Climbing frame advice

[danpep]

Hello experienced DIYers.

To be honest I'm after some free advice...

Unhappy with the climbing frames on offer for gardens (and the price of even small commercially available ones), I have decided to design my own and have my builders put it together. 100mm radiata pine round posts are available in the lengths I need and are reasonabley priced (compared to kit climbing frames).

My motivation for the design is to have something that can grow/change with the kids (rope ladder, swing, monkey bars, etc.) as well as be used by adults - chin-up bar etc. I'm planning on the rubber shredded bark stuff as the safety surface.

I have attached some drawings to help explain my thinking.

• The blue posts are 3m in length buried 60cm underground (so 2.4m above ground and therefore within building regs I thnik).
• The Purple and pink posts are 2.4m in length.
• The yellow posts are 3.6m in length.
• The blue 3m posts will have notches/scallops cut out to support the 2.4m purple posts. The pink post will have a scallop at each end to allow it to be attached to the centre blue post.
• The yellow posts will not be scalloped. They can rest on and be attached to the 2.4m posts with coach bolts.

Now my questions...

Should I bother paying to saddle cope/round notch the 6 x 3000mm posts so that the 2.4m posts are closer to the centre of the upright posts? Or will it be okay just to attach them with 200mm coach bolts?

What diameter coach bolts should I look to use?

Do I need anything around the base of the posts or can they go straight into the concrete? I'm planning on 600mm deep.

Should I add some diagonals to give the structure more rigidity? I'm thinking if there is a swing hanging from the centre beams, will that cause the structure to "rock" and loosen over time?

I know that is a lot to take in so I really appreciate anyone reading this far and taking the time to answer.

Many Thanks!

 

[Doggit]

Not sure exactly what you mean by the first question, so I'll just say that I'm not sure if you need both a pink AND a purple post in the middle of the frame. Saddle the joints slightly, and then use 12x whatever length is appropriate - possible stainless steel. Dropping the posts into concrete/postcrete should be fine with a bit of gravel at the bottom of the hole for drainage, and make sure the concrete is up to ground level so the earth doesn't rot the post - unless you bitumen round the base. And you definitely want diagonals on the corners for stability.

 

[danpep]

Doggit,

Thanks for that advice. What I meant by the first question is can I just coach bolt the corners together as per the second picture in this attachment? Or is it necessary to saddle the joints?

And anythoughts on this sort pf connector? http://www.tuin.co.uk/Round-Post-3-Connector.html

I could use these and the corner connectors from the same company on each group of 3 upright posts. Then I would just have to join the 2 groups together. Perhaps just with coach bolts.

Thanks again. I'm learning a lot.

 

[Doggit]

Saddling the joint will give grater stability than just bolting the post together, but if you're concreting the uprights in the ground, I suspect you could get away just coach bolting.

Having looked at the website, the joints seem to be for fencing (as they're 2 part design), so I'm not sure if they'd stand up to multi directional stresses. The concept is a good one, so I'd look on kids climbing frame sites for some stronger ones.

 

[big-all]

my thoughts

4"circular wont be strong enough in my opinion
pine tends to have many knots that will be strong enough as a fence with the odd person leaning on it
its not only the dead weight off say 2 bodies but the active load off playing around will increase the load by perhaps 3 or 4 times so say 2 kids/adults mucking about on the same timber [2 times 5-8 stone =64 kg-100 or 200-400kg or approaching 1/3- 1/2 a ton

 

[Doggit]

Well spotted Big-all, I'd missed that point. 150mm is more standard for climbing frames.

 

[big-all]

6" is over twice as strong perhaps 2.25- 2.5 times as strong