I Am very thankful to the reviewer who said not to tighten the screws until the arms were in place ( you can tighten the leg screws just not the back). I believe this cut down my assembly time in half. I have put furniture together from a certain store that made me want to hurt people. This is not that. This was like putting a child’s 25 piece puzzle together. It took about an hour and a half to put assemble (including unboxing and organizing hardware). This bench surpassed my expectations. It’s sturdy and quite heavy. My two adult sons have sat on it and it lives to see another day.