Feel like being the coolest Dad on the block? If so, choosing to install a swing set is a great move to bolster your neighborhood campaign. It will provide hours of outdoor fun for your kids and their friends: Swing sets have come a long way since the steel swing and slide sets that used to be common fare in every suburban backyard. While swings and slides are still stock additions to any play set, a playground equipment dealer is able to show you that those basics are only scraping the surface of today's swing set possibilities.

Wooden Swing Sets are Best
If you are going to put a new swing set in your yard, a wooden swing set is by the far the best way to go for a number of reasons. For starters, they look great. Usually built of quality cedar or redwood, a good wooden swing set is more than just a play set. It's actually an attractive decorative addition to your landscaping that is built to last for years to come. And when the weather does start to take its toll on the wood, all you have to do is call in a contractor experienced in treating wood products such as decks, siding, shingles, and the like, and your equipment will look like new overnight. Compare those benefits to steel and aluminum sets that rust and bend to plastic composites that grow brittle and break with extended exposure to sunlight, and it's easy to see why you can't go wrong with wood playground equipment.

Wood Swing Set Installation Options
The other reason your kids will never stop talking about their new swing set is that wooden swing set design has boundless possibilities. As long as the basic structure is put together soundly, there is really no limit to which special swing set additions you can add on to your new playground equipment. And because your child's developmental needs change so quickly, wood swing sets also allow you to change out equipment to keep them challenged physically, mentally, emotionally, and imaginatively, as they grow older. Here's a few playground additions you ought to consider in conjunction with installing a swing set for your backyard haven:

• The Fort has become a regular feature on almost every wooden swing set. Sometimes with a roof, sometimes not, this is simply a high platform (with railings of course) that is whatever your child's imagination makes of it. Pirate galleons, Indian forts, and space ships have all been favorites of generations of imaginative adventurers.

• Slides aren't just slides anymore. They turn, twist, bounce, drop, race, and they come in open, covered, and tubed varieties. They are often installed as handy escape routes from the above-mentioned forts.

• Climbing Walls are in, ladders are out. Simulation rock climbing walls are all the rage, though rope ladders, fireman's poles, corkscrew ladders, climbing ramps, tree ladders, and clatter bridges are popular additions as well.

• Sandboxes are also becoming standard additions on wood swing sets. It makes sense, since the wood construction makes it easy to incorporate a lined, contained, sandbox into a larger swing set design. It's also a very good choice if you've got kids of differing ages. Your one year old can sit content shoveling piles of sand from one place to another while the older kids can hang upside down and do flips off the monkey bars. It makes keeping track of everybody much easier if they're all playing in the same vicinity.

Talk to a Playground Equipment Dealer
Believe it or not, we've only scratched the surface of the different design and equipment options available to you if you're thinking about installing a swing set for your yard. Talk to a playground equipment dealer about the right size, style, and design of wooden swing sets for your yard and your children. Like we said before, adding one of these impressive play areas is sure to make you the most popular Dad on the block.