The assembly instructions might as well have been written in another language. Horrible, confusing, inaccurate and highly frustrating - and I'm a Technical Writer! My husband, who is a highly skilled maintenance superintendent with 20+ years of knowledge, also found this product a mess to assemble. We finally found that the best thing to do was throw the instructions in the garbage and work with what was in front of us. Save yourself the time and trouble and don't order this awning in the first place.