****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I started with the Deluxe Cat Fort and put it up in mirror reverse of the instructions just because it worked better with my overall living room arrangement. Once it was up, I pretty quickly added on new pieces and rearranged things to better suit my needs - it’s kinda fun to plan out new additions. The Catastrophic Creations site has some good tips on planning if you want to add more or build something completely custom.Customer service is excellent - my first box was missing a piece and they shipped that right out, no problem. They asked for more details in order to ensure that they fixed any issues with their process which is great. Once I had almost everything mounted, I realized that a section of my wall didn’t have studs (I think a wall a/c unit lived there previously) so I had to sort of modify the plan. That was fine by me - I liked the way the bridges looked and since they had one that spanned 3 studs it would solve my problem.Again, I reached out to customer service to ask if it was possible to mount the bridge to the sisal pole - because the screws I had were too short. They assured me it was and tossed in a few extra long furniture screws with my bridge order, no charge.Overall mounting the fort took patience and time, but it’s not extremely challenging. I also super suck at anything involving drywall and drills and I managed it without swearing too much. Just read the directions, watch the videos, and take your time.So far my ragdoll L O V E S this fort. He’s mostly claimed it as his kingdom. My other two cats check it out and every once in a while I find one perched up on a shelf.I’ve had this up about a month and I’m already mapping out new additions on the adjacent wall so I can do away with that tree to free up floor space. I think having having some other sections might give more turf so the other kitties are comfortable using it.My house is very small so it’s great to have a sturdy, attractive piece of cat furniture that doesn’t eat up valuable floor space. It seems pricey but really any of the more solid large cat condos are in range of this price - but then you have to live with an ugly carpet stink fort in your well-designed home and that’s just not really a choice for me. All of the canvas strips here are easily removed for laundering and the ability to customize and rearrange things to keep it interesting for the cats is excellent. The pieces feel like good quality workmanship and it’s cool to support a small business run by folks who are passionate about the animals they build for.This is a great cat wall tower. The directions were easy to follow and they have videos on YouTube as well. They have great customer service if you need help installing the product. It's not a quick to install and you may need to get some other items such as wood or a backing to put up to help with support depending on your stud spacing. This is meant for studs that are 16inches apart. However it's built well and I am confident that it will stay attached to my wall. They provide drill bits and screws and Catnip. They thought of everything to get the product installed properly and safely. But just know that it's not a simple install it takes some effort.This product has worked out well for my three cats. One cat who is almost 20 pounds really enjoys the scratching post. The reason that I only gave 4 starts is because I would have liked to see alternate arrangements available for the kit. Overall I am happy with this purchase and would make it again.My family is all very entertained by the cat gym up on our wall. Our cats use the scratcher, they nap in the canvas and the family takes pics and oohs and aahs. We found it to be very sturdy for our large cats and installation takes a bit of time to do it right but was reasonable and straightforward. We even got a kitten shortly after installation, we decided we had more cat furniture than we had cat and could resolve this easily.Kitten loves it! Very stylish in design. Easy to set up. Our studs are 16 inches apart as designed. Was somewhat hard to confirm the first stud as it was our first time using a stud finder, but then it all lined up. We had to stretch the hammocks a bit by hand before fitting them, but that was pretty easy. I’m thinking of buying other pieces to extend across the wall.Looks great, anchors well to studs... Quality product if a little pricey. Cat loves sleeping in the top.3 stars right now because it's incredibly difficult to install... We're had a lot of problems and it's not done yet. Once it's install completely & the cats back use it I will revisit
