Black & Decker Play Structures & Backyard Fun: How to Build: Playsets - Sports Courts - Games - Swingsets - More

Really helped us think through and decide how to go about building a play set for the backyard

This is a book about play structures for children (swings and climbing frames) and adults (ladder golf, a backyard putting green!) but it is not a book to play around with. Sloppy work could endanger your children. Several of the projects here are complex, expensive, and difficult. You or your construction partner will need good skills and a wide range of tools to do them. The book is comprehensive, covering not only the actual construction of the play structure – design, materials, tools, and safe carpentry – but also how to lay out your play area, level and prepare the soil, terrace a hillside with a retaining wall of blocks or timber, install concrete footings, and improve site drainage whether you are designing and building a unique creation or assembling and installing a kit project like the putting green. You will learn a lot from reading the book, even if you never touch a hammer. On page 108, the book veers off into a discussion of swimming pool construction. This mostly focuses on the kinds of pools – concrete, fibeglass, vinyl lined, etc., and descriptions of how pool surround decks are built. This is not a how-to discussion, really, and is a bit unmatched to the remainder of the book. The final section of the book is about building tree houses. The discussion is detailed, suggesting ways to gauge weight of the house and stress on the tree. The tree house designs, and the earlier Zipline and Tree Swing projects rely on eyebolts running through the wood of the tree for support. I was taught that drilling though like that is terrible for the tree, allowing water and bacteria easy entrance. If it is possible, I would consider other attachment methods. For ziplines and tree swings, chains can be wrapped around the trunk or branches, for example, although these should be carefully padded (and the padding renewed often) to prevent destruction of the bark, which is perhaps even worse for the tree than the eyebolts. I can't imagine myself building any of these structures, even if I were very handy. I suggest that you borrow the book from a library before buying. I received a review copy of "Black & Decker Play Structures & Backyard Fun: How to Build: Playsets - Sports Courts - Games - Swingsets - More" by (Quarto - Cool Springs) through NetGalley.com.

An assortment of play structures to choose from were offered in a straightforward DIY tutorial. Always good to be reminded, it was nice to see that safety precautions were recommended when working with some tools and equipment. From the foundation on up everything was clearly categorized and shown step-by-step on how to build each of the structures. When followed carefully, the finished projects promise to come out masterfully done. This is an invaluable guide for the home handyman ready and willing to build a home playground. I send my thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Cool Springs Press for this digital edition in exchange for an unbiased review.

It's very helpful for being something in the garden !

This book is not what I was hoping for. The swing set on the cover is not in the book. There is a similar one but it is just general information about building a playset. There is no actual plan or materials lists. They have another chapter on Swing set kits, but again it's just general information. They do have a complete plan with materials for a sandbox so I don't know why they cheesed out on the swing sets. The rest of the book is just useless. This book feels more like advertising than a DIY book.

What I disliked was it only showed how to build a bought swing set not that was made from a dyi project made from scratch

Lots of reading not but one swinger idea in the book. Wadtw of money. You are better off watching vids on YouTube. You will not get any good ideas or examples from this book.

Black & Decker Play Structures & Backyard Fun is a new design and how-to guide from Black and Decker aimed at giving DIYers the tools they need to design and execute a play structure for home use. Released 30th Oct 2018 by Quarto on their Cool Springs imprint, it's 144 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats. This is a well organized and logically formatted book with several complete designs included. It does presuppose access to a number of standard power tools as well as a basic familiarity with safety procedures. The book does include a basic chapter on materials and tool safety. The first section covers design and placement as well as some materials introductions and sourcing information. The specific project chapters which come after are divided into play structures, backyard hardscapes (sandboxes, seesaw, zipline, etc), and sports specific projects (including a really nifty skateboard ramp and a horseshoe pit amongst others). Swimming pools and treehouses are also briefly covered in their own sections. The book includes abbreviated conversion charts and a resource list as well as a short index. The measurements are imperial and the resources are slanted toward the North American DIYer, though online retailers will make it relatively easy for sourcing materials wherever readers live. Four stars. Well written, if basic, instructions and designs. Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Il n’y a pas vraiment beaucoup de plans de balançoires. J’aurais aimé de vrais plans détaillés pour la construction des balançoires.

No real plans just ideas.

I bought this expecting to have designs for a playhouse; I don’t want a prefab piece of junk, and would like to mix and match features. This book is not that. It tells you how to assemble a prefab, build a small playhouse, and then small features like a ladder. The rest is other backyard okay fixtures like games, pools, zip lines, and sand boxes. No real value for what I bought. I’d be really disappointed if I had spent the money on the paper version. This may be useful for helping with the foundation of a play structure.