This was our first playset construction. We had long planned to get a wooden set but after reading so many glowing reviews on this Lifetime metal and plastic set, we decided on it. The two big factors were ease of construction and long-term durability / lack of maintenance. The set arrived in a roughly 1,000 pound wooden crate with many boxes inside. Breaking it down and moving to yard was easy enough. Instructions were pretty good overall. There were two instances when steps were skipped but nothing major and they included good written tips. The biggest frustration we had was about half of the fasteners were sub-par quality, and one bolt was missing. They provided about 65 sheet metal screws, with small phillips heads meant for low torque, that were to be drilled into thick metal poles. The screws invariably destroyed themselves. After trying pre-drilling and other approaches, I realized the screws were just bad. I went to a hardware store and picked up a dozen bags of screws. The difference was night and day, and construction was breeze from there on out. The only other area where they skimped a bit was the swing chains, where they used chrome spray paint rather than a high quality finished metal.
Construction took about 8 hours with two of us, excluding two trips to hardware store.
The play set itself is extremely sturdy and well made, and I have no doubt it well last many years. It's somewhere between what you'd expect in a residential set and a true commercial set. I'm a little concerned about the plastic parts in the Texas sun but others have said that has not been an issue for them. I'll know in a couple years I suppose.
All in all, a well designed set that is very nice quality. If they hadn't tried to save a couple bucks on the hardware, I would give it a full 5 stars.
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