Wood Playground

It all started when I looked to buy a playground to my daughter. While looking to pre-built module from regular shops, I told to myself: "hey, that doesn't look complicated. Seriously, how hard can it be?"

From that point, I started looking online for inspiration, starting to draw something fitting my garden. After many loops, I finally found the perfect design, according to me.

Criteria were having a main cabin, big enough for an adult to be in (at least to tidy it up when messy), a second floor for when the children are bigger, a swing and a slide. Additionally to this, I wanted the whole thing to be scalable over time (e.g. add a monkey bridge in a few years).

Everything was designed using CAD for ease (it's nice to refer to a plan sometimes), which evolved a bit during the construction. Attached is the actual design of it, feel free to use or modify it for your own personal projects.

I'm sorry if I misuse technical terms, I'm not a professional wood worker, nor English is my primary language.

I used impregnated pine so I didn't had to treat it after (hopefully).

• Main structure is made of 9x9cm posts (~55m)
• and 7x7cm posts (~100m)
• floors are made of 14.5x2.8cm planks (~110m)
• walls are made of 14x1.6cm planks (~90m)

The main tool I used was a miter saw (bough one for the occasion, no regrets). Beside of this, a good drill was essential.

The whole structure is based on stilts.

As mentioned, structure is made of 9x9cm posts as vertical studs and 7x7cm posts as horizontal joists. I guess it's not that common to use square section wood for joists, but all in all it was easier to find square section posts (and then cheaper) than rectangle ones, when speaking about class 3 impregnated pin.

Structure is not directly in contact with grass, to avoid rotting (even if 9x9 studs are class 4 and should not be damaged by direct contact with water). Better be safe than sorry.

I used galvanised steel anchors (~70cm high) to support studs. They are simply sunk in the ground. The 4 ones around the swing however are loaded with concrete (quick concrete, dry in 20 minutes), so the pendulum movement doesn't move them over time.

I made a grid using strings planted in the ground to have the perfect location of every anchor. But even with that, a lot can happen when sinking 70cm of steel into the ground. Most of them are not straight, but that could be corrected with the play in the wood. Once done, errors in the anchors doesn't matter.

I thought about this part for longer than anything else. Not being in the wood world, nor having experience, nor having professional tools led me to drop all wood arrangements you would normally see (and use way more steel...).

I used a steel square (4x6x6cm), screwed in studs and tied to joists with an M8 nut and a security bolt. Joists posed on other joists are simply screwed.

Because rectangles tend to transform themselves into parallelograms, I needed to add triangles.

For this, I cut (a lot of) piece of wood (about 45cm, cut at 45°) to reinforce the structure. As the structure was not straight before starting, I used straps anchored to what I could find or bring, and straightened everything.

To get a good result (being alone to fix them), I tied them hard with clamps and wood falls (the piece you get when you cut the edge of a pole at 45°), then screw them in place. This technique was amazing, and ensured the reinforcements stayed in place, before and during screwing.

In doubt (and also because I like the aesthetic of it), I put them everywhere I could. That's probably too much and I could have dropped some, but once again I'm not a professional, better too much than not enough.

Structure being over, time for closing the cabin.

Nothing really complex in this step. Everything is screwed to joists or studs.

Hopefully, I did this when weather was bad for several weeks, and planks were swollen. So when they were fixed, I didn't need to pay too much attention to dilatation space. But you shall pay attention to it when you build in summer, because it can massively move (it has retracted between 5% and 10% because of wet weather)

To allow light in, I used a fall of polycarbonate in place of some planks. The result is excellent and gives a modern touch to the cabin.

The second floor is planned to be accessible in a few years via a ladder (either cord or planks, didn't decided yet). Until then, the hole has been covered by a simple manhole made of floor planks falls (not in the CAD plan).

Next comes the swing, and my trigonometry notions.

It is made of 9x9cm poles only (no 7x7) for rigidity. The ties were bough on a specialised website and cost way less than making them myself. The top pole is 240cm high (which is the highest "public" standard, higher is difficult to find swing with ropes long enough).

To be sure how to fix the triangle side, I had to dust off my old math lessons to calculate the exact position of where to cut and where to dig. For the ease, I didn't use 70cm steel anchors but smaller ones with cover on only 2 sides of the pole, so I didn't need to sunk them at the perfect angle.

Don't mind the stairs, I missed a step in my mind while building it (one of the very few things that was not in the CAD plan), so instead of starting it from scratch, I simply added a plank, so the gap isn't too big. May redo it one day...

The slide is 120cm high and 250cm long. Access is made with a small climbing wall on the side. In the future, I may think about adding a rope ladder on the left.

This playground will surely evolve over the years. Chalk is a very good customizer, dry painting or when mixed with water. Strings were used to close gaps, instead of planks which would darken the slide platform. A hammock in the cabin is the perfect place to nap, and a small table and chair allow the kids to aperitif on the balcony.