Customer Reviews

How to Design and Build Children's Play Equipment/05934 (Ortho library)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I given this book in hopes of helping me build a play area for my son. The book was informative, but it did have limited ideas for play areas. It was a good reference tool, but again iI am looking for another book with more options and building ideas for the weekend builder.

I really hate to give any book a negative review, but this book is very short and limited, showing only 4 play structures to build. They each have big moveable sections which are supposed to be fun for kids to rearrange their play structure. It is a good concept but these pieces are big and a kid could get injured very easily by dropping one on themselves or another child. Contrary to the books description, this does NOT include plans on building a climbing net or a climbing rope (which was the main reason I bought it in the first place).

The first third of its limited pages tells you "why" you should build a play structure. You probably have a reason why you want to build or you would not be trying to read a book on it. What we want to know is "how" to build one. Thankfully I came back to Amazon and found out there are much better books on the subject like the David Stiles books. Now he knows how to build imaginative play structures, play houses, and tree houses. The book on this page mentions in the beginning how great treehouses are, but has no instructions how to build one in the entire book. If you are in doubt borrow it from the library before buying, otherwise I do not reccommend.

We used this book and built the play gym back in 1989, we bought a slide and attached it, and swing seats and it worked great. Also later attached a climbing wall, and tire swing. The only issue we had was with the wood screws on the dowels. It has now served well over twenty children (we are foster parents), much bigger than typical play structures, and more durable. It had removable parts but no one has ever been injured as a previous reviewer was concerned over. Great buy for the money, with projects even a novice like me could follow.