Very happy with finished product, wood was not warped or bowed, straight forward assembly. Was able to assemble with one person, but two recommended when two sides are brought to vertical and until first crossbeam installed to hold sides stable I sealed all wood before assembly by using a roller. A couple bolts cross-threaded, but extra hardware provided, so no problems. Would buy product again.

We purchased this one as it was cedar and was the size we needed. As many others did, I stained it all before putting it together. The stain that is on it is not intended to be anything other than color. My wife and I put it together in about 5 hours. If your not mechanically inclined minimally or not all that strong, then a 3 rd person would help. We did it with two and just on a few occasions did it become tricky. My biggest complaint it that the barrel nuts that were sent were hard to screw onto the long bolts. About 4 of them we never got to work at all. We still put them in the holes but they are not tightened down. Also some of the 2x2's were slightly bowed which requires you having to pull them into square to attach. Bottom line: Not too bad for the money. If you want a bulkier hand made pergola, your going to spend around 4K to have it done. This one is good enough for now.

The seller stated we would receive the pergola within 10 to 17 days from order date and we received it on the 10th day. The men who delivered it did a great job and actually carried it into our garage and I'm glad they did because the 2 boxes were quite heavy. The assembly instructions were good, but the hardware not so good. We had to spray WD-40 on the nuts and bolts or else they would bind. I'm not sure why they designed then top support beams in 2 pieces, it would have made more sense if it was 1 piece, and assembly would have gone a lot quicker. Overall it took 3 of us about 4 hours to assemble it and it looks very nice. We are very satisfied with our purchase.

My husband put it together by himeself. I love it. The only drawback is I bought it to have some shade over my patio furniture and it does not provide any shade. So now I have to buy some kind of cover to put in the top to get shade. Otherwise it's very well made and makes the backyard look so peaceful next to the pool.

I bought this with the installation option. Delivery company was good in keeping me up to date. The install was a bit delayed on the installer part, but got it done. I think there are 2 things needed on this pergola. 1) it needs to have a sealant out of the box... when you have installers they aren’t going to give you time to unbox and coat with sealant. It’s difficult to adequately apply once it’s assembled. 2) the footers are definitely the weakest point in this pergola. They don’t include hardware to attach to a wood deck either. I ended up spending another $100 and bought 4 pylex 6x6 black metal bases that securely anchor the posts. Other than these 2 things, it’s a nice looking pergola.

Just put up 4 days ago and received it's christening the next day with 2 days of on off heavy rains. Looks terrific. Only issue I had was with the sealer. Used the One Time and it took several days for it to sink in and dry and some places did not absorb. I had 2 guys put it together...took under 4 hours. Although in the home improvement biz for a very long time, this is the first time they put up a kit. They were quite impressed and plan to offer it to their other customers. Being white cedar from China, I'm curious to see how long it holds up to the coastal Carolina winds and sun.

nice instruction, flexible alignment, and good results.

they use cheap wood

Two boxes on a pallet, and bottom of box against the pallet was damaged, damaging 2 pieces of wood that the company will take two weeks to get to me. Probably 25% of the boards were bowed, rendering the predrilled holes useless. Along with my damaged pizza oven, which came in an undamaged box but included a large dent, damaged stone, and damaged stack, last time I buy online from Sams.

I was going to design and build my own pergola. But when I saw this, I thought I could not build one that nice for the money. Now that I have completed, I think I could have done one nicer for a little more. The main structure of the pergola is good, but the decorative ends are separate of the main beams and do not match up nice to the supporting beams. In addition, the top 1x1's are shipped in two pieces, therefore I could not get all the ends to match and have some gaps. While the finished product is nice and relatively easy to put together, I wish I did my own construction.