This Old House Reviews Team

Turn your yard into a play space for your children with one of the metal, wooden, or plastic sets from our review of the best playscapes and swing sets.

Playscapes give your children a way to play outside and burn off their high amount of energy. They can have anywhere from a few swings to several swings, slides, forts, and rock walls, among other activity areas. They can also be made of wood, metal, or plastic. To learn more about your options, read our review on the best playscapes and swing sets on Amazon.

 

Buying Guide

From material to assembly, here are a few of the factors you should consider before purchasing a playscape or swing set.

 

Activities

Your playset may have swings, slides, tunnels, rock walls, monkey bars, climbing ropes, and forts, among other activities, depending on the model you buy. If your child has a specific activity they want to be able to do on their playscape, make sure to choose one that includes it. However, we recommend choosing a playscape that has several other activities in addition to the one they prefer to give your child some variety to play and explore.

 

Material

Swing sets are made of wood, metal, or plastic. Some may have components made of a combination of materials.

 

Wood

Wooden playsets have an outdoorsy appearance that allows them to blend in with your yard. They also have a sturdy frame. However, they can take a long time to assemble, and they require yearly maintenance in the form of staining and other wood preservation treatments. They also cost more, but this is balanced out with their decades-long life.

 

Metal

Metal swing sets are highly durable as long as they have a powder coating to protect them from the elements. They’re also fairly stable and easier to assemble than wooden playscapes. However, as soon as their coating starts chipping, they can bend, break, and rust. They don’t have the same aesthetic appeal as wooden swing sets, either.

 

Plastic

Plastic swing sets are typically less expensive and the easiest to assemble. They’re usually smaller in size with a lower weight capacity and fewer activities, making them best for toddlers. The plastic material can also warp or fade from being repeatedly exposed to the elements.

 

Size

Measure your backyard and choose a playscape that will comfortably fit. Leave extra space on all sides to ensure that your child can maneuver around it and use climbing ropes, slides, and other activities that stick out from the frame.

 

Weight Capacity

The manufacturer will tell you how much weight its playscape can hold. This is usually expressed in terms of how many children can play on it at once and how much each child can weigh. These numbers vary depending on the set’s size and material, but most will be able to hold at least two or three children that each weighs around a hundred pounds.

 

Assembly

It can take days to safely assemble a swing set yourself, especially if it’s made of wood or has several built-in activities. If you want to speed up the process, get a friend to help you or hire a professional. Choosing a metal or plastic set will also cut down on installation time.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How can I prevent my children from getting injured on a playscape?

Small injuries, such as falling off the swings, are inevitable with a playscape because children are naturally clumsy. However, you can avoid major injuries by following these steps to ensure your swing set is safe:

• Ensure that moving parts, springs, and hooks are covered to prevent your children’s fingers from getting jammed, pinched, or crushed.
• Do a thorough inspection of your swing set at least once a month to ensure that all of the parts are working correctly and that it’s not showing signs of wear.
• Oil metal parts once a month to ensure smooth movements.
• Sand your wooden swing set when you see splinters forming.
• Apply a stain to your wooden playscape once a year.
• Surround the playscape with sand, mulch, or wood chips to ensure a softer landing if your children fall.

 

Are playscapes and swing sets the same thing?

The terms playscapes, playsets, and swing sets are used interchangeably, but technically speaking, swing sets just have swings, while playscapes and playsets have several activities, usually in addition to swings.

 

 

Why Trust The This Old House Reviews Team

This Old House has empowered homeowners for more than four decades with top-notch home improvement content in the form of television programs, print media, and digital content on its website and social media platforms. The This Old House Reviews Team focuses on creating in-depth product and service review content to help inform your purchasing decision for just about any item or resource that you might need for your home. The This Old House Reviews Team has written over 1,000 reviews on products in the home space, from cordless drills to kitchen trash cans, lawn mowers, and dining room decorations.

We recommend products in each review using an intensive research process, spending hours combing through the best available models on Amazon. For a product to make our list of top picks, it must hold a solid sales record on Amazon, have consistently positive customer reviews, and offer unique features, among other factors. After narrowing down our list of recommendations, we conduct additional research and sometimes in-person testing to ensure that the products meet our standards. Once we conclude the research phase, we craft a well-rounded, user-friendly article that includes our recommended products and additional information to help homeowners like you make the right purchase.

 

The This Old House Reviews Team provides overviews of select products that are top-selling on Amazon and/or popular in consumer searches. Our team evaluates the products based on industry research, consumer reviews, pricing data, hands-on testing in select cases, and other objective criteria unique to a given product line. Unless otherwise noted, these product reviews are intended to help inform buying decisions for DIY or other non-pro users only. Editor’s picks are made by members of the This Old House Reviews Team.