Much easier and more convenient than building a bench from scratch, saves deck space. As noted, installing some of the fasteners with standard power tools can be a pain due to the way they are designed, but I'm not going to get too critical about a little installation hassle as long as the end result is good, which it is. I used these on the deck I built at my previous house, and liked them enough to buy again for the deck at the new place. Would have given 5 stars except the included hardware sucks. The bolts are too short; the lag bolts are just not long enough to inspire confidence, and the machine bolts for the back support 2x4s are just too short to work, period. I ended up buying all new bolts at Ace.

Overall a really good product- it makes adding seating to your deck very easy and straightforward. I am a carpenter, but even for a novice DIY'er I think this would be doable.

My biggest concern with these brackets when ordering was how strong they would really be seeing they are resin and not iron or such. I took some EXTRA PRECAUTIONS and they turned out to be very sturdy.

Precaution 1; the instructions say to place the brackets within 12" from the end and every 24" in between. I still build old school on 16" centers and followed that rule with these too. I spec'ed my benches to be 6' long and the thought of only 3 brackets is a bit scary.

Precaution 2; if you let ok at the picture the bottom 2x4 is up off the deck several inches. I placed my bottom 2x4 directly on the deck and screwed it to the brackets. I then went under the deck and screwed up through the decking into the 2x4. I HIGHLY recommend doing this! It stiffened these brackets up big time!

Precaution 3; this one probably didn't do a whole lot, but with only 2 lags on the top of the bracket going into the deck and another 2 on the side, I put two decking screws through the bracket into the framing underneath.

What I DID NOT LIKE.

Access to the various holes cast in these brackets it tough and nearly impossible without a long extension for your drill/impact.

I am spoiled with good quality decking screws that take a T-25 bit, so I threw these Phillips decking screws away and used my own. Adds to the cost but not #%$& coming out around the family!

I wish they would have added a faster up through the bottom of the bracket into the upright 2x4 that you screw the backing to, this would have made these a lot more sturdy and it's nearly impossible to access it and add your own.

Overall 4 stars, and I would definitely buy again.

Sure beats coming up with your own bench support design. The seating area is a bit narrow, but not terrible for most people. The supplied hardware is problematic. Fitting tools into the corners of these to tighten various fasteners isn't the easiest task.

The long version ...

Used these with 1-inch-thick, 5.5-inch wide natural cedar decking (5/4 by 6). They aren't stable enough with the included 1.5-inch-tall hex-head screws. Highly recommend blocking in the edges of the deck where the screws will bite use some height of stainless steel hex head screws that will bite through the decking into the blocking at least an inch. For my build that was using 3.5-inch stainless steel hex-head screws.

After using the supplied 1.5-inch hex-head screws into the top deck board I was not impressed with the rigidity of the product, nor the 100% angular stress load it placed on the decking boards. Luckily I had planned ahead and blocked in the mount points where these would be. Longer screws biting into the blocking makes the entire build way more stable than if the supplied 1.5-inch hardware is used. I would NOT trust this product given the supplied hardware. I would not mount this product to only the top deck boards.

Build was based in a state with snow, so all the hardware was replaced with stainless. This added approximately $5-6 to the cost of each bench. Not nominal if you're using 18 of these things.

If you build these properly there's no wood-on-wood contact for the bench. This was optimal for my situation, having just replaced an entire deck due to rot caused mostly by the old bench supports rotting the boards below.

I used one of these every 23 to 24 inches with the thinner cedar decking. It seems very stable. The bench does flex backward slightly. Like the instructions note, don't let people sit on the railing. Chances are it won't support the weight of a normal American. The bench levers off and away from the deck itself. This gives more space on the deck, but is ultimately more stressful on the bracket and the front mount points.

Have some reservations about how well this 'composite' (aka plastic) bracket will hold up through the seasons in Minnesota (USA), we reach 100 F in the summer and -20 F in the winter. Will try and keep this updated if I experience any cracking or weather-related stress.

Edits and images to follow as the build is completed.

The bracket itself is decent but comes with old poor quality hardware with poorly engineered instructions. The biggest design flaw is that there is not enough clearance over the front mounting holes to fit a drill or impact driver. This caused all of my mounting screws to go in at and angle, then i had to finish all the bolts by hand with a wrench.

Side note, this seller only allows one package per customer, save your self the headache and get them from a supplier that one make you part out your purchase.

These are good for getting the angle right for the back rest - I am wondering how these will hold up over time. I did a bunch of extra supporting and tied it into the wall of my house. the seat length is fairly short too - you can use larger planks if necessary and I may just have to do some add on manipulation. But they allowed me to start my project with relative ease and eased some of my "angle" fears.