Hi there. My husband, baby and I were on our cypress wood swing the other day when it fell. Luckily, the baby was on a pillow, so he didn't get hurt at all. What happened is that the bolt that was in the tree trunk got stressed over time (DH says it's megal fatigue)and just sheared off. Next time we're just going to wrap the limb with the chains. The swing was damaged enough to need replacement. Which leads to two questions:

1) We had to coat the swing with polyurethane to avoid splinters. It wore off once, so we had to do it again. That was a real pain and I'm wondering if faux wood would be easier to deal with, and stronger, too. I personally like wood best, but.... Does anyone know where to get these, if they even exist? I've never seen them anywhere and would be happy to buy online, if I knew of other people's experiences with them.

2) When we wrap the chains around the limb, does anyone have any good ideas for a material to use btw the chains and the trunk to keep the chains from eventually digging into the tree?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Bettina