Sams club sells this for lower than any other place, but honestly, still not sure if it’s worth the price. The wood is pretty soft, but it seems to hold the recommended weight good enough. The manufacturer did leave out 3 pieces, so I’d inventory everything before assembling it. As for installation, unless you want a headache, do it yourself. The company they use has a history of bad reviews and they were not willing to work with me on some items. The assembly isn’t too bad, just time consuming. All in all, even with the slight negatives, the kids are happy and that’s what matters

Sky Fort II is a great play set. It looks good, is sturdy, and your kids/grandkids will love it. It is not hard to assemble, but takes preserverance. We used four fairly competent people to assemble it (all 4 adults have masters' degees and more) and the total number of person-hours was 60. Although technically there really aren't 1 million parts, you will think there are. The instruction manual is good, but at times confusing in just where and how you should complete a step. There are multiple bolt/nut/washer/screw sizes and you really need to make sure you use the right ones as per the directions. Recommend you gather all parts from each step together and figure out which bold goes with which bolt barrel before hooking them together. Bolts and nuts strip very easily so you don't want to minimize number of times you tighten/untighten them. Spray a lubricant into the bolt barrels to make it easier. Lots of holes to line up and we had to drill some to get them to do so. We also had to shave some of the boards to get them to fit together. If you have young kids, ship them to a foreign country during the project as they will want to help but will be a hindrance. Finally, if any of your workers are married to another worker, consult divorce attorney prior to starting this project. Bottom line, YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF, but at times you will be frustrated.

My wife and I have been looking to get a new playset for our 4 kids the last 3 years and the Skyfort II was the ultimate choice we wanted that fit within our budget. It finally aligned up with tax return this year so we bought it. Shipping is free which is awesome since I don’t have the means to pick up at a Sam’s directly. Comes in four boxes, probably 100-200lbs. each. The delivery driver had a 2-wheel dolly so I was able to bring the boxes to my back yard with a little “umph” work. I’ve done many do-it-yourself projects, but probably not one from a box this large. I was very impressed with how everything is packaged and labeled. I had no missing hardware (some extras actually), all wood pieces were there and marked legibly enough to recognize the part #. I was able to do this by myself in about 28 hrs. over several days as I had time available. It probably would have taken a little less time if I had more full days to work on this vs. broken up. My suggestion/recommendations is to take time to lay out all the wood pieces by letter, definitely helps to find pieces during the process. I had an 18-volt cordless drill with two batteries, which I would also recommend if you have access to one; a handtool is provided, but a drill of some sort is needed regardless since some minor drilling is required and also helps to complete in a timely manner (star drill bits are included with the hardware as well). The instructions are very well marked and great to note which way pilot holes need to face when putting pieces together; I got ahead of myself a couple of times and overlooked these details, so just make sure you pay attention to the instructions about which way pieces need to face when assembling. Doing so will make sure each following step goes smoothly with you having all the holes in the right place. For the whole project, only one piece had the pilot holes in the wrong place (one of the main floor sections), but that was no issue at all. I was careful when working on the upper playset areas, but I’m 195lbs, and the 2nd level of the playhouse as well as the crow’s nest was able to handle my weight with no issues. While the playset is still new for us and don’t know about wear and tear, I’m very impressed with the quality of the wood and hardware. I’m also impressed with the instructions; it’s about 65 pages/steps in all, but very well laid out and was easy for me to follow. It all seems very sturdy and looks great in our yard and kids are having a blast. Our youngest is 1, so we expect to have this over 10yrs. and will maintain it with wood treatments as recommended to upkeep. Very happy with this purchase.

My husband finished putting this together last night, and the kids were thrilled!!! It took him 2 full days, plus several hours prior building individual pieces in the garage before he brought them outside. You won't find a better playset for your money! All pieces were in excellent condition when they arrived, and we weren't missing anything either. Also, shipping was super quick and the freight company who delivered brought it right into our garage (4 large boxes). We are looking forward to years and years of fun in skyfort!!!!

I paid so much for this product thinking it would be of better quality. The wood was split, cracked, had holes, or was weak when we received it. Then when you went to drill screws they would split or break. It took us over a week to put it together because the directions where awful to decipher. The Spanish version had more helpful information than the English one, such as enlarged diagrams, however I cannot speak nor read Spanish so it wasn't that helpful. Anyways we spent most of our time searching for The right boards and redoing stuff to put it The right way because of the little detail The instructions would give you. The stamps that label the boards where half there if there at all, so we had to have a separate pile just for the boards that we couldn't identify. It was a messy and when I posted it on my Facebook I said "it's only taken blood, sweat, tears, and talk of divorce, but it's finally finished." and that very same day that we finished it my 4 year old sat on the make shift stools over the "sandbox" area and it snap and splitered into pieces.... Very disappointed.

It’s huge and awesome! Kids love it! If you are doing this by yourself plan on at least 30 hours. I had to get a helper after 3 days of 7 hours a day. Then finished with a helper in about 10 hours. It’s a job, but the instructions are easy to follow and very detailed. I’ve never built one and it went pretty smoothly. Just takes a lot of work.

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.

Like many people posting here, i did not take this purchase lightly. I looked around at various retailers, read reviews, etc. This playset by and far gave the most bang for the buck. I'm a pretty handy guy and the construction wasn't overly difficult. Numerous times, i did have to remove a part to flip it around since the directions were not clear or hard to read. Other times, the ordering of the steps was counter-intuitive and required parts to be removed in order to put others on. I noticed on some parts there was a bias of around 1/8" top to bottom or side-to-side on some of the holes that were supposedly centered. Oftentimes i found this out too late to remove them which ultimately led to some alignment issues down the road. The directs fail to mention that you will have to mark the footprint of the playground, move it, THEN twist in the anchors since there's not really a good way to do it otherwise. Also as mentioned before, the monkey bars are a bit precarious on the transition into the playground. My single biggest gripe for the playground is the length of the main swing beam. With 2 swings and the double rider, things are just too close together. I will be looking into a laminated beam that is at least a foot longer to replace the original. I'm aware that all the things i mentioned here are negatives. There are plenty of reviews that discuss the positive aspects of the playset and i find it important to explain the problems.

We bought this for our 4 kids ages 3-9. They love it. It took us more then the 40 hours to put together because we actually changed it a bit. Instead of putting in the floor and picnic table underneath we did that as a full sand box and built a little porch on the back side by the rock wall to construct the picnic table. We also unpacked and sealed every piece of wood separately before installing and that took a day to sort out and treat and then a full day to dry before we started putting it together.

Love this playset! We bought this for our 2 year old daughter. She outgrew her toddler set and we figured this set would last her until she was 9 or 10. She absolutely loves it! She plays on it for hours everyday. Loves the rockwall and the look-out tower (she likes to pretend she is Rapunzel). Obviously she is too small for the monkey bars but she hangs off them with daddy holding her. I would not hesitate to recommend this set. It is high quality and well made. We compared this to a set at a big box hardware store, and this set was much nicer and better made at a much lower price. A couple small comments... one, some, not all, of the hardware is cheaply made (screws stripped etc). For a nice set, the hardware should be better. Second, the pieces all come in different boxes with no rhyme or reason. My suggestion is to take an hour and separate the wood by letter and number. You will save hours searching for pieces. I did this for my husband and he was so happy. Believe the 24-48 hour time estimate for assembly. My husband and son built this in about 30 man hours. Overall a great purchase!