We get this question all the time…”Why Redwood?” Purchasing an outdoor wooden swing set is a big deal and we are so thankful that our customers are concerned with quality. We love to have the opportunity to brag about REDWOOD!
Well, let me just say right off the bat that redwood is simply beautiful and it is the absolute best choice for a wooden swing set. Redwood is known for its rich reddish brown hue, though it can be lighter and almost pink-ish. We use a high quality oil based stain that helps preserve the beauty of the natural redwood as well as seal it to protect it from natural weathering.
Redwood is more durable than cedar. Redwood has dimensional stability. According to the Department of Agriculture, redwood has less volumetric and tangential shrinkage. This means redwood stays flat and straight with minimal warping, twisting and checking (cracking).
Redwood is naturally resistant to rot, weathering and bugs. Redwood naturally contains tannin, a chemical that gives redwood its color and keeps the wood insect resistant. Please note, it is not 100% resistant of these things, but when comparing to other types of wood it is naturally more resistant. As a whole, redwood is less knotty than cedar making for a smooth clear grade of wood.
Redwood is a 100% natural product and environmentally friendly. Currently redwood is being “farm harvested” less than the annual growth rate, meaning they are growing more redwood than what is being harvested and that’s awesome. The redwood forests are amazing and beautiful and we want to do what we can to help protect them, for every one tree that is harvested five new trees are planted. We use “farm harvested” redwoods for our playsets to help protect the older redwoods, some redwoods are over 2,000 years old in some areas. Coastal redwoods are also reproduced by stump sprouting, not only by seed which gives redwood a reproductive leg up on the competition.
On a side note, all of our scraps are turned into mulch so nothing is going to waste. Also, our redwood ONLY comes from the Pacific Northwest which is the only place redwoods NATURALLY grow unlike the redwoods in New Zealand.
As with all wood, redwood needs to be cared for. We recommend that you re-stain your play set after the first year of installation then again every one to three years depending on the environment.
Here at Backyard Fun Factory we guarantee that ALL of our playsets are made from 100% California Redwood. We truly understand the importance of quality in having every piece of wood on every playset be redwood. I hope that you have learned a lot about how awesome redwood is and will consider this when choosing your playset.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about redwood.
