Me my wife and son set this unit up in about 2 hours, not really any problem. The directions could have been detailed more about some of the steps but you figure it out, after all there are only so many parts. The only problem was putting in the sand which I opted for because you won't get the weight you need out of water. We knocked this out in about 45 min. with the help of a large homemade funnel and a lot of shaking as the sand goes in. The manufacturer should have made a better/ larger hole for putting sand in . I grew up with several engineers in my family and it should have been a no brainer. I think the chinese that design and make these products for us consumers are just trying to drive us crazy. Anyway piece of cake.