Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I gotta tell you, these bench kits are GREAT. For less than $50 bucks I was willing to give this a try. Home Depot had ground contact pressure treated 2x4's in 6 foot on sale for $3.75 each. Good pressure treated lumber, already cut to 6 foot. (Hot TIP: I know it says you can, but I wouldn't go with 8 foot wide. Not only does it make it really heavy, but it will be a little spongy in the middle). 6 Foot seems to be a perfect size. I loved the idea of it converting to a table AND putting 2 together back to back for a full size picnic table. But would it really work "as advertised", be stable and nice looking. Yes, yes and yes to all three questions. I used a neutral semi transparent 4 year stain/sealer on the pressure treated wood. You could use regular 2x4x6's, but you know what happens to untreated pine sitting outside 24x7x365. It will rot within a couple years. Pressure treated 2x4 rated for ground contact should be around a LONG time. Don't even need to stain it, so long as your ok with it going gray, and crack/checking a little. Mine is to accompany a recently built screen house with some outside seating, so I sealed it with the same stuff used on the screen house. I love this and it is just what I had in mind. The doubling as a table is perfect for my application. By the way, the mechanism to fold the bench back into a table works well and locks into place. Overall the unit seems very sturdy and should stand up to the elements well. A few building tips in the next paragraph if your interested. If your not going to stain or seal the lumber, no problem if its pressure treated lumber and you don't mid the fade to gray and some wood checking. 1) However if you do stain or seal the wood, sand it a bit first, or you'll need to wait until good and dry before you seal it. Just like a new deck with pressure treated lumber. Pressure treated lumber comes with a surface coating meant to hold in the penetrated treatment. Often stain or sealer simply won't stick or penetrate. A light sanding allows the sealer/stain to penetrate and still allow the boards to "gas out". While your at it hit the edges of the boards to give them a more finished look, rounding the sharp ends a bit. I couldn't stand waiting, so I sealed after putting it together and allowing a few days strong sun drying. 2) Pick out really straight and true 2x4's. Warped ones are a no go here. I found not all of my 6 footers were exactly the same length. Some were off by as much as 3/4". So I simply cut them to be certain all were EXACTLY the same length. Take your time putting it together so you have even flush ends all the way around. An extension on your drill/driver is helpful for getting it into a few of the tight places where screws are needed. The kit will be a 1-2 project on a project scale with 5 being hard. All you need is a drill/driver for pilot holes and driving screws, and a circular saw to be sure the boards are all the same length. If your careful picking out the lumber and find 6 foot pressure treated 2x4's, you may not need the saw. I have bought a second one and 9 more pressure treated 2x4x6.