I finally finished putting this together. It came out better than expected. The material is top quality and the directions were easy to follow. I also used the "Bilt" app which made it so much easier. I do recommend this product. In addition, customer service is top notch. One post was damaged by the delivery service. However, one call and they sent a replacement in a few days. Great product.

We purchased this pergola to place on our deck for some filtered shade. Everything about this product went smoothly, including delivery and assembly. Definitely recommend having at least 4 people available during assembly - although much of the assembly can be done ahead of time with 1 or 2 people.

Solid product! Once it is fully assembled, it is heavy. Really made our large patio usable as it gets sun all day. I went with steel so that I would not have to do staining every 2-3 years as it is exposed to wind and sun all day. Very satisfied with how the project turned out. Assembly was not difficult...just tedious as there are so many screws. I just used the printed manual. The app looked good but I was in the glaring sun and it would have been a challenge to use the phone app. Just a couple of recommendations for assembly. It took me a full day and this is not my first rodeo on assembling products. Make sure you take all of the pieces out of the boxes and get them sorted first. They will be easier to find when you need them. I would recommend assembling all of the screws and washers prior to the assembly process and just sort them in bowls. It will save time. I also diverted from the instructions and did not mount the plates to the concrete first. I assembled the entire product and then attached the pergola to the concrete pad. Just assemble at the location where you want it to be. I was a little concerned due to a very, very slight slope away from the house and so the assembly prior to securing just made it naturally fit the way it should on the ground. I only took a star off because of the seams on the beams. You have to use braces to attach the ends to make a long beam. It was expected but solid beams would have looked better, although it would have been difficult to ship.

We needed a space for shade and a space where we wanted to create an outdoor room. We took a space of our outdoor patio to do that. So my husband and I with our sons completed the pergola in 4 hours. Each time I look at the pergola I'm in awe of its beauty and reminded of our time building it. It was actually a lot of fun to build. Each person had their role to play in making it. The instructions were fantastic. I would definitely purchase again from Backyard Discovery. Our sun shade is not in the picture due to the fact that it was 6 inches too short. With that said, once I let them know, they ordered me a new right away. You won't be disappointed with the quality of this pergola. Hopefully you and your family will build one together and enjoy making memories for years to come. bonus feature of the outdoor plug system was great when we added outdoor string lights.

The stainless steel studs that need to be inserted through the large holes, and then into the post should be accompanied by a 6 inch piece of flexible, tubing that snuggly fits over the stud for initial contact with the female threads, and then pulled off of the stud, to turn further in with a standard allen wrench provided. This would avoid any of the studs accidentally falling off inside of the main rail, which would necessitate taking the rail splice apart to retrieve the stud.

Great purchase. Straightforward to put together; however would recommend having 2 people to assemble all the beams and then 4-5 people to hold/bolt together the frame. After that step, the rest goes pretty quickly (even faster with 2 people and 2 ladders). Still looks great after nearly a year of use. Highly recommend.

We purchased this pergola for our rental home in Vero Beach. There was no backyard entertaining space so we built one. Everything was so well marked and the instructions were very clear. Even with that, we found we messed up on some and had to redo them, mostly the angled bars. We could be more happy with the way it turned out.

The instructions say 2 people and 10 hours but i put it together on my own in 6 hours because the instructions were so easy to follow. i needed the help of my wife for about 20 mins to move the assembled short sides but outside of that it was too easy. love that this app is a thing.

Couldn't ask for a better product or company. The pergola arrived in a couple of days, communication was great, super easy to assemble with clear instructions and everything fit together as expected. And of course, it's absolutely beautiful. Have had it a few months in intense Chicago weather and so far so good.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Bought and put up 2 of the Hawthorn pergolas. So glad I chose this brand. The guys who put them up said they were the best built pergolas they'd ever installed! Cant wait to sit and relax under their shade.