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Tips and Solutions Detail

How to Maintain Your Playset

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Hardware

Ready to invest in a swing set for your family? Swing sets come in all shapes and sizes, but when it comes to the material of the frame, there are only two options on the market today: metal or wood. Each of these materials involves a certain amount of maintenance to continue to look good for many years.

Metal playsets like those from Lifetime Products are constructed from steel for long-lasting strength and durability and come in a choice of bright primary colors or subtle earth tones. Like wooden playsets, the seats and slides are made from plastic but the main structure is made of steel. Powder coating is applied to this steel structure to prevent rusting and heat retention.

Maintaining the metal on a metal playset involves:
• Checking for scrapes and scratches on the metal surfaces that will damage the powder coating and allow rust to form
• Sanding the area if rust forms and applying a rust-resistant primer and repainting with a non-lead based paint
• Checking nuts and bolts regularly to make sure they’re tightened down
Wooden playsets have a rustic charm that's hard to resist. The warm natural beauty of a brand new wooden playset is appealing, but bear in mind that wood requires a lot of effort to keep it looking like that. While some parts of the wooden playsets are made from plastic (like the slide and swing seats), most of it is wood.

Maintaining a wooden playset involves:
• Cleaning off the old stain with a mixture of bleach and water
• Removing all the accessories
• Taping over whatever cannot be removed if you don’t want the stain to get on it
• Applying the stain and wiping off the excess
• Sealing with a coat of clear polyurethane to help prevent the wood from drying out and splitting as well as protecting the stain so the color will last longer. The playset will need several days to completely dry before reattaching the accessories.
• Check nuts and bolts regularly to make sure they’re completely tightened. This is especially important pertaining to wooden playsets because wood can shrink and warp over time which causes the bolts to loosen and the playset to become wobbly.

Whether you choose a metal or wood playset, with proper maintenance your playset should last throughout those active childhood years and provide many hours of happy backyard memories.

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