Plastic vs. Wood playsets (swing/side/etc)? Cedar Works thoughts?

[mattysmom]

DS just turned one and with summer around the corner I'm trying to decide what type of playset to get! I've looked at the Cedar Works ones and they say you can use them children as young as one, and wondered if it would be better to just buy the "big" one now which he will mostly be able to use this summer (and definitely use later) or get the 8-in-1 for now and wait another year. The Cedar Works one are definitely pricy, but I'd rather not keep collecting plastic "stuff" and get the most use out of the "big" one. Any thoughts?? Thanks!

[pamela mom of 3]

Does he like swings?


Not familar with the cedar works types, but we have a rainbow plus the more standard plastic climbers etc all over the place, i live rual so my fields just look like plastic world lol :D


The one advantage well i found was the wooden ones work well in the winter plus are very sturdy for swingset purposes, our rainbow even lets us grownups "play" ;)

If your trying to keep your outdoor play equipment to a smaller amount probably a dual purpose unit would be the best long term investment kwim?

GL!

~Pamela Mom Of 3

http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/kao/otn/blobflower.gif

[cchavez]

I don't know if this helps but we are getting Diego a little tikes swing and hanging that on our new arbor. Plus we will get him a small pool. That should keep in happy thsi Summer. Next year, when he is two we will get him the big cedar swing set!

[cara1]

There has been some stuff in the news about wooden playsets being stained with an Arsenic-containing compound that is potentially carcinogenic, especially for kids who climb on them and then invariably put their hands in their mouths. This is mainly true for treated pine. Redwood sets have NOT been treated with arsenic, and are therefore safe. I'm not sure about cedar, but you may want to check it out first. HTH.

[AngelaS]

We LOVE our CedarWorks set!! :D It is NOT treated with arsenic either! And it has NO splinters!! :D

Okay, where to start... We looked at both CedarWorks and Rainbow when shopping for our playset and we chose CedarWorks, mostly because of the internal platforms. We put it up when Adrienne was 17 months old and she was immediately able to climb right up to the top and go down the slide! We did buy a couple extra wall sections to enclose the top section with and she's never fallen or gotten hurt on it.

I have a Little Tykes swing attached to a yardarm on mine and on the ladder section we have a CW sling swing, a horse swing from CW and a cheapo Walmart swing which is GARBAGE. LOL I hope to replace it with a CW swing. :D

We have stained ours which is rather tedious, but that's the ONLY pitfall! :D It was truly a great investment and my 6yo is still playing on it daily. Her old plastic playground pieces were boring LONG ago! :D

Oh, and if you mention an existing CW customer when you order, that customer gets a $100 gc....so we could EACH get a sling swing... :D LOL

[toomanystrollers]

My thoughts: we live in a nice little subdivision where there are wooden swingset galore and I hardly ever see any kids playing on them!

We skipped the swingset investment. Cedarworks are gorgeous and expensive. My kids rather go to the nearby town playground and play with a ton of other kids.

[joemama]

We are saving our pennies for a CedarWorks set. We have a 27 month old and a newborn, so we need a set that is safe for both of them in the long run. What exactly do you have in your set (and how much did it cost)? Is there anything you would recommend adding or leaving out?

We are considering the new round wood sets. They seem to be less expensive than the versions with the square-cut posts.

I'll let you know when we are getting close to ordering so we can get your info to pass on to CW. :) It will likely be a while from now, though. I wish there was someone willing to sell an old set. That would surely be more affordable! But I have never heard of anyone wanting to get rid of their CW set.

TIA
joemama...and ellie, too!

[AngelaS]

This is basically what we have: http://www.cedarworks.com/playsets/detail.php?s=CS1

We have the bigger climber (the 2X3--the Jungle Slant) one and we don't have the wooden swing (OW!). We also have an extra yardarm off the back where I have the baby swing. My fil built a wooden roof for mine which is also nice. :D

If I had to do it again I think we could use the overhead beam instead. Now that my oldest is older and wants to do the monkey bars, it's not the safest when someone else is wanting to swing. :D

My inlaws bought us the basic square with the slide and yardarm for about $2000. We added on the overhead ladder and slant ladder a year later and then bought the horse swing a year later. :D