The steps look great when finally into the pool. You will have plenty of work before you get there, though.
Rubber mallet is a necessity, as is dish washing liquid to lube up the pieces that snap into the grooves.
The only time you'll use the screws is to attach the steps.
I chose not to fill the base with sand; rather used (2) empty chlorine buckets filled with 50 lbs of sand each, ran a 1 1/4 pvc pipe through the bottom holes and that finally weighed the ladder down. Since I purchased the complete system, (1) bucket under the main steps and (1) bucket under the curved steps is required. You have to tie the rope extremely tight to the pvc pipe to avoid having the steps float up. Move the buckets as far to the front of the ladder as possible. Rails seem a bit flimsy so take caution in putting this together. Worth the trouble in the end but know that it does take some time to assemble, and you'll need someone to assist.

Researched many different types and brands and what sold me was reading the reviews. This is my 1st product review on Amazon because these stairs are AMAZING. So easy to install. I failed at buying a rubber mallet and used the butt of a hammer (not recommended!). Buy a mallet for sure! Even still, the stairs were easy to build and durable!!! They are very pleasing to the eye and do not take up much space in the pool. I did not fill mine with sand. If you dont, You DEFINITELY need to hold the bottom down so it doesn't float. I used 2 10lb weights to hold the bottom down. Works great. Thanks to reading other's reviews, I was able to make these stairs work with how my pool is over my deck! May this review also be your deciding factor! Buy it!!!!

Made in USA! Although I didn't buy it here on Amazon i would've but the blue steps were not available so I got it at wmart online but originally found it here. Easy to put together and as another reviewer suggested I used 4" pvc x 24" long and filled it with concrete (1-60lb. Bag) and also put stainless eye bolts in the pipe so I can pull them out with a rope if it's too heavy in the winter time. The eye bolts also help secure it with zip ties underneath. I've attached a visual to hopefully help others who don't want to put sand inside the rails. Hope you find this review helpful! My wife bought this b/c she was tired of the ladder and wanted something better for us and our 3 yr old to use. Please vote helpful!

Great set of steps. I didn't want to put sand inside of the steps because I want to be able to lift the steps out of the water before winter time so I put sand in these three gallon buckets removed the metal handles so they wouldn't rust and replaced them with nylon rope. I used 1 1/4 PVC pipe with two end caps. Just cut to the width of the steps Saving Room for end caps to just push on the end using no glue that keeps the pipe from sliding left or right and falling out of the grooves on the side of the steps. This has been working great for two seasons and will do the same thing this year hope this helps somebody.

I have a Kayak above ground 16'x32'x4'high pool (actually 47.5" high which matters in this case). Got these to replace original wedding cake steps that had aluminum hand rails (why - oh why would someone put aluminum vs. SS in a chlorine pool?). Anyhooo, after not being able to find replacement SS or aluminum hand rails after looking for weeks and even trying to contract with a machine shop to custom make them, I stumbled onto these. Great reviews by many and deservedly so. The steps part of the stairs are VERY sturdy. The handrails, not so much as many have commented. As long as you don't lean heavily on the handrails or fall on them, they should probably be OK, just using them to stabilize yourself as you go up or down the steps.

Assembly was very straightforward and things fit together very well. It is all plastic (no rusting or corrosion - yay!) except for 2-4 stainless screws they ask you to put in the corners of the steps and 4 screws to attach the mounting brackets to the upper vertical posts. My only problem was my deck being 47.5" above the bottom of the pool required me to put two 2"x4" stud spacers between the mounting brackets and the pool deck because the mounting brackets would not go far enough down the upper vertical posts. Given this, I would say that your deck should be 49" above the bottom of your pool in order to not use spacers between the brackets and your deck. So, yes, while the top of the top step is at 47", the bottom of the mounting brackets is above that because of a flaring out of the upper posts right around that area. If you zoom in on the listing's picture, you can easily see that the brackets are above the top step. It doesn't look too bad with the shim/spacers. Hey, what d'ya want for $200 steps?

My son was also concerned about there being a 1.5" gap between the edge of the deck and the middle of the top step (due to the curved nature of the steps), but I don't see it as a big problem. It's probably too small for an adult to get a foot stuck, but a toddler might need to be careful.