How to Build Wooden Outdoor Playground Equipment
Creating wooden outdoor playground equipment for children can entertain them tremendously. The playground can include several things such as a balance beam, sand pit, monkey bars, and teeter-totters. You can build wooden outdoor playground equipment for around $100. This saves you a lot of money because it usually costs hundreds to thousands of dollars to buy a wooden playground from a store.
Items you will need to build wooden outdoor playground equipment include:
- 10 4 x 4 wood posts
- Level
- Saw
- Tape measure
- Hole digger
- Drill
- Concrete
- Sand
- Piece of pipe about 10 inches
- 2-inch screws
- 3-inch screws
- Begin to build the balance beam. Take one eight foot post and cut two 20” pieces. Use the hole digger to create two holes 56 inches apart. Put the two pieces in the holes. Connect the last piece of the post to the smaller pieces using 3” screws. If you need to stabilize the ground posts, pour wet concrete into the holes.
- Take two to four of the 4 x 4 posts and cut them in half. Put them on the ground and create a box shape. If you want the sandbox to be bigger, use more of the posts. For example, a small sandbox needs only two posts. If you want a bigger box, four posts will work. Take the cut posts and overlap them in order to be fastened together with the 3-inch screws. Put sand in the box.
- Build the monkey bars by putting two 60-inch posts in the ground. Put them in the ground 16 to 18 inches. Using the hole digger will make it easier to get them in the ground. Take the saw and use it to drill on the upper inside part of the posts. To insert the metal bar, use a conduit pipe to set it in the holes. The wooden posts should be 36 inches apart. Be sure the pipe is secure by screwing on a 2-inch screw on each end. Keep repeating until you have as many monkey bars up as you need.
- Make the teeter-totter by using two 8-foot posts. Get some scrap lumber from your local lumber store to make the seat. Two old tiers and a pipe will also be needed. Put the 36-inch posts into the ground so they will be 18 inches deep and 5 inches apart. Next, drill a hole in the center of an 8-foot post to make the center pivot. Connect the 8-foot post to the posts already in the ground. Drill holes in the ends of the pipe. Keep it together with 2-inch screws. Put some old tiers in the ground to create cushion for the teeter-totter.