How to Restore an Old Wooden Playset | Swing Set Restoration

what's up guys I'm Brad Rodriguez from fix this build that and today I'm gonna show you how to take an old worn out playset and restore it just like brand new stay tuned I'll show you exactly how I did it when we moved into our house the playset in the backyard wasn't in the best shape and after five more years without any maintenance it was really showing its age so it was time to do something about it I started off by taking care of a part that's been annoying me for a while now the kids never climb on this little rope wall plus it was rotting and really worn so I just lopped it off with miry sips awe and hope the kids didn't notice of course they did after that I started taking off all the different accessories on the playset to prep for cleaning the climbing handholds were bolted in the threaded inserts and most came off easily but on a few I had to break out the grinder and cut off the rusted insert from the back to remove them I also removed some rotted boards on the bottom of the climbing wall they don't replace with new cedar boards later almost everything else was just screwed in so I removed the handles the screen and the windows easily and that slide made for easy egress while I was at it there's this tic-tac-toe game inset in the side wall that was all busted up so I wanted to take that off as well but I wasn't ready for this apparently my kids weren't the only ones enjoying the playset after dealing with those aunts my younger son jumped in to help and we removed the slide and all the swings from the playset and put them aside it's been a while since they were small enough for that baby swing so that's got to go dear drop the hardware holding the swings was all rusted up so I wanted to refurbish them as well they were held on by long through bolts and I backed him off and was ready to start cleaning the playset to make cleaning the playset a lot faster I'm using a pressure washer and I mixed up some multi-purpose cleaner concentrate to help cut through the mildew and grime the pressure washer I'm using is the Briggs & Stratton Elite 3300 gas it can go up to 3300 psi and it's got these five quick connect spray tips and one of them is made specifically for applying soap and cleaner at low pressure so I plugged that one into the washer then hooked up my hose to supply the water of course whenever you're using a pressure washer you want to make sure you're wearing the right safety equipment goggles are great to help protect your eyes from overspray I started up the pressure washer and drop the siphon tube into the bucket a cleaner which pulls the soap through the line into the sprayer I started off at the top of the playset and hosed everything down with a good dousing of the cleaner and then let it sit for five minutes to do its thing while I was waiting I cleaned out the siphon tube with some clear water and then switched the quick-connect tip out to the 40 degree white tip which is the least aggressive of the bunch I've never used a pressure washer before so I want to test it out on these rotten boards that I've removed from the climbing wall I turned up the pressure until it did a pretty good job of removing all the gunk without stripping the wood then the fun began I started off with the roof and I was watching the grime in the mildew get blasted away and this unit has an upgraded 30 foot hose and it's really flexible so moving around the playset was pretty easy after cleaning the bench though I noticed that some mildew was still hanging on the lower boards so I switched over to the 25 degree green tip to get a little more aggressive spray pattern now this did the trick perfectly and the mildew came right off on the second pass there's a fine line between removing grime and destroying the fragile wood fibers of a soft wood like cedar or redwood make sure you keep the water fan moving at a constant pace if you slow down or stop in one spot it can easily gouge the wood and I did this in a few spots that you can see now the outer swing set posts were just absolutely disgusting I gave them the business though and I was amazed at how quickly the pressure washer cut through this funk and I want to say thank you to Briggs & Stratton for sponsoring today's video there's a link down below in the description and you can see the elite 3300 gas model that I used and their entire lineup of pressure washers a pressure washing the wood does leave it a little bit rough so I went back and sanded the edges with 150 grit sand block to keep everything nice and smooth the climbing hand holds and the other plastic accessories were really faded from years of being in the Sun I found some matching spray paint I gave all the parts three of paint and then topped it off with three coats of gloss clear coat for protection for the metal handles I used some acetone to clean off any dirt and oils and the larger handles had a few rough spots and one in was totally rusted out I sanded all the loose rust away then I gave all the handles a coat of rust stopping self etching primer then I followed up with the same treatment as the plastic parts with three coats of paint followed by three coats of gloss clear coat I hope this is gonna hold up well and provide many years of protection while was spraying everything I moved over to the swing hardware i sanded all the rusted parts to knock off the loose rust and then prime these also with the self etching primer I top coated these with some aluminum colored spray paint and they look brand new when I was done I started trying to refurbish the old swings and bring them back to life for the spray paint but as I was spraying them I quickly realized it was not gonna look great since the plastic was all cracked and the chains had a coating that was kind of falling off so I threw in the towel and I just went ahead and ordered two new swings and the last thing I needed to prep before applying the finish was to cut the replacement boards I used some inexpensive cedar fence pickets from the home center and cut them to size then I sanded them smooth and rounded over the edges with my router now it's finally time to put on the new stain and see this playset transform I started at the top and I sprayed on a semi-transparent stain and sealer combo I sprayed on a light to medium coat then I back brushed it with a chip brush to even out any puddling or drips now this approach worked really well and spring the finish on went quickly with this sprayer the sprayer I'm using here is the finish max HVLP from home right it's an inexpensive electric sprayer and it runs off an extension cord the material cup isn't huge so you do have to refill it often but that keeps it light and it's perfect for jobs like this when you need to put down the finish fast I'll have a link down below in the description you can check that out as well now you can see even from the first coat what a difference the stain made to the play gym the wood was really dry and thirsty so the first coat soaked in fast one thing to look out for is when you spray on top of hardware like the bolt heads if you don't wipe it off quickly it's gonna dry on there and it's gonna look bad so I carried a shop towel in my pocket and I wiped the heads off after I sprayed a section I applied two coats and all and after a day of drying I started reassembling everything when you disassemble I'd recommend using some Ziploc bags and labeling the fasteners it would have made this part go a lot faster because I just had a jumble of screws and fasteners I had to sort through as I was mounting everything but everything slid into place while I was waiting for the new swings to arrive I did some reading and found recommendations for swing set widths and distances from each other and from the structure so I drilled some new holes to move the brackets and decide to only use two swings here versus three and you may want to wear a dust mask while drilling overhead I reinstalled the hardware but I only put four of them back up to hold the two swings so they'd have plenty more room to swing between them the Sun set on me that day but the next day I finished up the final pieces I reinstalled all the climbing wall handholds and man did they look great against that fresh stain for the repair pieces at the bottom I drilled out two new holes in each one of the boards for the hand holds then I hammered in the threaded inserts into the back and attached the boards to the decline in the wall with deck screws I finished it off by securing the handhold with new bolts and washers the swings arrived and I hung them up on the set the chain was a bit too long so i justed them up I'll come back and cut the excess chain off when I could borrow some bolt cutters I put the finishing touches on the playset and it was all wrapped up after looking at the before pictures and the videos I'm really just amazed at how drastic of a difference this is the playset really does look brand-new from a distance and close-up there's still some chips and bruises but the stain the paint job and the new swings giving this place that a new lease on life hold on before you go you might want to check out that video right there YouTube says it's the best one for you and I think you're gonna like it if you're not subscribed to the channel already I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time guys get out there and build something awesome

Channel: Fix This Build That

Views: 8,456,228

Rating: 4.7927885 out of 5

Keywords: Playset restoration, playset refinishing, restore a playset, playset, play, set, jungle gym, swing set, swingset, how to refinish a playset, restoring a playset, swing set restoration, refinish a swing set, wooden playset, diy playset, woodworker, wood, wooden, woodworking, woodworking projects, woodwork, diy, do it yourself, diy project, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that

Id: D8b2R7reusw

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/bumpsintherose]

Great job! It's a beautiful place for them to cry when they get back from college

[u/dw_jb]

Your kid is 5y older does he still play with it?

[u/MortalSword_MTG]

This tiny house movement has gone too far!

[u/RamiRok]

I bought a really neglected Rainbow playset for $250. They normally go for $10k. Took every.piece.apart to sand and stain, then put back together. Project took me 3 months but looks fantastic now. My kids just turned two so hopefully they play on it for another 5 years

[u/dysentarygary513]

step 1: power wash

step 2: drink a beer

step 3: enjoy

[u/caleb8462]

"I was hoping they wouldn't notice. Of course they did."

Kids ALWAYS notice! lol

[u/PM_ME_SCIENCEY_STUFF]

Great work, but you should have used a lead-based paint. Latex paints will deteriorate quickly in wild environments.

(it's a joke guys, they don't even make lead-based paints anymore)

[u/kevin0611]

It'll make a great place for them to smoke weed with their friends from high school.

[u/vexunumgods]

His kids are in the basment playing fortnight.