FAQ

Both types of Cubby Houses are great. The key difference between the 2 are the ease of build, and size.

Plastic Cubby Houses and Swing Sets tend to be smaller, but easy to assemble and disassemble; which may work well for rentals. Wooden Cubby Houses are more permanent structures, that, if properly cared for, will last for a very long time. In general, Plastics have a 7 to 10 years lifespan before it starts to degrade in strength, not to mention, for the environmentally conscious parents, plastics don’t biodegrade and will become land fill on the long run.

Wooden Cubby Houses can also be built taller and bigger compared to the Plastic Cubby House. So the choice of a Plastic Cubby House or Wooden Cubby House will depend on your circumstance:

• Do you need the Cubby House to be “portable”?
• How old are your children at the moment and how big are they?
• Are environmental impact factors important to you?

A good Cubby House or Swing Set or even a Trampoline needs to be build with safety in mind. Children are great at play, and it is amazing when you see how they dodge and avoid falls, bumps, crashes and smashes. But as play gives way to over excitement or fatigue, accidents happen. It is the same for adults.

A good play set needs to minimize serious injury when these accidents happen, and that is why a good cubby house, swing set, or trampoline is well researched and have little details like rounded corners, covered springs, doors that don’t lock, and wood that don’t break, chip, or splinter easily.

All these considerations and building materials add to cost.

But more then that, a great Cubby House, swing set or trampoline also needs to be aesthetically pleasing. A cubby house is not just a large wooden or plastic box, but it is designed to be functional, and look beautiful with your home.

Oh, and a great cubby house also increases property value if you are selling your property with the cubby house attached.

So, it is a little investment that is meant to make sure that your children have a safe, beautiful play area, that will last a long time, and may even be transferred to another group of children in the future.

The chief consideration when looking at the size of any outdoor play equipment for your home or garden, is the size of the play area that you have.

You need to take into consideration not just the physical diameter of the Cubby House or swing set or trampoline, but also the safety zone of around 1 – 2 metres around your play equipment; and there shouldn’t be low hanging powerlines or cables above it. This is critical with Swing Sets and slides; because you don’t want your children to crash into a wall or tree or poles if they slide off too quickly from a slide, or swing to high on the swing.

So when you measure out your garden for a Cubby House or Swing Set, take away a 1.5 metre radius around the area, and you should know how large a play set you can get.

It depends on the set you buy. The Plastic Cubby Houses tend to be easier to build, and the wooden cubby houses are like putting together IKEA furniture.

Whether you buy your cubby house from Bunnings or Kmart, or other online stores, you will still need some skills with a screw driver (powered one preferably) and reading instructions. 🙂

All wooden plastic Cubby Houses and forts and pretty much any outdoor play equipment, it is highly advisable to build it on a level surface. This is the same requirement as that of a garden shed, and the reason for it is also the same:

• You want your Cubby House to be straight like the Empire State Building, and not the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• For Cubby Houses that don’t come with floors (Bubby Cubby’s Cubby Houses mostly come with a wooden floor already provided), a rubberized deck or concrete slab become the only protection your Cubby House’s interior have from the soil, dirt and moisture from the ground.

So the step of preparing the ground for the outdoor play equipment may not be an easy task for most people, and you may want to hire a builder to make sure your ground is leveled, and to lay soft playground mulch or rubber mulch. There are plenty of video on YouTube from Bunnings and other builders that will show you how to do it, but if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, hire someone.

Generally, during non-busy periods (Christmas and New Year), it takes anything from 3 – 14 business days to get the outdoor play equipment to you; depending on where you live; and the cost will depend on your postcode, and which product you pick.

All our Cubby Houses, trampolines, and swing sets are made in Australia, or stocked in Australia so that you don’t need to wait 2 – 3 months for the Cubby House; which you may have to if you order from an International store. And the added bonus is that they will have Australia warranties.

Bubby Cubby has selected products that are known to have great build quality, and will stand the test of time, and weather.

For example, the Plum Play wooden products are pressure treated for extra strength, and are resistant to pests.

This means that you have the peace of mind when you purchase any product from us, that they will reach you in the fastest possible manner and it is the best price that we can find.

We understand that shipping costs may seem really high. However, outdoor play equipment are rather heavy and bulky. These timber Cubby Houses, Trampolines, Play Gyms, etc are at least 60kg and upwards many are around 120kg.

The weight of these kids play equipment come from of high quality treated timber, or galvanised steel; which are heavy and strong. Most of the cubby houses use timber and not MDF wood, so the posts and main structure are made a single piece of of cut timber; similar to how your house is built.

Plus you want them to have the strength to withstand the Australian environment and wear and tear.

The other reason for higher cost of shipping is due to the geography of Australia. No shipping company can cover the length and breath of our great land mass, so there are usually local partners that make the final delivery of the play equipment, from the depot.

All our wooden Cubby Houses can be personalized and painted in any colour you want. Even those that come pre-stain painted!

In fact, we highly recommend painting the Cubby Houses, and even the wooden swing sets and play gyms to ensure that they are further protected from moisture, to ensure that termites and wood rot are reduced to a minimum.

Also, painting and decorating gives you the greatest amount of flexibility on personalizing the Cubby House, and offers you and your children something to do together and give your children some ownership in the process of putting together the Cubby House or Fort.

It is highly advisable that you paint, or repaint your new Cubby house with at least one undercoat and one coat of outdoor paint.

The other great benefit of painting and decorating, you may be able to get your kids involved and it will become an extra fun activity for the whole family even before the Cubby or play centre goes up 🙂