edit a couple weeks and a few heavy storms later:
The 10x13 is waterproof, however.when it rains hard like it has here lately it hits the metal roof and bounces into the top roofs bug netting and we end up with quite a bit of wetness right along the middle of our Gazebo cover. No real way to prevent it if you want the vent at the top, but just wanted to mention it in regards to whether it is waterproof or not. I have stood out under it in heavy rain with a flashlight looking up underneath and I have seen no leakage through any of the covered areas.
This review is for the 10x13 size. Summary, built it over the last two days, frame on the first day, roof on the second. I had my two kids assist with holding the legs for 10 minutes while I secured the horizontal beams, but I did the rest of the build by myself. I would recommend this purchase to friends as I like the final built product.
First, FedEx ground delivery, ugh. This size has four boxes. All four boxes info were received by FedEx on Friday for pickup from the CA warehouse with a proposed Thursday delivery. The first three boxes behaved normally, though two were shipped Friday and one waited until Monday, they were delivered to Ohio on Thursday and Friday. The fourth box was picked up Friday and sat at the FedEx origin site until Wednesday! Then it shipped and had no updates until it showed up again saying it was in Ohio on Friday and was delayed to Saturday. Then it was delayed to Sunday and made it here Sunday afternoon. Not sure why that box was treated so weirdly. So the four boxes arrived over four days, a little beaten up but not so much as to damaged the contents.
I unpacked everything and only found a few almost unnoticeable dings and none of the severe bent pieces others discovered. I put together the frame on the first day. I recruited my two kids to hold up two of the legs while I bolted the frame together. Then I marked the leg locations and installed concrete anchors that I bought from the local hardware. I opted for slightly bigger than what was included. Other than help propping the legs so none of the horizontal arms would bend at all, I built the rest of the Gazebo by myself.
I only had one screw hole problem. Several times I had to loosen adjoining bolts a little more to make slight adjustments so holes lined up but that is to be expected. All other holes lined up fine. The one i had a problem with is the corner cover cap, the big corner cover that takes two screws on top and two on the bottom. I got to the last corner, three screws in fine and the fourth would not find the hole. It was getting dark so I could not see that good. After some frustration I took the other three screws back out and removed the bracket and sure enough, there just was no fourth hole. They missed drilling that hole. Like I said though, that was the only misalignment or missing hole i encountered.
The next day the roof went on. It was a bit windy of course, so the roof panels acted like sails and were harder to manage than they could have been. The small upper panels were not bad at all. I did two at a time, sliding them both in and then attaching the bottom channel. I put temporary bolts into the ones shared by the next panels. Did that all the way around. I did the the four panels on the two short sides next. The first one was a disaster as I tried to manhandle it in and it just kept popping out on me, and the wind did not help. So the way I found was to through the panel up over the two cross bars, then while holding the panel up I turned on the ladder so I was under the panel facing outwards. I found it much easier this way. I would guide it into the straight side was high as it would go and brace it. Then I would work in the diagonal side. Once in, while holding the panel steady, I would turn back around to secure the panel with the bottom channel piece. Then do the next panel, get the bolt into the open hole, remove the bolt from the shared hole and reinstalling it with the bolt hole cover piece. The first panel probably took me about 25 minutes to figure out the way that worked for me. Each panel after that took probably 5 minutes at the most. The middle side pieces with the two straight sides were easy, just remember to put the small R piece on first, then overlap it on the larger panel and push both up at same time. Went easy.
Hint for the rest, I did everything else from under the roof, no need to be above the roof. I have seen comments about the little plastic clips and the R1/2 pieces. I put the clips on after installing the panels first. I just used both thumbs and popped it under the join where the R and Q pieces met. This was not that easy, my thumbs were very sore by the time I was done. For the R1/2 pieces, get a tall ladder to where your head is basically touching the ceiling off the Gazebo. Then turn the pieces and stick them through the opening. I found it very easy to put in the diagonal side first, slide it over tight and the straight side had enough room to slide right under, then slide it up and log it in position with the clips. Finally, those wedge pieces (Y I think?), you can do those the same way, by reaching through the vent openings at the top and popping those in, then reaching through with a power drill. There are screw holes for these already. I could not see out the opening and handle the drill at the same time so I blindly located the screw holes and drilled them in. Seemed kind of stupid, yeah, but it was easy enough. By the way, I am 6 feet tall with proportionately long arms. I believe that panels R1/2 would be harder for a shorter person, but at the same time the wedges and screw might be easier.
I saw some questions on the curtain/screen hook and how the velcro works. Curtain on the outside hangers, screen on the inside. Put the screen velcro hook through the grommet hole in the curtain and hook into the hole in the leg. There are three velcro strips, a long and short on one side of the screen and a short on the other side. The two on one side are used to secure both the screen and the curtain, just wrap them in opposite directions around the outside of the leg post and secure them. If you want to use the netting and just secure the curtain, then you use the long one and the short one from the other side of the screen and wrap in opposite directions around the leg post. If done right, this should secure just the curtain and leave the net free. You can see in one of my pics where it is all tied back. You never use all three pieces of velcro at once. I also included a pic showing what the inside ceiling looks right with the bug screen they included. I did have one corner where the hook was not staying as well so I little bend in the hook and it did not pop anymore.
All in all, an intermediate difficulty build for a single person. I could have done the legs alone, but having help just made it easier. I have always enjoyed building things like this and have the patience to step back and ask myself what the heck?!?! and reason it out before continuing. I quickly ditched the included tool and used a screwdriver with the appropriate bit. I hate hex keys! I only used a drill for those screws on the roof where they said to do so. I find it too easy to strip holes in these kinds of things with power tools. I also found it helpful to use my step stool in addition to the full ladder. Made it easier to quickly move around the bottom edge. I did use them both for the big panels as it made it easier to pivot between positions.
You can see a couple stages of the build and the final result in my pics. We put ours up on those small stone pillars. This makes the bug netting less effective because it opens the bottom up, but we are putting a hot tub under ours, so the bottom screening (hopefully) is not as necessary and we wanted the extra height. Mosquitoes do fly close to the ground, so if it becomes a problem we will find a way to add some netting to reach the ground. We plan to add some led lighting around the ceiling. We had a cheaper Gazebo some years ago at our previous house whose legs folded in the wind and it collapsed. I would expect the larger legs and sturdier bracing of this one to stand up stronger.
My only contact with was to let them know that said it was delivered, but that was only the first two boxes and the fourth box was currently lost. They answered a few hours later that FedEx showed a new delivery date of Saturday. I checked and sure enough, FedEx had updated during those few hours between emails. So they were prompt and accurate with their reply.
Good purchase for the money, recommended
edit a couple weeks and a few heavy storms later: The 10x13 is waterproof, however.when it rains hard like it has here lately it hits the metal roof and bounces into the top roofs bug netting and we end up with quite a bit of wetness right along the middle of our Gazebo cover. No real way to prevent it if you want the vent at the top, but just wanted to mention it in regards to whether it is waterproof or not. I have stood out under it in heavy rain with a flashlight looking up underneath and I have seen no leakage through any of the covered areas. This review is for the 10x13 size. Summary, built it over the last two days, frame on the first day, roof on the second. I had my two kids assist with holding the legs for 10 minutes while I secured the horizontal beams, but I did the rest of the build by myself. I would recommend this purchase to friends as I like the final built product. First, FedEx ground delivery, ugh. This size has four boxes. All four boxes info were received by FedEx on Friday for pickup from the CA warehouse with a proposed Thursday delivery. The first three boxes behaved normally, though two were shipped Friday and one waited until Monday, they were delivered to Ohio on Thursday and Friday. The fourth box was picked up Friday and sat at the FedEx origin site until Wednesday! Then it shipped and had no updates until it showed up again saying it was in Ohio on Friday and was delayed to Saturday. Then it was delayed to Sunday and made it here Sunday afternoon. Not sure why that box was treated so weirdly. So the four boxes arrived over four days, a little beaten up but not so much as to damaged the contents. I unpacked everything and only found a few almost unnoticeable dings and none of the severe bent pieces others discovered. I put together the frame on the first day. I recruited my two kids to hold up two of the legs while I bolted the frame together. Then I marked the leg locations and installed concrete anchors that I bought from the local hardware. I opted for slightly bigger than what was included. Other than help propping the legs so none of the horizontal arms would bend at all, I built the rest of the Gazebo by myself. I only had one screw hole problem. Several times I had to loosen adjoining bolts a little more to make slight adjustments so holes lined up but that is to be expected. All other holes lined up fine. The one i had a problem with is the corner cover cap, the big corner cover that takes two screws on top and two on the bottom. I got to the last corner, three screws in fine and the fourth would not find the hole. It was getting dark so I could not see that good. After some frustration I took the other three screws back out and removed the bracket and sure enough, there just was no fourth hole. They missed drilling that hole. Like I said though, that was the only misalignment or missing hole i encountered. The next day the roof went on. It was a bit windy of course, so the roof panels acted like sails and were harder to manage than they could have been. The small upper panels were not bad at all. I did two at a time, sliding them both in and then attaching the bottom channel. I put temporary bolts into the ones shared by the next panels. Did that all the way around. I did the the four panels on the two short sides next. The first one was a disaster as I tried to manhandle it in and it just kept popping out on me, and the wind did not help. So the way I found was to through the panel up over the two cross bars, then while holding the panel up I turned on the ladder so I was under the panel facing outwards. I found it much easier this way. I would guide it into the straight side was high as it would go and brace it. Then I would work in the diagonal side. Once in, while holding the panel steady, I would turn back around to secure the panel with the bottom channel piece. Then do the next panel, get the bolt into the open hole, remove the bolt from the shared hole and reinstalling it with the bolt hole cover piece. The first panel probably took me about 25 minutes to figure out the way that worked for me. Each panel after that took probably 5 minutes at the most. The middle side pieces with the two straight sides were easy, just remember to put the small R piece on first, then overlap it on the larger panel and push both up at same time. Went easy. Hint for the rest, I did everything else from under the roof, no need to be above the roof. I have seen comments about the little plastic clips and the R1/2 pieces. I put the clips on after installing the panels first. I just used both thumbs and popped it under the join where the R and Q pieces met. This was not that easy, my thumbs were very sore by the time I was done. For the R1/2 pieces, get a tall ladder to where your head is basically touching the ceiling off the Gazebo. Then turn the pieces and stick them through the opening. I found it very easy to put in the diagonal side first, slide it over tight and the straight side had enough room to slide right under, then slide it up and log it in position with the clips. Finally, those wedge pieces (Y I think?), you can do those the same way, by reaching through the vent openings at the top and popping those in, then reaching through with a power drill. There are screw holes for these already. I could not see out the opening and handle the drill at the same time so I blindly located the screw holes and drilled them in. Seemed kind of stupid, yeah, but it was easy enough. By the way, I am 6 feet tall with proportionately long arms. I believe that panels R1/2 would be harder for a shorter person, but at the same time the wedges and screw might be easier. I saw some questions on the curtain/screen hook and how the velcro works. Curtain on the outside hangers, screen on the inside. Put the screen velcro hook through the grommet hole in the curtain and hook into the hole in the leg. There are three velcro strips, a long and short on one side of the screen and a short on the other side. The two on one side are used to secure both the screen and the curtain, just wrap them in opposite directions around the outside of the leg post and secure them. If you want to use the netting and just secure the curtain, then you use the long one and the short one from the other side of the screen and wrap in opposite directions around the leg post. If done right, this should secure just the curtain and leave the net free. You can see in one of my pics where it is all tied back. You never use all three pieces of velcro at once. I also included a pic showing what the inside ceiling looks right with the bug screen they included. I did have one corner where the hook was not staying as well so I little bend in the hook and it did not pop anymore. All in all, an intermediate difficulty build for a single person. I could have done the legs alone, but having help just made it easier. I have always enjoyed building things like this and have the patience to step back and ask myself what the heck?!?! and reason it out before continuing. I quickly ditched the included tool and used a screwdriver with the appropriate bit. I hate hex keys! I only used a drill for those screws on the roof where they said to do so. I find it too easy to strip holes in these kinds of things with power tools. I also found it helpful to use my step stool in addition to the full ladder. Made it easier to quickly move around the bottom edge. I did use them both for the big panels as it made it easier to pivot between positions. You can see a couple stages of the build and the final result in my pics. We put ours up on those small stone pillars. This makes the bug netting less effective because it opens the bottom up, but we are putting a hot tub under ours, so the bottom screening (hopefully) is not as necessary and we wanted the extra height. Mosquitoes do fly close to the ground, so if it becomes a problem we will find a way to add some netting to reach the ground. We plan to add some led lighting around the ceiling. We had a cheaper Gazebo some years ago at our previous house whose legs folded in the wind and it collapsed. I would expect the larger legs and sturdier bracing of this one to stand up stronger. My only contact with was to let them know that said it was delivered, but that was only the first two boxes and the fourth box was currently lost. They answered a few hours later that FedEx showed a new delivery date of Saturday. I checked and sure enough, FedEx had updated during those few hours between emails. So they were prompt and accurate with their reply.