I am very disappointed in the Swing-N-Slide Clubhouse kit that I
bought at Lowes. Here's why:

1) The instructions give incorrect measurements. For the height of
the floor, they showed the measurement of 59.5 inches from the inside
of a 6" board to the top of a 2x4 (shown the same in two different
diagrams). But after I had the frame all built, I discovered they
should have shown it from the BOTTOM of the 6" board. Now my club
house floor is 5.5 inches too high which means the slide is too fast
(it makes quite a difference--I have since raised the bottom of the
slide), the door to the club house is too low and all of the openings
up to the fort (rock wall, ladder, slide) are too low.

2) The hardware is zinc electroplated and not zinc hot-dipped. The
new ACQ wood calls for hot-dipped screws and bolts because it is more
corrosive than the old CCA wood (which contains arsenic). The ACQ
wood manufacturers say that electroplated screws and bolts should NOT
be used. I had to buy all new hardware because I didn't want all of
the fasteners rusting in a few years.

3) The instructions are incomplete and contain numerous errors. The
instructions say to attach carriage bolts to the frame at the noted
locations, but no where in the instructions are those locations shown.
There were also at least three other places where the measurements
were incorrect (but they weren't as serious as the error for the floor
height). I seriously doubt anyone at Swing-N-Slide actually built
something from these instructions.

I went with Swing-N-Slide because I liked the design and I saw a few
people on this forum say that the directions were clear. After going
through a very aggravating week building this thing (the instructions
say 12-16 hours!), I wanted people to know the drawbacks of going with
Swing-N-Slide.

Sean

As I mentioned in another post today at rec.woodworking I have built one of
these and was very please with the plans and outcome.
http://playstarinc.com/playsets.asp Took me one day (And a bit the next day
to attach swings and stuff) I am moving and plan to build another from a kit
from this manufacturer.

-B

"Sean Murphy" wrote in message
m...
I am very disappointed in the Swing-N-Slide Clubhouse kit that I
bought at Lowes. Here's why:

1) The instructions give incorrect measurements. For the height of
the floor, they showed the measurement of 59.5 inches from the inside
of a 6" board to the top of a 2x4 (shown the same in two different
diagrams). But after I had the frame all built, I discovered they
should have shown it from the BOTTOM of the 6" board. Now my club
house floor is 5.5 inches too high which means the slide is too fast
(it makes quite a difference--I have since raised the bottom of the
slide), the door to the club house is too low and all of the openings
up to the fort (rock wall, ladder, slide) are too low.

2) The hardware is zinc electroplated and not zinc hot-dipped. The
new ACQ wood calls for hot-dipped screws and bolts because it is more
corrosive than the old CCA wood (which contains arsenic). The ACQ
wood manufacturers say that electroplated screws and bolts should NOT
be used. I had to buy all new hardware because I didn't want all of
the fasteners rusting in a few years.

3) The instructions are incomplete and contain numerous errors. The
instructions say to attach carriage bolts to the frame at the noted
locations, but no where in the instructions are those locations shown.
There were also at least three other places where the measurements
were incorrect (but they weren't as serious as the error for the floor
height). I seriously doubt anyone at Swing-N-Slide actually built
something from these instructions.

I went with Swing-N-Slide because I liked the design and I saw a few
people on this forum say that the directions were clear. After going
through a very aggravating week building this thing (the instructions
say 12-16 hours!), I wanted people to know the drawbacks of going with
Swing-N-Slide.

Sean

"Sean Murphy" wrote in message
m...


say 12-16 hours!), I wanted people to know the drawbacks of going with
Swing-N-Slide.


Thanks!