So much more for your money. You won't be sorry if you buy this play/swing set. Great price compared to other vendors. Did the assembly on our own, husband and son are carpenters. If not handy I would recommend paying the extra for the assembly. Great value for the money!

I bought this set in August of 2015 at the end of the season to get a better price. Finding after the set was built that the original price would have been well worth the money. I actually did not build the set until April 2016 after some rainy and cold weather kept me from starting on it as soon as I received it. After sitting for 7 months the wood was still in perfect condition and very easy to work with. While deciding which set to purchase I read and researched a lot of reviews of the set. I actually found quite a few that were really detailed and helpful, although I had to be careful because some of them were for the earlier model and the instructions are different for each one. I think the most helpful was a review that suggested using sandwich bags to separate the hardware for each step. Take time to go thru the instruction book page by page to familiarize yourself with the steps. As you do put the hardware for each step in its own baggy and label it for that step. It will take you about 4 to 5 hours to do this but it is worth it as it makes the steps go faster while actually building, not having to take time to pull the hardware for each step as you go, plus it inventories the hardware so you know if you are short on anything before starting. Separating the boards is a must. You will need a lot of space to do so. I had a space in the very back of my yard that we spread a trucker tarp to lay them on and put another over them so if it rained during construction the boards would not be sitting in water until used. As you inventory the boards, putting them in alphabetically order, then putting each letter in numerical order is very helpful with time spent building. Each step is detailed as to which boards and hardware is needed, but please be careful to pay close attention as to the orientation of the boards. Most have predrilled holes that will need to be in the right places for following steps. In some steps it is difficult to see which way the predrilled holes are supposed to go, but if you look ahead a couple steps to check where other boards might intersect with that board it will help to make it clear which way to position it. If you are careful and make sure each board is positioned correctly there is no need to drill guide holes except in the few places where the instructions actually tell you to drill a hole. The building process was easy. Being a truck driver my husband is on the road a lot so I built the set by myself. The first weekend consisted of 5 hours on Sunday, after spending Saturday separating the boards and hardware. The week was only 1 hour after work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, got rained out on Thursday and Friday. The second weekend was 8 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday, 1hour after work on Monday, with the finishing touches (attaching the slide, rock wall, ladder and swings) being done in 1 1/2 hours after work on that Tuesday. A total of 23.5 hours. I feel like having a helper would have only been someone in the way. Having two "A" ladders was very helpful though, as I used them to hold the swing bar up while I attached it to the play-set. And it also eliminated the need to continuously move one ladder from side to side while working. I bought the optional floor that covers the sand box area. I had some issues with this part of the building process. While installing I had to cut the two end pieces, they were about 1/2 of an inch too long. I also discovered that the predrilled holes were measured incorrectly on the floor boards. When the factory drilled the holes they fell right at the edge of the board they were to be attached to instead of in the middle of it. Problem solved by screwing them in at an angle and the extra floor space allows for a bigger play area without the worry of sand and dirt. I also did not use the monkey bars, grandkids still a little young for those. Instead I called Backyard Discovery and ordered another M1 and 4 more M24s to make where the monkey bars would go enclosed like the opposite side (Step 37). Helpful suggestions: If you do get the optional floor….Do NOT install the L2 boards in step 6 (of the play set instructions). DO install the optional floor before you do step 18, in which you will have to cut O2 to fit above the floor board. I then bought a little L brace to attach O2 to the floor board. In step 55 before attaching the J2 boards it would benefit you to go to step 58 and attach the two M25 boards to the J2 boards before attaching the J2 boards to the crow’s nest bottom. If you attach the J2s first, when you go to attach the M25s the roof will be in the way of being able to screw the screws in. The only Con that I can honestly say I see with this play set is the sliding board. It was very difficult to put together and does not seem sturdy. I wish it had come with the one piece thick plastic slide I saw with some of the other sets. I do not think it will last very long. The rest of the play set is very sturdy. I weigh 190 lbs. and while constructing this set I climbed all over it. Once the second floor floorboards were installed I stood on them to continue to build the upper level of the set. I even had to climb into the crow’s nest to build part of it. None of the boards felt like they would break under my weight. After replacing one of the swings with a baby swing, all of the grandkids can and will enjoy this play set for years to come. I added some pictures of the building process.

It was a task putting it together but it is good quality and very sturdy. For the price you can't beat it! It would be nice if they just boxed the like pieces together but they don't so highly recommend when you're going thru your checklist to make sure you received everything to put like pieces together at that time!!

I bought this for my daughter and son-in-law who have 4 small children at home. It is beautiful, sturdy. It does take up a lot of yard but eventually the kiddos will love it. They received the set in 4 very heavy boxes -- have the delivery people put it as close to where you are going to set it up as possible. The info says 36 hours with two people and believe me it definitely needs two people. So, if your 1-year old is crawling and stumbling everywhere, your 3-year old is "helping" and your 7 and 9 year olds are also helping, estimate at least double the time. It is well worth the effort. We had a set previously from same manufacturer that lasted about 7 years so we assume that this investment will last that long as well. I think the previous set would have lasted longer but with automatic sprinkler system and hot Texas sun, it eventually broke down. Definitely need to anchor well if in sandy loam.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I bought this playset in February to replace a 20 year old set that my grandchildren used. I currently have two great grandchildren living here temporarily and this one fit the bill. It took me a month to assemble, as I waterproofed all parts before assembling. Well worth the extra work being in Maine, and not bad for a 63 year old great grandpa. I would definitely recommend, as the kids love it.

This is an amazing set. The overall quality of the whole kit was incredible. Every part was labeled and none of them were missing. We had four people, a parts person, instruction reader, and two builders and we had it done in 18 hours including cleanup. I would highly recommend this product.

We are very pleased with this playset. We looked at Rainbow playsets and some of their competitors and just couldn't spend the money - 2-3 times the price for a similar design. Though the wood for the Skyfort II is not as heavy duty as the higher end playsets from Rainbow, etc., it is still good quality and certainly strong enough for little ones. I routinely get in the clubhouse with our 1 and 4 year old - its a little cramped and I have to be careful on the step ladder but it supports me with no problem (6'2" 180lbs). The crows nest is a great addition that not many playsets have - its a tight fit but I can even get up in there and stand without any concern for my weight. After considering a $600-800 set up cost if we hired it out, my wife and I put the entire playset together ourselves (plus we have a ~10 degree slope in our backyard and most companies wouldn't build it for us unless we had level ground... we just put 4x4s under the back corners and leveled it from there and it worked great). We build some of the separate parts (slide, monkey bars, ladder, and rock wall) in the garage and then spent an entire weekend building the playset. I would guess it took us 20-25 hours total... maybe a little longer. We certainly recommend going through all the wood and at least checking over the hardware - we weren't short any pieces and had tons of extra hardware but we did get a few replacements shipped as a couple of boards had small cracks. Customer service via the 800 number was great - they shipped out all needed parts via FedEx in 2-3 days at no charge and no questions asked. Since our kids are so young, we initially blocked off the monkey bars with a gate but then I decided to purchase a second slide for about $100 delivered and installed it in the place of the monkey bars (Leisure Time told me not to do this - presumably for safety/balance or design so I ordered it as a 'replacement') but its worked great and now we don't have to worry about the gate falling out. Plus we can reinstall the monkey bars when they are old enough. A few recommendations - lay out all the pieces before starting the build... this took a long while in our garage... maybe 3-4 hours but it did help during the build. We built the crows nest in our garage and not on top of the swingset as the directions say... it was heavy to lift up but I can't imagine building that whole thing on top of the swing bar. We thought the directions were surprisingly good but do pay attention to which direction the boards should go as a connector may be needed 2-3 steps later that you put on backwards... once you start building, you will see what I mean. Not a huge deal to backtrack but a little annoying. We also only have one cordless drill and there are a lot of connectors so we had the battery die a couple of time so we had to break to recharge... having a corded drill or second battery could have helped. The only real negative is that the wood is a little soft and the finish comes off too easily. I actually sent for replacement ladder steps as that seems to be the place where the finish has already come off from climbing. I tried to get the right stain to do touch-ups but the kind and color that the company tells you simply doesn't match. I figured its a minor issue considering the considerable cost savings but it is my one gripe - not sure why they can get you a small can or at least a tell you a color that actually matched. I sprayed it with two coats of water protector after the build was done (I know others say the sprayed every board before the build... I know after is much faster though likely not as thorough). As some reviews say, the swings are closer together than the pictures show but still fine to use all three at the same time at least when they are smaller. One more thing - we already had a sand box so didn't need the one included. In lieu of purchasing the extra wood to build a floor over the sandbox (an extra kit $100 you can get for the set), we got rubber mulch and used that... its great so the kids don't have to worry about falling/tripping over the empty box but we don't have to have more sand over everything. We also bought a ships wheel and music set (drums) on Amazon to add a couple of things and those have worked out well. Overall, we would highly recommend and would buy again. It was actually pretty fun to build with only a little arguing :) but I think it will be a good set for years to come.

I purchased this 17 months ago. However, due to bad weather conditions, I was not able to get it assembled and in place until last fall, thus it has now been installed for a period of 8 months - through the winter, a very warm but wet winter/spring. Overall, I was very pleased with the quality, especially since it is somewhat more costly than competitor's models. I loved the fasteners provided. Overall the markings on the boards was good although I did have a couple of problems with the wrong board being shipped. In one case, I trimmed the edge off a couple of boards that were too wide; in another case, the board was too short and I had to have the company ship me another board, which they did promptly. I did pre-coat each board (as recommended by the manufacturer) with a semi-transparent exterior coating, dipping the end of each board into the paint bucket to ensure a good coating on the ends. Of course this was quite time consuming but worth it in the long run as the coating supplied by the manufacturer is merely a stain and not a weather-resistant coating. I have seen the same product nearby that the customer did not coat and within a year it is beginning to look quite weathered while mine looks as pristine as the day I put it together. I did bury an 8 x 12 x 4 concrete block under each significant ground contact point, making sure they were solid and level. I then added my own turnbuckles and eyebolts to ensure the set did not move or "jump." Also, we purposely left off one roof panel (next to the crow's nest) to provide more light to the playhouse. In addition, I placed a kids picnic table in the lower floor area in that the manufacturer's design of the picnic table blocks off the access to the floor area except to climb over the wall or go through the sandbox. The only aggravating issue I had with the entire experience were the drawings in the instruction book used to assemble the swing set. I called the company about this and provided written documentation to them regarding the issue. They said they were glad I called as well as provided pictures and written descriptions - by part number, but I can't say for sure they ever made any corrections to the instruction book. Overall, the instructions were detailed and properly progressive. The biggest problem, in addition to a couple of times where the instructions were in actual error, was that the graphic renderings were confusing. I am sure they looked really good on a CAD screen but when they were printed, hidden lines disappeared making it look like a part that was behind another part look like it is in front of the part, causing me numerous times to assemble a subassembly only to have to take it apart and reassemble it in the opposite location - no easy task given the hardware provided. I found that if I consulted the next step or two in the process, the rendering there actually often provided a truer picture of the prior subassembly than the one supposedly depicting the subassembly. I doubt the company fixed this even though I brought it up to them more than once. So, watch your step and don't get in a hurry or think you understand how a subassembly goes together until you check ahead in the book.

I bought this to replace a smaller swing set. It took five adults about two days to assemble. Had a great "family" time while working on the new set. I purchased this set to allow my oldest grandchild (13) to play with her younger brother and cousins. The grandchildren wanted to play on it while we were doing the assembly. Had no problems with the assembly. Laid out all parts, separated the parts then assembled each section according to the instructions. The instructions were straight forward and easy to follow. Loved by all.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I got this almost a month ago ... delivery was good ... the driver helped me to put it where I am planning to put it together ... took me full three days to put together all by myself .... my kids are super happy and loves it so worth the money and effort