My son turns 5 in two weeks, and he's been promised a playset. I bought him a used one - this one:
Cheap off FB marketplace, gonna have to replace the deck and about 1/2 of the rest of the wood, but I'm gonna be money ahead. Question I have for the hive is how to anchor this thing down.
The platform is 8'x5', 56" off the ground. It's supported by 6 4x4 posts (although only the two on the right of the platform go through to the top - the other four only go up to the bottom of the platform). The arm coming off mounting the swings is actually 2 4"x6"x10' beams with monkeybars between them and swings mounted to one of the beams. I'm lousy at estimating weight, but it's stout. I just want to keep it stable when kids are playing on it, especially on swings.
The guy I bought it from had just cut some ~15" 2x4s, cut them to a point, driven them in and attached them to the posts with lag screws. Cheap and easy, but I don't know how effective that would be. My dad has told me I should sink the 4x4's 3 feet into the ground and fill with concrete - seems like it would withstand a hurricane (and also would tie the bottom together tightly enough that there's no way the platform would ever rack) but also seems like it might be a touch overkill - and also more or less impossible to move the playset if we ever want to sell it on.
I've been looking at auger anchors like these:
Seems like it would be the middle ground, and it's where I'm looking right now. I want this thing to be stable.
So, hive mind: What should I do?
Having had the lime in concrete take out a bunch of fence posts, if you need concrete, I would buy pillars to sink that the frame bolts to. If wobble someday is okay, the anchors you referenced would be fine to tether to.
I doubt if you need to do anything. Ours was like that but without the clubhouse, and we never had any issues with them playing on it. If all the wood is in good condition, the stakes like it has now is good enough insurance. Try it before you dismantle it, you'll be surprised. The augers are not bad, we have those holding the trampoline down, and they work, even in high wind. Concrete is definitely overkill.
llysgennad said:
I doubt if you need to do anything. Ours was like that but without the clubhouse, and we never had any issues with them playing on it.
Are there swings under the beam? Just climbing up, sliding down, etc isn't likely to put much energy into the structure, but swings are something else entirely. Maybe not for a 5-year-old, but I can remember 12-year-old-me getting the swing up to almost horizontal and the steel cross tube flexing visibly on the swing set we had in our back yard in the 80s.
I would vote for holes in the ground filled with concrete.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:
llysgennad said:
I doubt if you need to do anything. Ours was like that but without the clubhouse, and we never had any issues with them playing on it.
Are there swings under the beam? Just climbing up, sliding down, etc isn't likely to put much energy into the structure, but swings are something else entirely. Maybe not for a 5-year-old, but I can remember 12-year-old-me getting the swing up to almost horizontal and the steel cross tube flexing visibly on the swing set we had in our back yard in the 80s.
I would vote for holes in the ground filled with concrete.
Yeah, it has swings. And I also remember trying to see how far off the ground I could get the metal pipe swingset when I was a kid...but this thing is a LOT heavier than the pipe swingset, with a much bigger footprint in both directions. I'm trying to see what other people with a similar setup have done and how it's worked out.
I had one like that and never anchored it down. The thing was heavy as it could be by itself. Never moved even when I was on the swing.
That unit is almost exactly like the one I got from BJ's back in the day. Parts of it are still behind the garage. When in service, it was not anchored. I'll echo what others have said about the weight and wide stance of the set itself being sufficient.
That said, it's not hard to imagine a scenario, particularly with older/bigger kids, that it would be beneficial to anchor it, but my kids were pretty much done with the playset and had moved on to other activities by the time they got that big.
It is a good idea to check bolts for tightness occasionally as repetitive motion will tend to work some things loose.
My son has a set for his kids and it's just anchored by gravity.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:
My son has a set for his kids and it's just anchored by gravity.
Ours is on grass and there are enough "legs" coming off it; plastic "rock" stairs, slide, climbing wall and swing set that I'm not worried about stability. There's enough weight that it has sunken into the ground a bit. One leg of the swing set lifts sometimes, but it's probably not a bad thing to allow the wood to twist a bit.
We have a similar one that toppled over in a hurricane a couple years back. Kind of an exceptional circumstance, but after that I got similar auger type anchors to what you listed. We've had no problems in subsequent wind storms.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:
llysgennad said:
I doubt if you need to do anything. Ours was like that but without the clubhouse, and we never had any issues with them playing on it.
Are there swings under the beam? Just climbing up, sliding down, etc isn't likely to put much energy into the structure, but swings are something else entirely. Maybe not for a 5-year-old, but I can remember 12-year-old-me getting the swing up to almost horizontal and the steel cross tube flexing visibly on the swing set we had in our back yard in the 80s.
I would vote for holes in the ground filled with concrete.
Yes, 3 swings on ours. All going at once frequently, even my big butt couldn't make it unsteady. Lasted at least 10 years like that, with teenagers and parents using it.
