Removing a Backyard Playset or Trampoline
The creak of a sun-baked cedar beam coming off its bracket is the first sign that a playset has outlived its hardware. Junk pickup of a backyard structure in Redding means working around splintered wood, rusted bolts and springs under tension. The notes kept at redding junk pickup myphr list the same order for every yard near Shasta Dam and Palo Cedro: swings and slides off, the deck unbolted, the frame lowered and the footings dealt with last.
How is a wooden playset taken apart?
Swings, chains and the slide come off in minutes with a socket set. Carriage bolts through the posts are often rusted, so a reciprocating saw cuts them flush when a wrench will not turn. The roof and deck lift off in sections, then the A frame legs fall in one direction, controlled by two people with ropes. Cedar and pressure treated pine are cut in lengths that fit a box truck.
What is the safe way to handle a trampoline?
A trampoline stores a great deal of energy in its springs. The mat is unhooked with a spring puller, working on opposite sides so the tension releases evenly, and no one stands over a spring that is being lifted. The legs fold or unbolt after the mat is off, and the frame goes to scrap metal. A sun-faded mat is thrown out as mixed trash.
What is under the posts?
Playset posts are often set in concrete footings about a foot across and a foot deep. A small jackhammer or a pry bar and a shovel frees them. A broken footing weighs more than most people expect, and the pieces of concrete are loaded last into a dump trailer or a roll off dumpster, since they cut into a pile of lighter lumber.
Does treated lumber go in the green waste?
No. Treated lumber, painted wood and plastic slides belong in the mixed load. Yard waste covers only clean branches and brush, and a green waste area refuses chemical treated boards. After the Carr Fire, many wooded lots around Redding also hold burned or scorched wood, and that stays in the mixed load as well.
What does the yard look like afterward?
A flattened rectangle of dead grass and a few holes remain. Filling the holes with soil and raking the surface leaves the area ready for new sod. Wood chips, rubber mulch and sand from a play area are bagged before they travel, since loose fill blows out of an open trailer on the drive down Interstate 5.