I bought my kids a swing set from Academy a few years ago and assembled it. It is getting pretty rickety so I decided it was time to replace it. My sons are 2 and 7 and like to play hard so I needed something that could stand up to many years of abuse. After pricing something more heavy duty I decided to just build one myself. I had a general idea what I wanted and didn't find any plans that looked similar, so I just kinda made it up as I went along. I knew that I wanted it to be heavy duty and last for the rest of their time at home so I probably went overboard on lumber size and everything was pressure treated and will be sprayed down with water sealer annually. I plan on playing on this after they go to college. I have not built much and have very limited experience so I watched a bunch of youtube videos on techniques and also learned a lot about selecting the right grain of lumber for added strength.

I started with four 10' 4x4's and four 16' 4x4's. I only wanted 14', but Home Depot didn't have any. I wanted to use my Home Depot credit card account to help keep track of the total costs since I knew I'd be making quite a few trips for materials since I didn't have a plan with a materials list. All of the posts were concreted 2' deep. Dug 16' worth of post holes that day. I felt every bit of it the next day.

Used 2x6 for all the floor joists and added joist supports and structural screws to secure them. It was at this point that I realized that one of the middle 4x4 posts was about 8" out of square that affected both tiers.

I started framing the walls and added my 4x4's to add monkey bars and to hang the swings from.

My parents and brother were coming over so I took advantage of the extra hands and assembled the tube slide. This thing is commercial grade plastic that had become slightly out of shape from sitting in the box. It had to be manhandled back into shape and then bolted together with what seemed to be a couple thousand bolts, washers, and lock nuts. They manufactures didn't waste a cent on hardware. The bolts were barely long enough to get the nut started by hand and I only had one of each left after I finished assembly. Thank God I had help because it took three of us a few hours to assemble and mount the slide. The tube slide was by far the most expensive part of the build. It was $540 after tax and I shopped long and hard for a slide. Plan on shelling outs some cash if you want to mount a slide on a 7' platform. It was worth every penny when my sons came outside to try it out. They each went down it at least a dozen times and my two year old laughed hysterically nonstop for the first 6 times. Initially I just asked my oldest to try it out, but my youngest was not going to sit by and just watch. I helped him up to the top platform and then he ran and dropped kicked his way into the slide and came rolling out the bottom with the happiest face I have ever seen on a human being.

Did a little more framing for the windows and started on the walls. I also decided that I needed a couple new toys after all my hard work. I wish I wouldve bought the Mag77 saw before I started that is quite possibly the moves circular saw on the planet and it will last me for the rest of my life and will probably be passed down and continue working. The worm drive is fantastic. It puts the blade on the left side of the saw so the right handers like me don't have to lean over the top of the saw to make sure I am still on the line I'm trying to cut. I haven't used the router yet, but have plans for a couple more projects with it and will be using it to round over some corners to attempt to limit the number of splinters that I have to dig out of my kids in the future.

Have the walls almost finished and figured out how to put a roof on. I didn't plan out trying to put the boards on the roof. It was truly a PITA to get the last few screwed on. The small window faces north and the large window faces south. I figured they'd want to cold wind blocked and the warm wind will be necessary in the summer. I left a 1" gap on the slide side so that they could still see out, but could not be seen from the street. I still have to build a build the picnic table under the tallest platform, climbing wall, mount the smaller slide, hang the swings, and add a bucket, rope, and pulley system for sending snacks up and beers when I am hanging out. Hopefully I will be able to finish it all on the 26th.

Your kids are blessed to have you .

Merry Christmas , sir .

Sweet job. I had a bunch of scrap fence material so I built my granddaughter a playset. The last link is a video of the climbing wall.



[video:google]https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipN0lkXN4QzysVWKrS0CpZZbbdAhSYkxWELh8Ajb[/video]

Finally finished it up and have a bunch of pics to upload. I'm happy to say the the bucket and pulley system will hold 48 oz without falling.

Sweet job.

Very nice, am wanting to do something similar for my grandkids this coming year

Where did you find the slide at?

Thank you very much. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.




Amazon.