Customer Reviews for Gorilla Playsets DYI Outing III Wooden Outdoor Playset with Tarp Roof, Rock Wall, Wave Slide, Swings, and Backyard Swing Set Accessories

So I built this myself, covid alone style. I’m pretty handy, but the task is daunting at first once you start opening the packages. Anyway, I would suggest reading the intro parts of the directions (which I skipped). There they explain important things like how the bolts may actually look different than in the pictures, where the board labels are.. etc. so after fiddle messing around for at least an hour, I finally found the lumber and hardware for step one. This took me approximately two days to build on my own. By the start of day 2 I had enough assembled that the kids could play around on it while I did the finishing touches like the roof, etc. once I actually organized all boards with the labels facing out on my bench it went much smother. I skipped ahead in the directions and put the slide and rock wall on before other steps so the kids could play with that. They did a great job with the directions and diagrams . Oh and I spend at least 30 minutes looking through my things for a square bit, but then realized they provided one..... like they said in the directions I didn’t read at first. So I would read them. The final bolt was too short to finish the darn thing, but that was my fault. I had to go through the entire set and did find a bolt that was too long that I must have put in accidentally . Swapped em out and it was all good. It’s a big task, but doable if you have the time!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We bought this set for our kids ranging in age from 2-6 and are hoping to get 10 plus years of use out of it. We liked that it was compact in size, yet had a lot of great features for the kids to enjoy. The extra features like the rock wall, steering wheel, and telescope really bring it to life for the kids. I was impressed with the instructions and the relative simplicity to assemble the playset. I had one issue with one of the boards that required a large pilot hole to be drilled. Otherwise, everything went together nicely. I thought the boards might be a little more heavy duty, but the set seems to be solid overall. I was impressed with the quality of the swings, trapeze bar and slide.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We bought this set for our kids ranging in age from 2-6 and are hoping to get 10 plus years of use out of it. We liked that it was compact in size, yet had a lot of great features for the kids to enjoy. The extra features like the rock wall, steering wheel, and telescope really bring it to life for the kids. I was impressed with the instructions and the relative simplicity to assemble the playset. I had one issue with one of the boards that required a large pilot hole to be drilled. Otherwise, everything went together nicely. I thought the boards might be a little more heavy duty, but the set seems to be solid overall. I was impressed with the quality of the swings, trapeze bar and slide.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Perfect size for my yard, lots of fun features. He likes the swing and telescope! He was so excited to see it set up in the yard finally!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Perfect size for my yard, lots of fun features. He likes the swing and telescope! He was so excited to see it set up in the yard finally!

This was a birthday and Christmas gift to our two year old son from grandpa. My son is in love with this playset. It's a high quality with all the bells and whistles a child could want. He will grow into this playset. It was purchased during black Friday, don't hesitate on this set.

My husband and a family friend put this together in about 8-10 hours. They said the instructions were easy to follow. All the wood and accessories were in good condition. My kids have been waiting for a play set and this play set was perfect. I have an 8, 5, and 3 year old!

Condition on delivery was good, it took 6-hours to install. The product is excellent well made very happy with this purchase..

This is a great, sturdy, well-made swingset! We needed something small to fit our yard, and this works nicely, while still being lots of fun. I sealed the wooden pieces BEFORE we put the thing together, which was a pain, but worth it, I think, in order to get all the nooks and crannies. Also, there was no way we would have been able to keep the kids off it long enough to seal it post-installation! As far as putting it together goes, the whole thing took basically an entire day for 5 adults, including several construction-savvy people. A lot of that was dedicated to dealing with leveling the set, including some waiting-around time for runs to HD for blocks, etc. It all would have taken much longer had I not set the boards up in order by part number ahead of time, and sorted and labeled all the hardware. That made a big difference in keeping things moving quickly. They recently changed the design of this particular set slightly, and I don't think they caught all the changes in the instruction manual. We definitely had a few issues with the instructions being off (things like the parts list saying we should have 2 of something, but we only had 1... and then it turning out we only needed 1; parts being mislabeled in the instructions, etc.), but we worked it all out. We did have an issue with one of the sandbox side boards splitting as we were putting the initial frame together. We opted to do our own patch job rather than dealing with trying to get a replacement board, however, as it would have totally stopped work. All in all, I feel like the set is very good quality, very sturdy. My kids (2.5 and 4) love it, and the existing toddler swing we had worked perfectly in place of one of the belt swings for now. It's good looking and seems like it will hold up well. One piece of advice: if you plan to put a sandbox in under the platform, I recommend marking off the area and digging it out in advance. We didn't do this and now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to dig while standing under a four-foot platform!

Well thought out design, parts cut and drilled correctly and good, easy to follow instructions. I put it together by myself in just over 7 hours and our grandson loves it!

We purchased this swing set for our son, who is just under 2 and is a big climber. He loves this, and will for years to come. It is taking us a long time to assemble, but that’s because we don’t have long stretches to put in the work. The structure is well-designed, sturdy, and looks great. I’m pretty handy and it has been relatively easy to assemble. However, it was missing one piece of lumber (the top cross-beam) and several lock nuts and a few wood screws, requiring multiple trips to the hardware store, which was annoying and keeps me from giving this 5 stars. The lumber was not super well labeled either - a lot of the tags had come off, so we did a lot of measuring and comparing, which made it take longer too. Anyway, we’re very pleased with it, if a little sick of working on it.

We were skeptical getting a HD sold swingset but after a ton of research, visiting swingset stores and crunching some numbers, this one made sense to our family. It arrived in three boxes; 1) wood 2) wood 3) slide and accessories. It was left by our garage after being told we had to sign for it so not sure whats up with that. Anyhow, first impressions were the cedar is really solid. The predrilled holes were mostly correct. We ran into an issue where they were on some of the knots but you could get around that by drilling again near the area. Directions were pretty easy to follow, with 2-3 people it took us about 10hrs to complete. We laid everything out and went from there, it was tedious and i had to dig a bit where the two swing beams sat because of the leveling of our yard but other than that it wasnt too horrible of a build. After construction we felt it was very solid, not wobbly and looked beautiful. One week after the build, through some tough weather everything seems fine. Right now we couldnt be happier and it was an awesome amount of savings!

It is easy to follow the instructions to assembly. Parts were marked. It took about 4 to 5 hours with some minor help. Use a power drill to screw in hardware because there are a lot screws and bolts. Kids love it.

Easy to build with good stuff for the kids. Very sturdy and safe for an active three year old. The screws that are used for the wall, floor and railing where not all straight. The heads where twisted just enough that it made starting them difficult.

I have given this 3 stars, because after 8 months, the cedar wood has developed cracks. If this was a solid cedar wood swing set, this shouldn't have happened. But these pieces are cedar wood pieces glued together and the glue seems to be coming loose at the seams. I spent over $1,200.00 on this swing set including the accessories and only to have something that is coming apart. I have contacted the manufacturer and I will see what they are willing to do to correct this situation. I am attaching just a few of the 9 pictures of all pieces showing signs of separation/cracking.

My husband and I were able to assemble in 1 day. Great quality. Our daughter loves it.

Directions were concise and easy to follow. With no prior preparation other than checking the required tools list I was able to build the set alone in less than six hours while the wife and kids were at the beach. Small and sturdy I expect my three kids aged 4 and under to get years of enjoyment out of this thing. Be prepared to spend a LOT of time pushing the swings.

This is an awesome playground. It is very sturdy. We love the fact that the boards holding the swings are thicker than some of the other playsets we were looking at and it has metal plates holding the boards together where the other ones did not. I would buy this again and I would recommend it to anyone. Assembly was like 4 to 5 hours with three adults working on it. The four-year-old loves the rock wall. Well done gorilla playsets, well done!!

Putting the playset together wasn't bad at all, took me and my husband about 2 days to finish it. All the peices were in the box, the only thing that got us frustrated was the wood labeling, there are a bunch of wood pieces and the only way to know which one you need is to keep flipping to the product page then finding the number and then looking through the wood pile for the little piece of paper stapled to the end of it, if the wood is sitting out overnight (like ours did) the little pieces of paper get wet and fall off! But we managed to figure it out and got it done.

This playset was wonderful. Kids love it and looks awesome!

Once assembled it appears and feels solid. Knocked off a star since the parts were so poorly labeled that it took longer than needed to sort out. I was also sent a bag of 5/16" lock nuts that i had a little trouble installing on 3/8" carriage bolts. Lol. Trip to Lowes fixed that and it took about 10 hours total to assemble

Great Value for your money. Looked at purchasing many other play sets with similar features and they were twice the price of the Gorilla Outing III Cedar Playset. I never assembled a play set before, very easy to follow instructions and only basic skills needed to assemble, just take your time.

We purchased this product for our 5 year old son. He loves it, its a great play set at that price point. It did take about 6 hours to set up. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Overall were happy with the final product. A few concerns I have with it: The instructions could be much clearer. The images are shown in different view which can cause some confusion from page to page. Another more troubling issue we faced, was the fact that the slide did not fit in the opening in which its to be inserted. It couldn't be mounted in the location seen in the picture without modifications. This was pretty disappointing to get near the end and find this out. There wasn't anything we could do to expand this open so it would seat as its supposed to between the two wood posts. We had to attach additional wood we had on hand so we could set the slide on it and mount it to the outside of the opening. I'm not quite sure what the problem was with this set as opposed to others that were supposed to mount properly.

Sturdy, good quality wood. Took about 1.5 days to set up with 2 people (and a 3 year old using the parts as we set them up). Instructions were easy to follow. It has been up for a week and we've used it every day, even in the rain.

Overall this is a great playset and I'm very happy with my purchase. I did a lot of research before deciding on this set. There are a lot of features for a playset with a 4 foot deck and this price point. I decided to have the set shipped to Home Depot and then pick it up from there. Although shipping is free to your house if you get it delivered to your home you have to manage getting 3 large boxes (over 100lbs each) into your garage or backyard and you have to be home to accept the delivery. So, this seemed the best route and I can ensure there are 2 of us there to unload it. Assembly was not that bad. It took my brother and myself about 10 hours total between 2 days with just a handful of hiccups. Most importantly all lumber and hardware were included. I would recommend a work table for you to keep your tools, the instructions, and the lumber inventory(lumber comes in 2 boxes with inventory for each box) on while assembling the set. I had a good socket set but if you have an attachment on your drill for 1/2 and 9/16 socket it will cut down assembly time greatly. My twin 3 year olds and 1 year old love this set and have gotten a lot of use in the few days its been up.

We are very pleased with the quality of this playset and ease with which we assembled it. The instructions, which include clear written and visual aids, were easy to follow. Some of the boards' identifying tags fell off, but we could still identify them due to the dimensions being listed also.

I give this product a 4 1/2 out of 5 review (I rounded up to 5 stars out of respect)! I just put this up last weekend (5/20/17). I split the installation of this play structure over two days with another person (spent about 4-5 hrs each day due to the heat outside). Recommendations: 1) ahead of your day of putting it up, I suggest that you stage all of the parts/pieces out on a flat nearby surface. Though each piece is labeled on the ends (some labels were missing so had to identify the pieces via the photos in the install manual), I still suggest you add extra labels to each piece as you stage for ease of reference when installing and pulling materials as you move through the steps. Plus this helps you take inventory prior to putting up the structure to insure that all of your parts and pieces are truly there and you don't get stuck in the middle of install missing a piece. 2) Obtain an extra #2 square drive bit as it makes it a lot faster for install of the deck and climbing wall boards if you have 2 people and 2 drills. 3) Have an extra socket wrench with extra 1/2" and 9/16" deep well sockets (if you are putting up the structure with 2 people). This makes things move a lot more quickly when fastening on the various items. 4) at the location that the play structure is being located, I highly suggest to make that area as level as possible prior to putting up the fort area and continually check for plumb/levelness. Helps a lot when lining up any of the cross support members. CONS: 1) there were a small handful of pre-drilled holes for the hex bolts that appeared to be drilled slightly off center that we had to bore out a bit wider for things to line up and fasten (maybe bore the hole out an addition 1/8" max). This occurred only on the trapease arm so perhaps that piece in the factory was slightly out of square in the drilling jig. 2) We did not receive the #2 square bit driver that was supposed to be included in any of the fasteners bags for the wood screws. Luckily I had a couple extra in my own toolbox but I could see this being a major hindrance if you do not have a decent set of tools already at home. 3) For the A-frame 7" carriage bolt, it appears that in the factory they cut these bolts down from a longer carriage bolt. In our case, the threads at the end of the bolt were cross-threaded and the lock nut would not go on. Had to go to local hardware store to procure a new similar carriage bolt. 4) Best recommendation of all is that you put up this play structure with (2) people. Do not try to do it yourself. Heed the instruction manual and plan to have a helper if at all possible. 5) Not a big deal at all, but the green flag mounting base had one of the corners cracked off once we opened it up from the bag. Were still able to fasten to the frame with the other 3 holes. PROS: 1) If you have ever put together Swedish furniture (you know what I mean), the instructions are very similar but the photos depict the exact pieces and hole/pre-dill layouts/orientations very clearly depicted in each step and the wording of the instructions is VERY clear! I highly applaud Gorilla for the clarity of the installation instructions. The part drawings in the inventory sheet are drawn to scale for all bolts, screws, washers, etc which definitely helped a lot during installation to make sure you put the right fasteners in the right spots. 2) Every piece, with the exception of a couple noted above, fit together exactly as planned. 3) The construction of all of the pieces is very high quality and very durable. Once the play structure was fully installed, it did not give or sway even a half inch. I feel very comfortable know that I don't have to worry about the integrity or safety of this structure. OVERALL, I would recommend this play structure to anyone in the market for one for their kids but don't have a lot of extra space. The amount of activities that it offers in such a small footprint is second to none. Very high quality and ease of installation was a definite plus.

My two boys (6 and 2) LOVE this play set! My dad & husband put it together last weekend. They started at 3:00pm and were finished at 7:30pm. All of the pieces were clearly labeled & nothing was missing. We did not do any sort of ground leveling, just chose a spot in the yard that seemed the best fit. We did order the toddler swing separately, which my 2 year old really enjoys! We put it in the place that was meant for the trapeze arms. If doing so, keep in mind that beam is rated for 50 pound weight limit (the swing itself weighs 13 pounds). Even when ordering this product, I was concerned it wouldn't arrive in time for assembly (dad & husband both took the weekend off in order to have it done in time for a family party). I used the live chat feature with a Home Depot customer service rep, and he was more than helpful! He contacted Gorilla for me to see if he could expedite the order. The shipping company called me the next day & gave me multiple times/dates to choose from to ensure we would have it in time. I have never left a review for a product or service before, but had to for this. Totally worth the cost for the amount of fun my kids have been having!

The set was packed securely in three boxes and was received in good condition. I assembled it myself over two afternoons, maybe ten hours of work including organizing and taking inventory of the hundreds of parts. Another set of hands would have helped on a couple of steps but it's manageable for one 50+ year old reasonably healthy guy. It helped that I had a perfectly level and clear area where an above ground pool once stood. The final product is very stable and my 3.5 and 5 year old daughters love it.

After reviewing many, many playsets we went with the this as it had wonderful reviews and the price was right. It took 4.5 hours for 3 men to assemble - 2 assembled while 1 read the instructions and prepared the next step. We were short 2 boards but everything else was included. We are very pleased with the size and quality. We realize that we will have to seal the boards in a few weeks and probably every summer after as well in order to keep it nice. Only negative so far - the ladder is pretty steep for little ones.