Researched/Viewed many playset before purchasing the Skyfort...i chose it for the great look & quality & price, consumer reviews, has many activities and kids love it. I had Sam's installation service handle the insatll....for me it was the only way to go...do it yourself if you are very-very handy and have 2-3 days where you don't have anything else to do :) The install was worth the price.

Several hours are needed to inventory and separate parts if you are doing this by yourself. Some instructions are a little vague. My son and I worked together on the construction when he was off work and a neighbor helped one afternoon also. I believe we put in about 40 hours. All of the pieces were shipped but we ended up going to the hardware store for approximately a half dozen bolts. It is quite easy to use the wrong screw or wrong bolt so I wouldn't say they weren't all shipped. My grandchildren love it. My grandaughter refers to it as her "Park". It looks great and we are happy with it.

I am surprised at how many good reviews that this playset receives. In the beginning, the playset seemed fine. The materials are thinner than some of the more expensive units that you can purchase. That, however is not the biggest problem. Within 4 months, this playset started to show a lot of wear. We have not even had this a year and the wood is flaking and falling apart. I would not recommend this to anyone. Wished we would have spent more money and purchased a better quality product.

I am a contractor and put this together in 24 hours by myself and my wife finding pieces for me on a part time bassis. It would be a big job for the do-it-yourselfer, you might want to hire it done, for the stores $400 offer. This comes in 4 large crate type boxes. One of the boxes is extremely heavy and take two good size men to move it. You will want the boxes close to the assembly point, as you will make a million trips to them. Finding the pieces is a challenge in itself. Numbers are faint and similar to each other, ie N8, M8, HK4, KH4, ect. You may need 6 - B8, there may be 2 in one boxe 2 in another box, 1 in each one of the other boxes. There is a packing list in each box, but you spent a lot of time trying to find the pieces. 20 plus bags of screws, bolts nuts, washers, with similair sizes, 14x1-1/8, 14x1-1/2, 18x1-1/4, 18x1-5/8, plus multiple size washers, bolts & screws. Plus there is only one extra of each. Except screws, which I was short 50 14x1-1/8 and 2" bolts I was short 10. The instruction are all just black & white copy drawings and very little actual instruction. Hard to make out placement of boards. Plus they kept showing the project from different sides, with no indication which side you are looking at. Many boards have to be put on in a certain rotation and that is not spelled out. You find out in a later step that your holes do not line up. Then you have to remove the board and reattachit, or if you have too many things already attached, you may have to drill new bolt holes, then you loose your predrilled screw hole indentions. This is the main area that could be improved. All for all it seems to be a nice play set and alot of thought has gone into it. The main fort is over 6' tall on the inside and at 250# supported me well, even the crows nest look out platform. The value is good for what you are getting. But the aggravation of looking for poorly marked parts and the vagness of the instructions, can make you hot under the collars. I am glad it is done.

We purchased this set last summer, and my husband assembled it by himself. It took a while for him to complete it, but it could be done in a weekend if he had help. There were a few parts missing, but the company was great about sending replacements very quickly. The kids love it! We have 5, 2, and 1-year-olds, and they all find something to play with. There are multiple places to climb and even a variety of swings. Their friends enjoy it also. We haven't even added any sand to the sandbox area, but that will just be one more bonus! The picnic table makes for fun meals outside. Even the 1-year-old can get on the seat by himself. My only caution is that the materials are not the sturdiest. The wood is already peeling (some of it came out of the box that way), and the stain is gone in some areas. The wood is also not very thick and some of it is splitting. There are some joints that don't seem to be made in the best way, so I'm not sure how long this set will last. It's adorable and fun but may not last.

This thing is HUGE!! I'm 6'07" tall and I can stand inside with plenty of headroom. Alot bigger than I thought and it's massive compared to some of the $700 - $800 ones I've seen at Lowes & Home Depot. So glad I spent the extra money on this one, my little girl loves it. Construction was intimidating at first, but really not bad once you get into it. I downloaded the manual and studied it a little while waiting on it to ship. Highly recommend a cordless impact drill with a speed-bit set-up. Highly recommend you have a Torx T-40 Speed Bit. You will be changing bits often between the T-40 and a Phillips, so the speed bit was nice to have. For me, the Crow's Nest was the most difficult to set up. Instructions call for table-top construction of the floor, so my holes didn't line up when I went to put it on. I wish I would've built it in place. Enormous amounts of hardware, but everything is bagged separately. I set up a large table just to lay out all the hardware, that seemed to help. I did not care for the directions, there is very little written, it's all diagrams that you need to pay really close attention to. Pay close attention to the hole placement on the diagrams because the instructions do not let you know that a board needs to be facing a certain way. Make sure you keep your packing lists when you open the boxes, I had to refer to them many times to find the specific boards I needed for the next step. Overall it was a fun family project that I'm certain will last our family for years. Very impressed with the quality of this playset.

We purchased and assembled this for our four year old grandson and eventually his now two year old sister. He LOVES it! Both children immediately began using the picnic table for snacks and coloring activities. Our grandson loves the glider, slide, and fort! It took about three weeks from placing the order to delivery. It took two to four people about 30 hrs. to construct. Doing an inventory first is essential. Having only two, but moderately skilled, workers is a good recommendation. Having more than two can be confusing. The two should be well-versed in reading construction plans. It's also a good idea to look over each day's plans before beginning. Several tasks had to be done over because of not understanding instructions. Referencing the hardware by the last three digits within the plans would have helped enormously. The next best option is to write in the hardware's code by the dimensions on each page. Some of the wood split when drilled. Once we had to glue the broken pieces. Having nut barrels to cap off the bolts provides an attractive and safe product. We were shorted on three types of bolts and barrels; so we spent about $25 replacing them at Home Depot instead of waiting for replacements. We are very pleased with the number of activities this set provides as well as the overall quality of the product. We chose it after looking at a multitude of other playscapes, selecting it based on its having a cedar as opposed to canvas or plastic roof over the fort, a ten foot (not eight foot) slide, sandbox, picnic table, monkey bars, and of course glider and swings. Our son-in-law is boarding up the outlet to the monkey bars and removing the climbing bars on it so neither child can use this until he/she is old enough.

I read many of the reviews before purchasing this set. I was geared up and ready to go for a 40+ hour project. I prepped two cordless drills (one for drilling, one for screws/bolts) and when the set arrived (in four boxes) I organized the screw/bolts/hardware as others had indicted to do. I decided to leave all the boards in the boxes because the boxes have an inventory list and felt it would be easier to find what I needed that way. The set went together faster than expected. I finished it in about 20-22 hours of total hands on time. The directions were straight forward and the boards were correctly pre-fitted and guide holes lined up correctly. The only times I had to drill was when the directions indicated such. And although seeking out boards that were needed for each step was still somewhat time consuming, having the packing lists for each box sped up the process. It would have been useful to have a second person to pull and preset the boards/bolts for the next steps but I had expected this to take me a while anyway. As for quality, the boards are cedar and have a finish on them. This set is not for older children. Although fairly sturdy, I could foresee issues for older children (11+) putting stress on the cedar boards that they weren't designed to bear. I did not receive any cracked or damaged boards in the set. They were cut to specifications and as stated, that made the project go faster than expected. I still plan to put a water sealant on the wood to preserve the lifespan of the set but overall the kids have been thoroughly enjoying playing on and in the set and even had fun "helping" put it together.

We are actually in the process still of putting this set together, but i wanted to come on here and write a review as soon as possible to hopefully save someone else the horror of a set. it was a bday gift for our 3 year old and her father has been working 2 days now trying to get it together, on his third day I get a photo of one of the main beams completely slit at a notch, without him even drilling into it. Several other pieces would split as soon as hardware was put into it. the hardware is nice and tough but the wood cant hold up to it. I am almost scared to let my daughter play on it when it is finished. This is 100% not worth the money we paid.

When I received the playset it looked like a huge task from the 4 boxes of parts. I was able to complete this by myself in about 25 hours. The directions were fairly clear and the wood markings were mostly readable. Assembly was simple and when I ran short of a bag of bolts and 1 floor board a simple call to customer service had all parts on there way to me with no questions ask. My 3 year old is having a ball.