Sportspower Wood Playset - Timber Play

Good purchase, fun for the kids

I purchased this in June. I run a home daycare and am a foster parent. As well as a bio parent. My husband and I put this together in about 8 hours. We found the directions to be somewhat confusing. We had to take the swingset apart a few times before we got it right. Afterwards though all the kids have had a blast! I've even swung on it with a 2 yr old on my lap. It's help up great! We have moved since we purchased it and it still held up during the move and a partial reassembly. Last week hurricane Sandy hit. Alls we did was put 2, 50 lb bags of concret, one one each side without the anchors and it's still in great shape. We had horrible winds and the tarps and all are still intact with no rips of any sort! The only reason I've given 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the directions.

Fun.

Cheap wood.. My husband decided not to stake this down so a strong wind 55+ mph blew it over and now its fire wood...

Sportspower wood playset

Worst swing set ever. Don't buy this thing! It falls apart in less then 4 months. It's very unsafe for children.

it works, but is a bit cheap

Piece of wood damaged upon opening, received a discount because of this. Took FOREVER for two men to put up, wish the quality was better for such hard work. Works for the meantime, but do not see it lasting longer than 2-3 yrs

real pretty

if you got kids this is the play set you've got to have up to 10 kids can have fun with this sports power playset all at one time and it even looks nice in the yard the kids go out and play on it all the time it seems real safe had it for two years with four kids and only one kid got a small boo boo from it

pay a little more, your kids will be safe

I would not recommend this swing set at all.... less then a year, with a total of about 3 months played on, the main beam broke off and splintered in several places and the set fell with my kids on it... luckily nobody was badly hurt, but the set had to be picked up for them to get out from under it. We called the company, not only did they not ask how our kids were and if anyone was ok, and apologize all that stated was there is only 180 days warranty on the product.... hmmmm wonder why, we of course are out a swing set. Buyers beware

You get what you pay for

This set was purchased for our 4 year old son this Christmas. It took about 10 hours and 2 or 3 people to assemble this according to the manual. However, my husband spent 2 trips buying additional bolts and washers because what was provided was not enough or did not line up according to the directions and painting the entire playset with varnish. The 2 wooden "steps" that was designed as a picnic table is quite "flimsy". We can see the wood start to bend even when our 39# son steps on it (according to the manual, it's supposed to support up to a 100# person) Also the wood is very soft and easily dented. While pounding the stakes into the ground to secure the swingset to the ground, the stakes started to split apart. The material canvas for the top was very thin and we sprayed it with Scotchguard to weatherproof it. Would not recommend this product, unless you're looking for an economical playset. If you're looking for quality, then "you get what you pay for".

Timber Play

You pay for what you get.  Not even a month after getting it put together the wood snapped in several places leaving us with a broken play ground. 

Awesome deal, great product!

I am SO happy with my purchase!!  My kids love it, it's beautiful and sturdy.

I have read the negative comments and I disagree completely. My husband and I put it together and it took us a few days, it was fun working together to do it. The instructions were FINE, you just have to take it slow and follow them and not jump in like you know what you're doing :)

The quality of the wood is good, not excellent, but for the price and for the size of my kids, it's perfectly acceptable. (I wouldn't reccomend this for any kids over 10 years old, it's perfect for little ones)

We did have one issue, one of the boards we got was a duplicate, so the screw holes were in the wrong spot. I called the company and they sent me a new one within 5 days. No skin off my nose, I still got an amazing product for less than $300, hard to complain when most of them are $1000+!

I'm really happy with this. I would reccomend this to friends and actually have already.  Not sure what the people who put negative comments were expecting, or why they had trouble putting it together.

Beware of crap instructions, missing parts and time spent

Ok so my parents bought this for my daughter for her birthday. She loves it and so far it is holding up well.

Now for the bad part. The instructions were compleatly stupid. Half of it made no since and there was one part that told us to screw a piece on that we ended up having to take back off later to be able to finish the set then put it back on. It was just my dad and I putting it together and it took us 4 days over a 3 week period to finish it. The screws are so cheap that we stripped 8 of them and had to run out to get more. We were shorted on a few of the bigger bolts and had to run out again to get those replaced. And a couple peices of wood split trying to put them together. Oh and one more thing. Some of the smaller boards did not match up to where you needed to put them no matter what you did. I first thought we had the wrong boards but when I checked they were the right ones and we were putting them in the right spot they just were not matching up right.

Great Deal for the Price

Let me first off say it IS worth the money!! Wood was good quality and serves its purpose. Kids loved it.

Took 4 people to put it together. (8 hours total) Instructions are hard to read in some parts of the manual. I would suggest not screwing anything in too tight until its completely set up just in case you have to move things around like we had to.

Suggest buying your own anchors as well.

Overall very happy with the product.

Looks very nice, but just wait until you put it together!

As expected, upon opening the box, I was immediately met with mountains of cedar and a box with about 10 pounds of hardware. I knew this was going to be fun. :)

First of all, you're going to have multiple problems with the 5/16" V4 nuts. It's not entirely the nuts themselves, but the holes they must be slotted into aren't deep enough, or shallow enough half the time. Plus, if you want to increase your chances of them fitting, you better get a screwdriver or something of the like and clean out the holes first. Many times the shredded wood inside the holes would lodge in the threads and jam the entire threading up. Oh, and one of the worst, good luck on trying to find the correct holes to put the square head rivets into. Trust me, you'll put them in by the instructions, and you'll pull close to half of them out by the time you start assembly. The instructions on where to put these things is probably the worst written in the entire instruction booklet. This is only the start folks.

When assembling the seat/desk portion of the unit, you'll also notice there are no pre-drilled holes for you to line up the wood. You'll have to do this yourself. Not a major concern, but they need to be drilled or marked to keep these straight while trying to put the screws in. And speaking of the screws, the Y1 screws seem to be very soft. If you hit a knot or like hard spot in the cedar, you will stip the heads out of these things in nothing flat. You can adjust speed and clutch all you want on your drill, (and yes, you better have one of those handy as well), but these things will strip very easy. If I had it to do over, I would have went to the local hardware store and purchased some better screws. Would have made it much, much easier.

On step 11 when assembling the beam and leg support bar, then instructions on this page (27) is just flat out incorrect. It shows you put the bolts through the 05B side of the assembly, but the drilled out recess for the bolt is on the opposite side on 05A. This entire part was confusing to say the least, so be prepared for some play set rage at this point.

Actually, I'm going to finish this up even though I have much more to say. It's a great looking piece when you finish it, but you'll see as I did, it has some serious issues in the assembly and quality department. If you got a few hours to kill and have patience to spare, by all means give it a go. Otherwise, keep on trucking and find yourself something better. Given my experience with this product, that might not be hard to do.

Timber-Play, bad press, excellent value!

I selected this against the bad reviews thinking that they wanted everything to be perfect and look like the thousand dollar play sets. They did. I had to drill two holes, (wood duh) and move one flange nut where I drilled the hole. I was missing two Z-11 bolts but I am contacting the company if I want it to be perfect, but I can also buy that size and thread of bolts at the local Box-and -Locks. I will have to use a screw driver and not the allen wrench, but, I will survive. A little wood-working savy is helpful.The grandkids love it. Memorial Day was wonderful and they played till thoroughly pooped. It looks GREAT and is solid, well designed. The info says 4 yr old to 8 yr old and that is correct. I am 200 plus and it held me without sagging. And I did it by MYSELF!

Not bad at all!!!

We had already purchased this set when I began to read all of the horrible reviews and got VERY concerned. Overall, understanding this is a $299 set and not a $1299 one, we are very pleased with the quality. The holes match up as they should and all the parts included were correct. The instructions are difficult, and we put several pieces together backwards and had to turn them, but it wasn;t difficult to do. Took my wife and I around 8 hours total to coplete assembly, but well worth it. you could not build the set for anywhere close to what we paid. Overall very happy.

Wood Playset-Timber Play DEFINATELY met our expectations!

We had put this playset on lay-away and then came home and read the reviews. To be honest, they all made me a little concerned. But... today we put up the playset and are VERY happy with it! It took us 6 hours from opening the box to complete finish! The people who have complained about how hard it is to put together must not do much 'do it yourself' work! And the quality and stability are VERY good!!!! The only 'concern' I had was the way the shade covers attached. Was afraid the vicious winds we have where we live may tear it since it is only held on by screws on the fabric, so put a narrow piece of wood over the fabric before screwing it to hold it better! Other than that... we have NO complaints!!!!! And the look on our 2 year old grandson's face when he first saw it was absolutely priceless!!!!!! =)

If people think it's too cheap for the $$$ and too hard to assemble, then they need to pay someone else to put it up for them, and buy a more expensive one... but quit complaining about this model!!!!! We highly recommend it!!!!

Best money I've ever spent.

This playset was absolutely the best pick for me. It was important for me to have wood for the durability. The price of this was excellent!!! When i picked up the swingset I found that it was so easy to assemble. My daughter in law and I were able to assemble this in 6 hours. The tools we needed were included. All we needed was an allen wrench and a phillips screwdriver. AND YES THE BOLTS WERE ALL INCLUDED AND FIT PERFECTLY!

What pleasure i have gotten watching my grandchildren play excitedly on this wonderful swingset that i worked so hard to buy and assemble for them. There are so many activities for them to choose from. I even created a sandbox at the bottom level. Thank you for a wonderful product at a wonderful price.

this swingset is GARBAGE & a waste of $$$$

This swingset was purchased for my son & nephew's birthday, it looks nice in the picture, WRONG! if you want a major headache and to buy your own bolts, because the ones that come with it doesn't fit properly..this hunk of junk is for you. it is VERY cheaply made; to be made of "wood",.. most of the wood was bowed & un-even. However, it will make for very expensive fire wood because Sears would not return it. A TOTAL WASTE OF $300!!!!!!!!!!

BOTTOM LINE: put the money into something nicer.

[ and i would give this a -5 star, but i can't ]

Understand what you are paying for.

I received a mailer that had this swing set on sale for $299.00. My husband and I were interested in purchasing a swing set for our children (3 and 1 years old) Unfortunately we are not financially blessed enough to spend $1000.00+ on a swing set they would soon grow out of. This one worked out great for us though. Keep in mind the set is only $299.00 please do not expect HIGH quality heavy duty timber or a really tall slide like the big wood sets. But you can expect safety and fun for your children. I would compare this swing set to a little better then a chinsy metal swing set. We preferred wood over potentially rusting metal that usually happens over time. This was a great replacement and the slide was slightly taller then the metal sets. This was great for low cost and sturdy for a few years of play. Yes the assembly was difficult and we did use a few of our own tools but we had no experience with split wood or miss matched holes as the other reviewers explained. The kids are having a blast and the set is safe. My husband, myself, and my children are all happy with our purchase. Keep in mind when you purchase at low cost your limiting your product. I would not pay more than $299.00 for this set and am happy I caught it on sale. Over all; happy customers here.

Wood Playset Timber Play great for the price

This set is sturdy, attractive and offers a lot, Well made and easy put together although the directions are a little vague in some areas. Took about 12 hours for 2 and then 3 people to assemble with a few corrections on the placement of some crossbars. My two and a half year old grandson loves it. What young child wouldn't.

But a great deal at a great price. Did free store pickup but it is heavy so get enough help

Keep looking I do not reccomend!!!

This swingset looked great in the ad and on the box but once we got it home we were very diappointed!!! Its very hard to assemble the directions and the graphs that come with the set is very unclear you have to guess how to put it together!! The quality of the wood is very CHEAP!!! If you looking for a swingset that you want to last keep looking!!