Swing Sets

After weeks of searching for the right swing set for my 3 year old son, I purchased this one. It was a great buy! He loves it and play on it every day. Now for the good, the bad, the ugly.The Good...the picture is an accurate description of the swing set. The wood is of excellent quality but don't drill the holes too far or the wood will split. It's smooth so no splinter! It's a beautiful color and the neighbors won't mind the sight. The Bad....the swings are a little close together (I have the swings side by side unlike the directions states). If you have a rowdy toddler who is just learning to swing, he will bump into the person next to him. I guess that is why the monkey bars are in the middle (to give a little room for the swings). There isn't a support handle at the top of the monkey bars which make it difficult for toddlers to pull themselves up, but the handles can be purchased at a home improvement store for 10 bucks. The free glider doesn't come with the wooden bracket that is needed before you can use it, so you will have to order it. Don't put the glider together thinking you can use it that day. The worst thing about the swing set is the slide. It is weak and it bent a little in the middle as my son came down. The depth of the slide isn't good, so I know I have to buy a better slide eventually. For the cost of this set, I was a little peeved. Once I researched, I found that most sets in this price range come with this same slide and I wasn't going up in price to get a better slide. I can purchase one at a home improvement and still come out cheaper. The Ugly... You will need three people working on this with some assembly knowledge. If you want to finish it and be done, be ready to take a 3 day weekend instead of the two you are normally given. You will need to start when the rooster crows until sundown each day. Now I know why installers charge $500+ to put this together. I was outraged at this price when it was quoted to me because I wasn't prepared to pay no more than $200 for installation. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it for that price. Nothing is preassembled. The delivery guy dropped off a bunch of boxes. When I opened them, there wes only wood, hardware, and instructions. Thank God it came pre-cut. This is a 3+ man job and someone needs to know how to measure exactly. Before you start assembly, group all the material by likeness... this will save time. Also, this is the best tip I can give... measure the boards and with a sharpie, write the measurements on the end. Afterwards, group the board according to the measurements (like at a lumber yard). Make sure you write on the Nail bags what type they are. This will save you time searching for the material box by box. When it is needed you can go straight to it. . I still wouldn't pay $500 but I understand why they charge it. My assembly crew (my family), is still cursing the day I bought this. From the favors I owe, it might have been cheaper for me to pay for assembly! If you have the money and don't want the hassle, the assembly fee is worth it. In the end, I still would buy this swing set because once put together, it is beautiful and sturdy."..."  Read more

Weeks of research, dozens of websites, hundreds of reviews and we ended up with the Sequoia Swing Set and couldn't be happier. Our needs/requirements for a swingset:1. 3 kids (soon to be 4) ages 6, 4 and 22. We wanted something all kids could use but wouldn't be too small/babyish for our oldest and her friends.3. Budget was between $750-$1000Why we chose this set:1. Price. Yes, it was more than our original budget [..]2. Features. Three swings were a must. The two slides was a great idea, the kids love to race up the ladders/rock wall and try to beat each other down the slides. The three different ways to climb up are awesome too. The picnic table underneath one of the clubhouses was a pleasant surprise. Never really a feature we considered but love it in the end. It's so nice to bring snacks/lunch down and enjoy them in the shade of the clubhouse overhead. We've yet to fill up the sandbox but my son (2) keeps saying that's his favorite part. I'm quite sure it will be once we fill it. The monkey bars were an added bonus too because my oldest has been trying to conquer those as of late and despite her maddening frustration at not being able to get across, she still loves them and runs to them first. Cons:1. Of course it's going to take a long time to set up. It's a huge swing set! All the usual advice applies: separate your hardware ahead of time and label it, set aside a weekend and call a friend or two in to help. It took my husband about 16 hours total to put it together. He had help for the first 6 hours of the first day and about 2 hours of help for the second day. The rest of it he did all by himself. The biggest reason to have a second set of hands (other than to get it done quicker) is because of sheer logistics. The first thing you assemble is the clubhouses and then the pieces underneath them. It's quite tall, you need someone to hold pieces in place at different times.2. The swings seem a little close together to me. I keep trying to gauge them against other commercial and residential sets I see and they seem on par with other sets. But I've got a 4 year old who always manages to swing crooked so I've just taken extra notice of it.3. The monkey bars are metal anchored in what looks like a wooden ladder before it is mounted underneath the bridge between the clubhouses. The rungs still turn even after the set is complete. Needless to say, it doesn't make it any easier to learn how to maneuver monkey bars.4. The picnic table is big enough to fit an adult or two just beware when trying to get to it. It's a little bit of a trick to get to it under the ladder side, so I would suggest going under the slide.Other Things To Consider:1. Some people have suggested labeling the wood pieces with chalk. If you have the time and a place to put the wood, go ahead and do it. The pieces are all stamped with a reference number on the end, but it's quite difficult to read so having another reference isn't a bad idea. However, we just put the wood out on the lawn, pairing up similar size pieces and went from there. When all is said and done, it probably added an extra half hour or a little more to the total construction time.2. If you sort the hardware ahead of time (DO IT!) wear gloves! Rubber gloves, leather gloves, anything that will protect your hands from scrapes and cuts. I found that out a little too late into the process. Oh and since they appear to separate pieces into separate bags, I would go through everything before bothering to count. I would count one piece and then stumble across a handful of loose pieces that matched later on. So there was a lot of crossing out numbers on my ziploc bags.3. It can't hurt to have some extra hardware on hand. I'm not sure what we needed more of, but there was something we had to run to the store for. So either have it on hand or have your helping buddy pick up some of the more basic hardware pieces on their way over.4. We placed a white plastic tarp on our lawn to put all the baggies of hardware on and it proved to be a good idea. In the rush of construction sometimes extra pieces were thrown back onto the tarp. If they were tossed or fell onto the grass, they were pretty much lost. Especially the first night when my husband worked on the set until 9pm. 5. It's very sturdy. We've not had a single problem with stability. All three kids have been swinging like crazy and not nudged the set a bit. And myself and my husband have both sat on the swings (at the same time) and not had a problem with our weight. We also had two grown men in the clubhouses during construction... so it will hold quite a bit of weight.All in all, great swingset, great price, great service. We are very happy, our kids love it and it's great having our own little playground in the backyard."..."  Read more

We bought the swing as a 3rd swing option in our backyard so that each of our 3 kids could be swinging at once. Our other 2 swings hang from tree branches so this is our first stand alone swing. It's a well-made swing and is perfect for our 3 and 4 year olds. My 6 year old can get the legs swaying to and fro so he doesn't enjoy it as much, but we didn't expect more from a simple swing set at this price point. It is a wonderful swing for preschoolers."..."  Read more

We put this up for our 3 kids (3 yo daughter and twin 18 mo old boys) and they are having a blast. Assembly took my husband and a friend 4 hours as they had to sort all the products first and do trial and error for most assembly as the instructions did not clearly state whether the bolt goes into front or back, up or down etc., But once set up, it looks great and seems sturdy. I thought our 18mo olds would require baby swing attachment but they did great on the provided swing seat itself as it is deep enough to secure their little tushies.The ground stakes that came with this product was not good enough. We bought a separate anchor set by flexible flyer and that worked great. No need to cement in. We are yet to put up the air glider as we are missing parts and have requested for replacement parts. They sent all the requested parts with in 2 days of request except for a particular part for which they sent a wrong one instead of the requested one. Hope to get the correct part soon so we can put up the air glider as well and make the set look complete.Overall, money well spent and great value for the purchase!"..."  Read more