Customer Reviews

Gorilla Blue Ridge Chateau II Playset

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The two main features that attracted me were

1. the build quality and size of the play house that can even accomodate adults.

2. the beatiful wooden roof of the play house that is quite rare for this price range.

It took me and my friend around 2-3 hours per day for four days to finish the assembly. If you have a levelled surface, assembly is easier.

Two items that are not in this set are monkey bar and glider, but ther is a rock climber, rope climber, trapeez bar, picnic bench and a sand box besides the swings and slide. Overall I am quite happy with my purchase.

First off, this playset has really been fun for the kids. They love the slide and rock climbing wall. The rope ladder is a little tough for them though. Overall, they have had hours of fun playing on it.

The downside on the playset was the assembly. Now I want to be clear on this. I have many years of carpentry experience and I am a seasoned DIYer with the rest of things around the house. So this isn't a case of someone not having the proper tools, knowledge, or ability to follow a schematic or other technical writings. Here are the problems that I ran into:

Missing components: Several pieces of lumber were missing from the item list. In addition, more than 20 bolts and 40 wood screws were missing. I also found panhead screws in the set that were the incorrect size for the application.

The factory did a poor job on their predrills in the lumber. On a couple of pieces, I had to redrill and countersink holes. Had I not done this, the entire assembly would have been out of square.

There were three pieces of lumber that were split. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here though because one cannot account for what happens during shipping.

Now, replacing the parts that were missing was relatively simple. Call the 800 number and they will send you whatever you need. But, it takes a while for the parts to get there; a couple of weeks in my case. Also, the 800 number isn't answered on the weekend. Only Monday through Friday 8 to 5. Of course, this is usually of little help to the DIYer since he or she has probably set aside two days on the WEEKEND to assemble the set. Guess what? You get to cancel out another weekend to complete the project now.

The wood is touted by the manufacturer to be choice pieces. It's actually midgrade stuff really with more knotholes than I would expect to find in a $1700 playset but they seem to hold up. All the edges are sanded to remove rough surfaces and reduce splintering. The hardware is high quality and easy to maintain.

3 stars overall. I think that I could do some better for the money that I spent.

We've had the Gorilla Blue Ridge Chateau standing our backyard for nearly a year now, and our three year-old daughter and one year-old son can't get enough of it. The design (with the addition of toddler swing seats# affords enough activities to keep these little ones amused for now and into the next couple of years.

I did thorough research on playsets both locally and online before settling on this particular product. The selling points for me were: the aforementioned variety of activities, the solid roof, the plastic-coated upright poles, and the price. All of these features have met my expectations.

The wood is of good quality, although a few splinters were encountered, and a few more knots existed than I would have preferred. It appears, too, that a couple of redwood pieces were mixed in with the pine. One of these supports the rope ladder, and I question its strength for that application. The tongue-in-groove joints on the roof panels are fragile, so it pays to work carefully when assembling them. I also had one bottom cross member that was badly twisted. Its location (against the ground) made it not a problem, but it would have been unusable in other parts of the structure.

Assembly of this set is a chore. I did it all by myself, which surely added time and difficulty, and which I wouldn't recommend except to seasoned DIYers with lots of tools. My tips... quick-clamps came in very handy on this job, as did using a quick-change countersink/screwdriver drill bit (I countersunk all the screws to prevent cracks and splinters). My other tip is read the manual thoroughly before starting. I had read several reviews which remarked on the confusion encountered with assembly. I had no troubles, but I was cautious from the beginning and checked, then rechecked, everything as I went. I also staged the parts and used tape to label them in some steps. I would probably not have been as careful had I not been forewarned by other reviewers. In the end, it took me three solid days of work to put the playset up.

My only real gripe with this playest is the hardware- screws and bolts in particular. I had one large lag screw shear off in assembly, even after countersinking. I had several of the small 2 1/2" wood screws sheer as well, and about 7 of them have broken since the set was completed. They seem to be made of a softer metal than normal. In addition, the screws that hold down the slide are not stainless or galvanized, so they are already beginning to rust. As several other reviewers have remarked, I came up short on some of the hardware (and had extras in other sizes) and had to replace an assortment of screws and bolts to the tune of about $25.

Other notable mentions: This thing is delivered in about 6 GIANT and HEAVY boxes, the largest of which is 12+ feet long and weights 400+ pounds, so be ready for it! The instructions are well laid out and include images of each step, not just text. The slide is a durable one-piece design. the tic-tac-toe board, telescope, and roof dormers and chimney are nice extras. The plastic coating on the long poles is very durable and attractive. The swing chains are showing a little rust after a year- the coating looks thin. The ladder steps are spaced pretty far apart for smaller kids to negotiate. The rock wall "rocks" are nice and solid. The whole set is solid and doesn't creak or sway (except when daddy swings).

Overall, I am really pleased with this playset, and my kids love it. It looks great in the yard- much higher quality than something from Wal-Mart and more finished looking than the locally built sets I've seen. I recommend this set to someone with DIY experience (or handy friends/relations), who has the right tools, and who doesn't mind a couple of trips to the hardware store to fix small problems.

We've had this playset for 5 years. As other reviewers noted, assembly is not easy and takes twice as long as the instructions estimate. We hired handymen to assemble it it took them about 10 hours.

I say "Beware" for 2 reasons: we have not been satisfied with the materials used OR with Gorilla's customer service. Our playset came with 1 yellow-coated swing and 1 green-coated swing (our choice). The coatings used (for the chain) were noticeably different: the green is 5x thicker and much more durable. Sure enough, after 3 years of being outdoors, the yellow coating is almost all peeled off and the chain is rusted. When I contacted customer service, I was brushed off with their "1 year warranty policy" and they didn't seem to care at all. At no time, during all my research, had I seen anything written about the yellow vs green chain coating. Suffice to say, I ordered another swing with green coating for $27 from another website.

More serious than the rusted chain, though, is that the rope ladder completely broke while a child was climbing up! The wood split in half and the rope shredded completely. Not only were we appalled, we were fortunate no one was hurt. Gorilla customer service was even worse this time. They said "the rope ladder is meant to be brought indoors when not in use." Huh?!? This is an OUTDOOR ladder, it is fastened securely to the playset and is NOT meant to be taken off and on. You're telling me that the wood used for an outdoor playset is going to rot in 5 years and the rope will shred? I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable.

I would not buy anything from Gorilla again.

This is one very attractive play set! That was one of the features that drew me to it. The other was all the favorable-and accurate-reviews I read about it. I purchased from Home Depit online. Curbside delivery-they backed to the far end of our driveway and unloaded a pallet of five heavy boxes. From opening the boxes to completion took my adult son and I 18-20 hours and was pretty straightforward . We inventoried the boards, which had been highly reccommended, and i reccommend as well. There wre a few missing scews and 4 split/damaged/or missing deck slats. So, like others, we notified the company. We were able to complete it and are awaiting those pieces to make it safer. I highly reccommend this sturdy, beautiful playset! My 6 yr old twins love it!

I recently purchased this playset as a gift for my nephew. Not having seen it in person before I purchased and with the few reviews out there onine, I took a leap of faith based on the Consumer Digest Best Buy rating.

Well, Consumer Digest appears to have hit the nail on the head with this one. From all accounts the playset is just as described. Quality materials, fun set up and while its only been installed for a week or so, there doesn't appear to be any potential durability issues. The plastic coating that is placed on the swing beam and the 4x4 posts used for the swingbeam legs (A-frame) and the tower posts is a great feature that allow this set to last long past my nephew's useable ages.

One thing I would caution is not to judge the playset's construction until you get to the step of installing the corner cross-supports. These really sured up the entire setup.

As far as installation time - my brother-in-law and I put the entire set together in about 10 hours of total work. I would say that he and I are above-average DIY'ers and had all the tools on hand to do the job easily, includng multiple cordless drills to pre-drill and screw without changing bits (a must). While the directions did not say to pre-drill everything we decided to be safe and pre-dill everything that was not a 2x4 or thicker. We also sunk the A-frame swing legs into cement. While probably not necessary, we did this as the playset was setup in the bakyard of a ranch in North Texas. In the first night of existence this playset withstood a hail storm and 75mph winds without sustaining any noticeable damage.

All materials were provided, with the exception of 10 pan-head screws used to secure the rock wall handles. An easy trip to any hardware store and $10 later and that wasn't a problem.

My nephew had some serious fun on it once it was completed.

All-in-all, a great purchase.