Climbing Frame & Play Equipment Buyer's Guide

How do I choose a good wooden playset?

There are many factors that will influence your choice of wooden climbing frame, including you budget, available space, fitting in with the look of your garden, and your children's ages and interests. Our play equipment offer a huge range of options and features, many of which we include regardless of price, such as swings and slides. Our range of climbing frames consists of mainly climbing frames with standard 120cm deck heights, but as your budget increases we can provide more wood in the set which enables us to offer larger play decks and higher (150cm) deck heights which enable us to include longer slides and higher rockwalls.

 

What's included?

Our climbing frames are all 'pre-boxed' ready for home build. All parts are included, including all wood, metal and plastic components and a fully illustrated owners manual to aid your home build. During manufacture our products have all been pre-cut, pre-drilled and pre-stained to ensure you spend the minimal time building and can enjoy the play equipment as soon as possible. The manual will take you through the build in simple and easy stages, from identifying your parts to completing the set. 

 

What about installation?

Our sets are all designed for home build, and come will all parts required and a fully illustrated owners manual. An average set would take two adults a full day to build, presuming you have reasonable DIY skills and basic tools and a power screwdriver. If you don't have the time, tools or inclination to build your playset then contact Climbing Frames Australia to find out if we know of any installers in your area. We do not offer an installation service and no installers are employed by us so we always recommend you carry out your own checks before you pay someone to build your play set.

 

What do I build my Climbing Frame on?

Our play equipment, including both our playsets and cubby houses are all designed for residential use, so are intended to be sited on grass. Our sets all come with ground pegs to prevent movement of the set when children are swinging and climbing, but our play sets don't need any permanent concreting or hardcore surfacing saving you time during installation, and meaning you can easily take your set with you if you move house. Some people consider ground mats, play bark or rubber mulch, but there is no requirement for this with residential play grounds. If using a safety surface always build your climbing frame on a solid surface first, then backfill the loose fill around the play set. 

 

Can you install on sloping ground?

Our climbing frames are designed to be built on a level surface. This does not mean that your garden has to be a bowling green, it's no problem if there's lumps and bumps, or a slight slope. Ground beams and be 'dug-in' slightly if required to ensure the climbing frame is level. 

 

What are the maintenance requirements?

Our wooden climbing frames are robust structures that require little maintenance. All play equipment should be routinely inspected to ensure the bolts and screws are tightened as required. As with all wooden products treating and sealing the wood annually will protect and preserve the timber and will ensure your set lasts as long as possible. The same as you would for any garden timber product, whether it be a playset, shed, picnic table, fence or even decking.

 

Timber vs Aluminum, Steel & Plastic

Wood is fantastically strong and durable, and with routine maintenance will outlast aluminum or steel framed playsets. Plastic play sets are generally small and suited to toddlers as the slides are short and low. Timber playsets are fantastic as they look wonderful in your garden, have a huge number of play features, and are exceedingly strong so they will keep your children and their friends happy for many years.

 

 

Round or sawn (planed) wood?

The choice here is much more than an aesthetic one. Sawn wood is either square or rectangular in appearance and is often made from cedar or pine wood, round wood is predominantly pine wood. Round wood products are very cheap because the processing time is minimal and the wood is cheaper to purchase, but they are still strong because the dimensions are large and the wood utilizes the heart of the wood which is strong. Sawn wood is more expensive for us to produce due to the cuts and shaping, but we also engineer the wood to ensure playsets are strong and stable. Due to the suare or rectangular structures sawn wood playsets come with more features and accessories such as swing, slides, and rockwalls. 

 

Pine or Cedar wood?

Cedar wood is our product of choice for our climbing frames as it's soft to the touch, in addition to being naturally resistant to rot and insect attack. We avoid using pine for our playsets becasue the wood must be pressure treated to preserve it, and this treatment leaves the wood very prone to cracks and splinters, which is not good for as children will be climbing on the sets, often with bare hands, arms and legs.