Gorilla Playsets Blue Ridge Retreat Wooden Gym Play Center and Swing Set

We picked this set because we thought it was a better quality set with better customer service from the manufacturer than many we had seen online. We were wrong. Lots of pieces came broken. When I called Gorilla it took a week and a half to get replacement pieces. I'm still waiting on 2 pieces to come. The customer service woman at Gorilla that handles the Walmart orders will not return my call or email letting me know when the 2 pieces will be sent. We had to purchase $30 in hardware because they sent the wrong stuff or they didn't send enough. These were supposed to be sent out by Gorilla as well but they never arrived, so we had to purchase them ourselves. For the price of this set there is NO reason I should have had to spend that much money on hardware. The stain is already coming off on the ladder, rock wall and platforms and it's only been up for 3 weeks. The quality of the wood is not as described in the description. The whole set moves when my 4 year old daughter weighing 35 pounds goes down the tunnel slide. The slide in my opinion needs more support. Also when anyone swings, the swing beam bends and moves which pulls on the towers moving them. I won't even bother trying to explain the complications with the instructions. They are absolutely horrible. We had to complete a lot of steps ignoring them because they are inaccurate/contradictory in many places. Overall in hindsight, we wish we would have saved our money and bought treated lumber from Lowes and bought one of their boxed sets. We definately would not purchase another set by Gorilla or ever recommend it to anyone.

Janeen's review (most helpful) is spot on...I am still in the mist of building this, but I do have some pointers for everyone. 1) inventory all your boxes and parts upon delivery for damage...anything that damaged call gorilla to have replaced (had no issue from the company). Either group them by steps or by size. I still ended up short some wood screws but just bought them out of pocket on my own to keep progress going on buliding. 2) Read the directions thoroughly...Download the manual off the gorilla webite (much better pictures than the directions enclosed in the packaging) They are still a little confusing since from one step to the next they will switch views with noting it in that step. For example, a step will show a view from the front and then from the back without annotating it in the drawings that the view has changed. But they show more detail than the ones it shipped with 3) Use/borrow/rent/ an impact wrench..will save you a lot of time on the lag bolts (or lag screws as they are called in the directions) and carriage bolts vs ratcheting by hand. 4) Take your time, step by step, and your family will have a solid playset to enjoy for years to come. My 3 kids are chomping at the bit to try it out.

It was a lot of work, but it's totally worth it. My husband & I put this together ourselves and it took about 25 hours. We sorted all the pieces & labeled each piece w/masking tape--and although that alone took 2 hours--I think this was a life saver. We could then easily grab the pieces we needed for every step. The directions were sometimes vague & the most frustrating thing was trying to understand the illustrations--hard to tell what holes the screws were supposed to go into. A color coded book or an instructional DVD would've been helpful. We luckily had every single piece of wood, hardware, & accessories--and everything was delivered in good shape. The whole family (inlcuding our 2 dogs) love playing on it, and it's the best playset in the neighborhood! We're very happy with it & would highly recommend it.

Overall a decent value and serves its purpose. If you are looking for something more sturdy that will handle lots of kids or the occasional adult getting in on the fun, this is not it. GOOD: Attractive design, good variety of play features, adequate size for 4-6 children probably up to age of 8 playing at the same time or more for brief periods such as a party BAD: Short on hardware, bad lock nuts and bolt design, overall structure could use stability reinforcement, several pieces damaged in shipment, incorrect predrilled holes, incorrect instructions, stained finish scratches off easily from use RECOMMENDED: For those of you who are not carpentry or mechanically minded, HIRE SOMEONE to put this thing up. The 14 hour assembly time is a ridiculously low estimate. For one person with occasional help, plan on 30-40 hours. I was pleased that the important hardware was complete. However, I installed deck screws exactly as prescribed but ran short on two sizes. Fortunately, I had some more on hand. The lock nuts are crimp style and are way too tight to work. Throw them away and get nylon lock nuts from a hardware store. Maybe I missed something obvious, but they provide carriage bolts for use in places where there is NO WAY the bolt head will engage the wood! And there is certainly no way you are going to screw a locking nut onto this arrangement. I ended up band sawing screwdriver grooves in the bolts that hold the swing beam in order to have a way to hold the bolt still while tightening the nuts. On the swing bolts, I used vice grips to hold the carriage bolt heads. This was the most aggravating flaw in the whole setup. The overall structure lacks bracing that would make it more stable when several children are playing on it or a larger child is swinging. The structure sways as much as a couple of inches back and forth at the very top and this could have been eliminated in design. I will probably add some bracing as the movement could shorten its life over time. It is installed on a very level and solid base - that is not the problem. The shipping damage was largely due to the poor delivery service that delivers in our area. I believe the playset was packaged properly but it was handled roughly and without care. Many items were not predrilled. There is really no excuse for this on a unit priced this high. Also, the roof boards were all incorrectly predrilled. Most of the instructions would be OK if there were not errors - particularly with the "offset hole" portion of the instructions. There were about a half dozen errors. The good part is that if something is wrong it will be fairly obvious to an experienced person. Lack of good instructions cost me at least several hours. The stained finish looks great, but it scratches off easily from normal use on wear areas such as the ladder, flooring, etc.

This playset is not a good deal. The wood was sent to me damaged. Many pieces were wraped and cracked. I had to replace them myself after my phone calls to the company were ignored. The directions are hard to understand. The measurements of the wood and the instructions don't match up. Basically you have to have some knowlage in construction to put this play set up. Buyers please beware!!!!