These stools seem to be very sturdy and good quality. Each took me about 2 hours to assemble and I am used to such assembly. The directions are almost worthless -- just 3 pictures and no description. The do a good job of showing which bolts and nuts to use but that is about it. And the packaging of the nuts and bolts had partially come unglued so some of the bolts (there are either 4 or 5 different lengths each 5 mm different in length) became a little mixed up. I had to use a micrometer to decide which to use in each application. So be very careful when selecting bolts for each step. With better directions and packaging, these could easily have gotten 5 stars.