Help Me Prep Our Yard for Swingset

[carolinamama]

DH and I did it - we ordered a swingset for DS. It's a Rainbow castle one that he will hopefully use. It should be delivered and installed in the next 3-4 weeks. But we aren't sure exactly what we need to do to prep our yard and quite honestly, I'm not sure I believe the guy who sold it to us. He told us that we didn't have to do anything - the installers could deal with any slope (we have a slight one where we would like to put it) and that we would add our mulch or pea gravel after it's installation.

So, my question is, what did you do to prep your yard for installation? The catalog states that we must have the yard ready for installation but it doesn't say what that truly means.

Thanks for your help. I'm clueless.

[LBW]

Is your slope really bad? If it is, then you need to level it somewhat before installation. If it's only a minor slope, then the installers should be able to work around it. The set does get installed on the ground (so NOT on top of mulch or anything else), and then you add mulch or pea stone after it's up. We also added railroad ties around the border to keep the mulch in place.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We assembled our own PlayARound set, so we had to measure and level the area, which meant a lot of dirt-moving. Maybe the guy is right and installers will do that stuff. I mean, you're paying for that, right?

[mamaoftwins]

We bought our house a year ago and just filled in the area with sod that the previous owners had a swingset on.

They did a good job prepping the area for their set (looked good to me and according to our landscape guy that removed it and laid the sod). They had sort of a black rubbery tarp, with small wood chips over it. The sides were a bit higher to keep the wood chips in. It looked to me like the sides were flexible rubber ties. Check this out: http://www.swingsetbuilders.com/site_prep.html

IMO, I think the area definitely needs to be leveled. I would call the place and maybe talk to a different person than the guy you dealt with and see if the installers are leveling and prepping the yard somehow. If you don't have a side barrier at least, I think your mulch or pea gravel will get everywhere on your lawn.

[toby]

I apologize for hijacking, but thought that it would make more sense than starting a new thread.

This feels like a very dumb question, but if you install the swingset directly on the ground as recommended and then add the pea gravel, don't you lose some of the height of the swingset? We are dealing with a very annoying, uneven yard and I think that we will have to dig down about a foot. This is feeling like a huge undertaking and I am overwhelmed.

"WatchingThemGrow" and "LBW", could you give more specifics about your site preparation (no detail is too small!)

Thanks...

[bubbaray]

You don't really need to deal with the slope -- Rainbows are self-levelling. Rainbow says to install and then add pea gravel or wood chips.

HOWEVER, we installed our own Rainbow about 2m ago and we modified their instructions based on our climate (Pacific Northwest, LOTS of rain and soggy ground). DH removed all the sod from the area with a sod cutter (gave away for free on Craigslist after he rented a trailer and paid for 2 trips to the dump, it would have been 2 more trips and he could have easily given away all of the sod, people were so eager for it). Then he laid down landscaping cloth/tarp. Then he installed large railway ties (not really, but I think they are treated 6x6 wood of some sort) all around the perimeter, to make a big box. Then he filled it with washed pea gravel. THEN he installed the set on top of the pea gravel. Like I said, Rainbow says to install on the ground and then add pea gravel, but we were really worried about the set sitting in a big puddle of water all winter, so we chose this way. It is very stable.

HTH

[WatchingThemGrow]

Gosh, about that leveling...I think we did some websurfing to find answers, then ended up using a string, some spikes, and a string level. We moved the dirt around with a rake I remember so that it was basically at the same level L to R and front to back, just under where the swingset would be. We made a larger space that went about 6 feet out from the farthest swing position, from where anyone could fall off the ladder,climbing wall, slide, etc. DH and BIL assembled the larger parts of the set where we intended it to go. They then leveled the set with larger levels by adding/compacting dirt where the legs were. Then we used the $2 landscape timbers from Lowe's to outline it. We rolled out black landscape fabric and spiked the timbers on top of the fabric. The final step was unloading all the rubber mulch inside the area.

[LBW]

We had a pretty decent slope, so had to do some leveling. We were also installing our Cedarworks set ourselves. A couple of weeks before it arrived we rented a backhoe and ordered some fill dirt. (Not as expensive as it sounds. I think it was ~$200.) DH had a lot of fun moving dirt around the yard with it. In the end, the yard wasn't perfectly level, but it was okay for the set.

We laid down black landscapers fabric in the area the playset was going and pinned the fabric to the ground with posts they sell for that. I sized the fabric-covered area according to Cedarworks recommendations for how far out from swings and slides to go. I think CPSC also has recommendations for this.

Then, DH and a friend spent a couple of days assembling the set. When assembly was complete I ordered playground-safe mulch from a local landscaper. I forget how many yards I needed - I'm pretty sure I used an online calculator to figure it out. We covered the area under the playset with about 6 inches of mulch. The sets are built knowing that many people will be installing mulch or gravel under them, so you don't really lose any play height. In ours, the mulch comes up to the top of the "feet" of the set. A year or so later, we finally added railroad ties around the edges of the set to keep the mulch in place.

Let me know if you need more info!

[WatchingThemGrow]

LOL I forgot we had a load of dirt brought in also!

[toby]

Your answers are a big help-thanks!

It just all feels so overwhelming, especially since we can't get any machines into our crazy yard. It will all be done by hand :irked:

The site that "mamaoftwins" referred to was helpful- http://www.swingsetbuilders.com/site_prep.html

But, in the example picture, it looks like instead of leveling the high side, they built up the low side with railroad ties. Does anyone have thoughts on this? It would involve a lot less digging and soil moving. It also looks like they added the pea gravel BEFORE putting the set on-- is this not a good idea because of stability and compacting?

[LBW]

http://www.swingsetbuilders.com/site_prep.html

But, in the example picture, it looks like instead of leveling the high side, they built up the low side with railroad ties. Does anyone have thoughts on this? It would involve a lot less digging and soil moving. It also looks like they added the pea gravel BEFORE putting the set on-- is this not a good idea because of stability and compacting?

If your yard is similar to the picture, I think using the rr ties is the ONLY way to go. Even if you added dirt to level off an area, you'd still need some sort of support/retaining wall on the slope side to keep the dirt there.

If you use pea gravel, I think you are okay installing the set on top of it. I wouldn't install on top of mulch, though, because it breaks down over time so you'd get settling.