We have had this set for a year and a half. the stain has already worn out on many places all over the swing set. The boards are warping and cracking. I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old who have barely been able to play on it. I highly doubt this thing will last 5 years.

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.

I was very surprised by the excellent quality of this kit. We had all of the pieces and they went to together like a well engineered puzzle. Instructions are lengthy, but very detailed and very accurate. All of the holes lined up with surprising precision. Hardware and pieces were all correctly and clearly labeled. Really don't have anything bad to say about this product. It is larger than I expected and looks pretty impressive in the backyard. Wish I had something like this when I was a kid... Highly recommended.

The Skyfort is the best playground hands down. The quality and price put it up there with more expensive playgrounds. My wife and I assembled one other smaller version of the Skyfort. I purchased the playground on sale, and was able to purchase-load-and go in about 30 minutes. Once home and unloaded, my awesome wife grouped all the pieces and marked the one's not clearly marked properly. Without her help I never would have gotten done in the short amount of time it took. We were short a couple of pieces, and the directions are not very clear; we were not new to this. Calling the 800 number put the pieces on our doorstep in about 2 days. It took about 30 hours to assemble and we added another slide for our son. These playgrounds are fun to put together and the quality of the materials is great. Have a plan before starting, plenty of tools and a weekend you can do it in. The kids love it. The Skyfort is holding its own; even against the BLIZZARD OF 2010!!!

This is an excellent playset, able to entertain as many as ten to twelve children at once! I just hosted a May Day party and the kids loved it. It is very solid and well designed. My only complaints: the swings are mounted a bit too close together and the telescope is very poor (it is poorly made, has no magnification, and breaks easily). A few comments about assembly: I purchased the Skyfort II from Sam's Club online and it was delivered in four 200lb boxes one week later. First step: take inventory of all contents and make sure you have EVERYTHING before you start building (in my case, everything was). As you take inventory, arrange all the parts and hardware, systematically and in a covered area, to make it easy to find the parts you will need for each step. Time for inventory - 6 hours. Following the advice of other posts, I weather-treated each wooden piece with a satin-finish polyurathane (2 gallons, $50 each) to extend the life of the playset. This took about 20 hours to complete, but when my kids are done playing with the Skyfort ten years from now it should still have pretty good resale value. Assembly took about 30 hours by myself. I already had all the right tools and have assembled a lot of furniture in the past, so I ran into very few problems. Follow the directions very closely, doing each page in order, and double-check your parts before completing the build on each page. Make sure you always use the right parts for each step of the assembly!!! If you don't, you will find yourself without the right part when you need it. Tip #1 - Keep all the hardware in the plastic bags they come in. Each bag is clearly marked with part numbers that correlate with the instructions on each page. Tip #2 - Once you have completed Step 4 of the Fort assembly, move the fort frame to its permanent location (which should already be prepped) and make sure that every part of the core frame is straight, level and at right angles before proceeding. Tip #3 - For the porch roof assembly, do steps 1, 3 and 4, and leave step 2 for when you actually install the porch roof later in the build. You'll have a easier time with the installation. Tip #4 - For Do-It-Yourselfers like me: invest in six to eight Irwin Quick-Grips. There are MANY situations when you will want to simply hold two boards together in one or two (or five) other places while you screw or bolt another section. The Quick-Grips will act as your helper and save a lot of awkward situations! The key to a successful build is to BE PATIENT and think carefully about each step before you do it, and I think you will be surprised how well the whole Skyfort comes together.

Took 3-4 people 2 days to build. It was a LOT of work but daughter loves it (only 2 days in, so don't know about longevity). It needs some pull bars on the crows nest and some of the boards are thin (adults should avoid getting in the crows nest), but it has pretty much everything you could think of.

We are very happy with this swing set and our kids (and the neighbor kids) love it. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the delivery hassle we encountered with the third party delivery service. Got the runaround from them on the delivery for a while before we finally received it, and we found them to be very unprofessional. We paid extra through Sams to have GoConfigure set it up and boy, is that worth the extra money! 2 men showed up and assembled the entire thing without glancing at the instructions in 5 hours flat! I thought that was going to be impossible. A lot of people have said bad things about GoConfigure, but our installation process was seamless. We are having GoConfigure come out in the fall to weather proof the swing set for $300 to protect it from the winter. If you don't want to pay to have someone do it for you, make sure you weatherproof it yourself. You cannot expect untreated wood to not rot and warp. Too bad Backyard Discovery doesn't weatherproof the wood for you in the factory. Overall after hours and hours of research, I think this swing set delivers the best bang for your buck and I do recommend it. Total time from order to installation was about 4 weeks.

My kids love this play set! We read reviews on the play set and decided to pay someone to put it together. Money well spent! The two guys who came out have put together thousands of play sets and it took them just under 7 hours to complete. The fort is large. I am 5'7" tall and I can stand inside the play set with room above my head. The play set comes with anchors for every post, so it is very stable. The set is perfectly still when all three swings are in use. The swings were pretty squeaky at first, but after my husband sprayed a little WD-40 on the hinges, they are completely silent. If you don't plan to use the sand box, I would recommend getting the little kit to add the extended porch. We didn't order it at first, but I plan to. FYI - when the set arrives, the slide is in pieces in one of the boxes. I thought it would come as one piece (like the ones I have seen at Home Depot), but it has to be assembled. One problem that we encountered while the guys were assembling the play set - we received one extra piece that we didn't need and we were short two small pieces from the back of the set. The pieces that were missing don't have any structural value, but it would have been nice to have all of the correct pieces. I will contact the manufacturer to have them replaced. Overall, we are extremely pleased!

In summation, the kids love it, but had we known what a poorly run company thus is and what their brand of customer service is, we would have never ordered from Backyard Discovery, nor do we intend to in the future. Today while my husband and I were AGAIN trying to resolve this issue, my husband remarked that this is by far the worst purchase we have ever made, not because of the product, but because of the company's errors and faulting us for their errors. (See below for full story) It's mind boggling to me that a company that apparently lacks interdepartmental contact and customer service to the extent that Backyard Discovery does is still in business. So thank you, I suppose, Backyard Discovery, for inspiring me to write my very first absolutely negative review. We purchased this playset nearly 2 months ago. The vendor (Backyard Discovery) that makes them for Sam's accidentally sent us 2. No problem, we thought. We understand, mistakes happen, and we'll gladly send it back as soon as they get a shipping company set up. We immediately called and notified them of the error, spoke both to sam's and Backyard Discovery (the vendor) and were told to wait for a call back to schedule pickup. A week later, no return phone call. We speak to backyard discovery again, they tell us they will contact their carrier, but if we don't ship it, we will be charged. Again, no problem, we just want this 800 lbs of cheap wood out of the way. Now nearly 2 months later, no matter how many times we've spoken to the vendor, we never get a call back to arrange shipping. This morning we receive a rude voicemail saying that we will be charged, we haven't taken their calls, etc. I immediately pull up our phone records to determine when we apparently missed a call that we didnt return...nothing. No one has called aside from the times that we spoke to someone and say "yes, please come get this thing! We spent days putting the first one together and have absolutely no desire to do it again! It's a pallet of cheap wood and hardware that my husband is just tripping over at his work!" (The play set was shipped to his work and stored there because our home is difficult for semis to get to and there is a forklift available at his work for easy unload. Again, we've tried to make this as easy as possible for them, even from the beginning and our initial purchase.) and were told to wait for a callback. I called Backyard Discovery today wanting this solved. I'll admit, I was annoyed. We've been trying to solve an issue that we brought to their attention 2 months ago, yet we've been threatened and "warned" (in the words one of the vendor's reps) with double charging every step of the way as well as we've seemingly been blamed for their "technical issue" that we've been trying to rectify every step of the way. They've acted like we drove there, picked up 2, and refuse to give one back, when nothing could be farther from the truth. Who wouldn't be annoyed? During this most recent phone call, I'm told, to put it bluntly, a bucket of baloney. First, they supposedly notified that they shipped us 2 prior to delivery. (Wrong) Next, the shipping company has been trying to contact us on the correct phone number. (Our phone records say this is wrong). Next, that we haven't returned their voicemails (Again, our phone records beg to differ. Any call from them was promptly returned.) The representative seems almost shocked that I'm annoyed, saying this isnt their fault or the shipping company's fault. There was a "technical error" that caused them to double ship and we haven't returned it. Obviously it was our plan all along to receive a second play set that we didn't order nor expect, store it where it's in the way, and never use it *(heavy sarcasm)* Mind you, we made room to store the boxes out of the elements, have made a forklift available so it can easily be reloaded, and have gladly returned phone calls or voicemails that we receive if its a number that we recognize as Backyard Discovery. But they're going to charge us twice plus shipping. The only way we could have been more accomodating is load it into the truck and drive it back ourselves. In my final phone call, the rep said that "they have no idea what the other departments are doing, they're in different buildings, and there's just too many hands in this." Obviously. Its too bad the customer is the one that pays in the end for a company's lack of communication and organization. In regards to the playground, it was fine, about what we expected. A few pieces of wood arrived damaged, but we were able to replace them with pieces of wood we have around for woodworking rather than go through the hassle of dealing with a company (in hindsight, i can't imagine what a nightmare THAT would've been). If we would have had the knowledge that we do now regarding Backyard Discovery, we wouldn't have even considered making the purchase. I just wanted to make others aware in case it could save them the headache of making it an unpaid part time job to help a company rectify their error, all while being treated as though it's our fault or that we're some sort of criminal. Obviously, I can't tell anyone how to spend their money, but if we could repeat the experience, we most definitely would avoid Backyard Discovery like the plague.

Delivery was quick, available within 1 week. We used Sam's for the installation as well and the guys who showed up were professional and did a great job. It took them just over 10 hours, so having someone else do this, if you can, is well worth the money. The kids love the set, especially the playhouse area. We looked into a Rainbow Play Systems set which was twice as much and didn't have this many activities. Great buy!