I purchased a new playset for my kids over Christmas. It is made of reasonably high quality pressure treated, stained pine. I am concerned about the wood splitting, as preasure treated wood seems prone to do. The vertical 4×4 posts seem to be the most vunerable. My thinking is that the constant wet/dry cycle of the exposed ends, will cause the posts to split.
Is this a valid concern? Also, what should I do to protect the exposed end grain? I thought about copper caps, but I do not want the kids to get hurt on any potential sharp edges. Polyurthane seems like a better protector than a standard thompsons water sealer, but I am not sure this is a good idea.
Any recommendations would be welcome. Thanks for your help.
Replies
I designed and built the kid's swing set sometime about 1991, see attached. I used garden variety PT SYP, and although there has been some checking, I (i.e., the wife and kids) have maintained the set using deck stain once every 2-3 years. The checking hasn't hurt the set, nor did anyone receive any splinters because of it. When I built it, I eased all edges using a 1/4" roundover bit in a router.
Incidently, the kids haven't used it for about 4 years now, since entering high school. The 2 years they played on it during junior high I had to add A-type bracing and additional support to the ladder structure overhead that holds the swings. The beginning of the end, as it turns out, as they outgrew it shortly afterwards.
It was a popular place for mine and the neighborhood kids in its heyday, however, and your kids will appreciate your efforts for a long time. Make sure the posts are sunk in concrete, and deep. We used cedar bark mulch around the set to give the little buggers something soft to land on when they jumped, which they will do, regardless how often you tell them not to. We used heavy canvas from a local awning maker for the top, which we left on all the time. This is just the second top over 12-13 years, so it has lasted well.
Good luck.
If you care about your kids you wont use pressure treated where their little hands make contact.
Keep that poisonous green $hit away from where your kids can touch it. Take it back to the store and demand a refund. No play set should ever have been made with that crap in the first place, but the lumber lobby bamboozled the populace--and a lot of builders, too, unfortunately--for too many years. Now they're getting rid of CCA--and replacing it with another poison we don't know anything about. And claiming they're responding to the people's wishes....
Use cedar, or hemlock. Both have excellent weather-resistant qualities--and neither will poison your children or your world....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Last I heard, there was no evidence of anyone, child or adult, being harmed by contact with CCA treated lumber. The decision to ban CCA in residential applications was purely a precautionary measure. I suspect the main thing they are taking caution to prevent is public perception that the EPA has run out of really useful work to do and needs to have its budget and staff reduced.