Accessories

I love my new benches.
We primed and painted kiln dried 8' 2x4s aqua and screwed them together. Couldn't have been easier and they look great. Used 3 supports for each bench and plan to order more to make 2 more benches for the deck. I hope they last in the Socal sun and heat. Will update if they don't.

What a pain to put together!
This kit is horrible - when compared to other kits. With the standard kit you get 5 boards - 3 for the table and 2 for the bench seats. For this table and two benches you need to mess around with 20 boards! Clean 20 boards. Stain/paint 20 boards. Align 20 boards. And cut 4 boards to a different length then the rest. And trying to get 20 good 2x4s that are perfectly straight is a futile effort. I think the table does look nicer, but it is not worth the hassle and work compared to other picnic table kits. The reason I bought this kit was for the resin frame. The picnic table this is replacing is the standard 5 boards with the metal frame, but after around 20 years the frame has become weak and you can no longer sit on it. Otherwise the wood is still good. I guess I don't see any reason why one couldn't use a wider board with this resin frame kit - just have to measure to make sure they fit properly. If I had to do it over I would just buy the 5 board kit again. I received 2 different types of screws with this kit - one kind for the table and a different kind (regular deck screws) for the benches. You would think they would be the same, wouldn't you? I put my parent's picnic table together when I was a kid (standard 5 boards with a metal frame) and didn't have the problems I had with this setup. Messing around with all of the 2x4s just isn't worth it.

Update - a couple of more things. The deck screws that come with the bench are 2", so if you don't drive them at an angle you may come out the wood on the other side. The diagram directions do show the screws going in at a angle, but there are no written directions with the benches (the table has written directions and no diagram directions) so I just wanted to point this out so others don't put them straight through. I did not have a problem since I put them in at an angle. Also - shame on you Amazon for putting the shipping labels directly over the diagram directions - on both packages! Couldn't remove the shipping labels without tearing the diagram directions. And think about the longterm - when it comes time to re-paint/stain you are either going to have to skip doing it inbetween the boards or you are going to have to remove them. I would never buy this kit again and wish I hadn't.

8/28/08 - update. I ordered another bench to do what another person had done and suggested - put a support in the center of each bench to help supoort and firm things up. I highly recommend doing this (if you were unlucky enough to purchase this kit). My bench was only 6 ft long, but still had some wobble (probably because of the cheap deck screws). So, for 2 benches you would purchase 3 of the bench frames and split the one between the two for center supports. With this bench I received the CORRECT SCREWS! The shorter, silver, bigger head screws - they secure so much better! The 2" deck screws I received with the other two benches are just the standard ugly 2" deck screws that if you are not careful to dril at an angle you will put them all the way through the wood. The heads on them are also much smaller so they do not secure very well and in some cases are small enough to go into/through the plastic slots. It sure would have been nice to have received the correct screws with everything. I have spent $181.21 - 3 benches, 1 table, the wood, a gallon of stain and a couple of ultra cheap/disposable brushes. Not worth the money or time. I highly recommend NOT getting this kit being they can't even include the correct screws. There are much cheaper kits that are much easier to put together and come with the correct hardware.

Great Bench
These benches look wonderful and are very easy to assemble. They are extremely sturdy and should weather well. We are very satisfied with this purchase.

Good item
This was an easy to use product, and worked quite well. I plan on using these again.

Great buy!
it is very easy to assemble the bench! I definitely recommend a power screw driver or drill... benches look great, everybody likes them!