Over all assembly was very straight forward toom me just over 2 1/2 hours, looks great when completed. Before I even started I threw the allen in came with away... just use some power tools. Couldn't give it 5 stars only because of a few very minor manufacturing flaws, that were very easily fixed “ took all of about 5 min to fix” with some gentle massaging. My daughter loves it and now my youngest is mad at me cause she wants a “big bed” now! I highly recommend this loft bed.