Natural Wood Playground Maintenance & Care
Wood Product Information:
All of Nature of Early Play’s wood products are 100% natural untreated wood.
No warranties apply to Nature of Early Play’s wood products.
Wood is subject to natural deterioration over time. Heat treating available upon request. Customers may finish (seal) their wood products as desired.
Wood Product Appearance Upon Arrival:
Our wood products are cut and shaped from natural, formerly living trees, not an artificial product. They may have bits of bark missing, and the measurements won’t be exactly the same from log to log.
They may also sometimes have a bit of mold from being packaged in plastic during shipment. This can be remedied by simply spraying or brushing with a bleach solution (straight or 50/50 dilution in water) and leaving in the sun to dry. Then treat with water repellent if desired (described below).
Wood Product Maintenance & Care:
Cleaning and sealing any outdoor wood is not much different than doing the same thing for a wood deck. Outdoor wood tables, chairs, fencing, wood playsets, arbors, etc. all take the same abuse from Mother Nature.
If you fail to maintain outdoor wood it will eventually rot and crack to pieces. Chemically (includes: Thompson Water Seal) treated wood is able to resist rot for decades. Some wood like redwood, cedar, teak and other hardwoods contain varying degrees of natural wood preservatives. But water that soaks into all these wood species will cause them to crack. If completely natural is your choice, we recommend spraying either Linseed oil or similar “Seal it Green” onto your logs. Pump sprayers can be purchased at most home improvement retailers.
There are some options that will provide more protection over time. We recommend using a spar urethane coating, since this protects logs from both UV rays and water.
The cracks start out as tiny checking cracks. Water entering the wood causes it to expand. As it dries, it contracts. This movement creates the tiny cracks. If water gets into the cracks, it soaks deeper into the wood causing even greater expansion and contraction forces that cause the cracks to get deeper and wider.
You can see why it’s important to treat all wood with a water repellent on a regular basis to prevent water from getting into the wood. Do this every other year or so and your outdoor log furniture or play set will look fantastic instead of resembling a 50-year-old fishing pier.
Click here to download this information as a PDF.
Nature of Early Play, Inc. reserves the right to improve and upgrade our equipment, designs, specifications & materials without notice.
View our standard product warranty for Nature of Early Play products (besides wood).