus how did you get the beam that high? Heavy and ladders dont mix

Edit- too sleepy. Of course you just build it on its side then tip. Doh!

This sort of thing really isn’t hard to put together yourself in an entirely safe manner and you could save yourself a packet in labour costs.

I built this in the autumn, cost about £300 in timber and that was it.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Z6hsNb]IMG_20171015_1650559[/url] by Hugh Lunnon, on Flickr

I just used fenceposts for the timber, they’re not massively heavy to lift up solo

5lab – that looks fabulous – how did you fix the cross brace ? , can’t even see any bolts there.

any chance of a pic of the inside of the fort ?

that all looks superb for a home DIY job.

ok, this edit vanished – if this double posts then I’m sorry 🙂

walowiz – thanks!

I don’t have any great pics of the inside at the moment (am away from home for half term) – its got a ladder that goes up just inside the door, then the rest is decked using normal cheapy decking (both layers) – it will have a little bench and table inside (probably made of old scaff boards) in the summer. You can just about see it in this photo -> https://www.flickr.com/photos/5lab/37729546841/

the swingbeam is supported directly below by wood at both ends, as I didn’t really want the load going through bolts or a bracket – so on the a-frame side I mitered the uprights to perfectly fit the beam (working out the angles for that was a bit of a pain) and at the other end the vertical corner beam is in 2 pieces, one above the crossbeam and one below (its then bolted a bunch to ensure its nice and rigid). The cross brace is just screwed in with 8x150mm screws (or similar) – I think these are all attached from the inside – it’d have been nicer to use a router to cut channels into the uprights for the cross-brace but I don’t have one and my workings weren’t quite that accurate, so its just attached in at the sides

I’d feel safer with a diy swing than a shop made one, given the corners they cut to produce things cheaply.

Yes, I built this on it’s side then tilted it up. But holy mnackerel was it a task and a half! I couldn’t lift it on my own and didn’t have help other than my feeble wife, so her job was to shove things under the brace as I deadlifted it a few inches at a time. Eventually it started to get high enough that the weight lessened and I got up a platform ladder to heave it more. All seemed fine until it decided to do a twirl onto one end and take me with it! Injury averted though and I got it into place, used ground anchors screwed down into the turf and built the slide platform once the swing was done.

For the price of ready built ones I;d definitely suggest DIY. If you spent the £600 and a few days work you could have something stupendous that none of the other kids will have!

I’ve just built a pond and bridge where that photo was taken from, and this summer I hope to do a climbing wall on the side of the slide platform. I cut down a 40ft pine near the house and left a 7ft stump which I’ve screwed little branch stubs onto as climbing holds. It’s definitely a kid’s garden!

I have fencepost attached with ratchet straps between two trees. Having a couple of suitably strong trees a suitable distance apart was most helpful. The swing was a tenner form Argos.

Whatever you do, plant some trees now in preparation for Grandchildren?