Gardesol 10'x10' Louvered Pergola Adjustable Rainproof Outdoor Aluminum Hardtop Gazebo for Outdoor Deck Patio Garden Yard (White)

I bought this after calling a few local patio cover builders who were fully booked out for 1-2 years. This is unacceptable for people like me who want to purchase a pergola on a whim. I did spend a lot of time researching pergolas and this is the one I chose; and I have to say this is one of the few things I've purchased that quelled my buyer’s remorse immediately upon install. Its pricey, but worth the price for sure. So, here's my review after owning it over the last few months:Pros:- Very easy to assemble and the instructions are pretty good. I assembled this with the help of my wife in a day. I have a very high mechanical aptitude, so it was naturally easy for me to build (some of it without the instructions). However, my wife is not. That's not her jam. I have no doubt that she could have built it without my input. It’s pretty intuitive. I even let my 5-year-old assemble parts.- It’s made from quality materials. It’s mostly aluminum except for the assembly bracketry and the louvers. I'm especially pleased that the louvers are steel because I imagine they'll take the beating of a pretty good hailstorm without damage. The powder coating seems durable and should hold up fine.- The louvers are very easy to open and close and the opening mechanism seems to be sturdy and should last the life of the pergola.- It was very well packaged in the boxes so that there weren't wear marks or scratches. One of the louvers had a slight bend in it but I'm not entirely convinced that this wasn't caused by aforementioned 5-year-old. It wasn't bad and I could coax it back into shape.- It provides an awesome amount of shade and in 115F Degree weather, it brought much needed cooling to my patio.Cons:- The whole shipment is super heavy. 650+ lbs in total. This wouldn't be a big issue (since it comes in 5 boxes) if it was shipped on a pallet that wasn't made from garbage plywood. No joke, I wanted to prove my super strength to my wife and was able to punch a hole through the "plywood" sheet it was on. I am not a strong man by any stretch of the imagination. To make things worse, it showed up via freight truck and no one mentioned that I'd need a telehandler or forklift to unload it. Luckily, the delivery driver was nice enough to help me unload the boxes one at a time. I did have to dispose of the "pallet" but that was ok because I broke it into more pieces to throw away (it was pretty haggard already). I cannot emphasize enough how terrible the pallet was. I would be embarrassed if I shipped something on that. I should have taken a picture, but I was super annoyed and it was hot outside. Because of how inconvenient this was, I have included the dimensions of the boxes and their respective weights below (it was printed on the boxes).- The dimensions given in the pictures don't tell the whole story. Here's the scenario: my patio sits directly under an overhang extending from my house. I wanted to install it under the overhang so that it was up against the house...ish. My overhang is exactly 100.25" above my patio. The pergola dimensions state that it is 98.7" tall. BOOM, in like Flynn, right? No. The FRAME is 98.7" tall. When the louvers are open, they sit 2.7" higher than the frame for a total of ~101.4". Too high for my application.This is the part where I potentially void my warranty, but I feel that the pergola is well built and I am willing to sacrifice myself on your behalf. The frame posts are made of extruded aluminum. The extrusion pattern extends the full length of the upright posts. The base mounting plate is held on by 6 screws that thread themselves into channels that run the length of the uprights. Except for a small semi-circle that I assume is the drain hole for runoff and another unknown hole near it, there is no discernable difference between the factory cut and if you were to cut the bottom 3.5" shorter.Disclaimer: *Do NOT cut ANY of the components because this may void your warranty. I am not responsible for anything that you do to modify your pergola components. Don't do it. Its a bad idea.*I used a Dewalt 12" miter saw with soft metal kerf blade and trimmed 3.5" off the bottom of the 6 upright posts to bring the height below my overhang with some margin of error. I also used a hole saw to cut new drainage semicircles and the mystery hole in their exact locations. I was very methodical with my cuts and ensured that they were within a very tight tolerance between them. It worked flawlessly. I risked a $4,000 dollar purchase and I do not recommend you do that unless you are VERY capable of making precise cuts. Even then, make sure you understand the risk that you are assuming.I was able to find the instruction manual before I ordered the pergola by doing some Googling so I accepted that this would be a risk prior to purchasing.TL;DR: It’s a quality product that was easy to assemble and worth the price. I recommend it if you're looking for a quick, solid, and (dare I say) stylish addition to your home, you can't go wrong with this.As promised, box dimensions (not actual box numbers):Boxes 1&2 - G.W. 123.5 lbs - 132.5"x12.6"x7.5"Boxes 3&4 - G.W. 112.4 lbs - 132.5"x12.6"x7.5"Box 5 - G.W. 236.0 lbs - 132.5"x16.1"x15.0"

We were looking for a way to enjoy our deck in the summer without getting cooked in the baking sun.We had to ensure that whatever we installed had to be able to withstand heavy snowfalls in the winter, so we opted for the Gardesol 10' x 20' pergola which would fit nicely on our 10' by 30' deck, leaving room to BBQ off to the side. It has a set of louvers that can be opened to let sun in, but more importantly, allow snow to fall through and not accumulate. The design also keeps rain out, channeling the water into the legs!We ordered it through Amazon and it arrived promptly on a truck. Five boxes come on a huge overlong pallet, the whole lot weighing 519 pounds! The first task was getting it offloaded, so we pulled the box off the tailgate onto some planks as far as we could, and then cut all the strapping off, releasing the individual boxes to be manhandled about. You definitely need at least two strong people present to shift the boxes. We dismantled the shipping pallet and kept the bits for firewood.We then unpacked the boxes so we could walk the parts to where we needed them.The legs, beams, and louvers (louvres for our real English speaking friends) are all very light to move individually. There is a heavy box containing all the hardware needed to assemble it.The parts all look very nicely made, and of good quality. I did some trial fitting of the parts to confirm sizes and to check that it would indeed be able to be installed on our 10' deck.Poor weather (days of rain) delayed the start of the assembly, but having studied the instructions, I knew that there was a long task of attaching end caps to both ends of the 38 louvers so I set up a production line under our carport out of the rain. I set up two trestles and a chair with a cushion for myself. I put the end caps and screws into some tubs and set up my cordless drill.The task then consisted of:Remove two louvers from their box and lay them on the trestles with the ends near the chair.Add the two endcapsInsert two screws into each endcap by handDrive all four screws in with the drillFlip the two louvers end to end to do the other endsAdd the end caps, and screws to the second endsWalk the two louvers to the assembly areaRepeat 19xEach louver has two small plastic feet to rest on the adjacent louver when they are closed, and I noticed that many of them were missing, so I counted how many were missing as I went. Once I had my production system going, each pair of louvers would take about 6 minutes to assemble.I contacted Gardesol and informed them of the missing feet and they shipped me the missing feet.My friend Hein visited for a few days and the two of us erected the pergola over 3 days.Our deck is 10' wide but there were two issues that made our installation more complex:There is a small eave on the side of the house, and I wanted rainwater coming off the house roof to go onto the top of the pergola rather than pouring into the area below. This demanded that we shorten the legs by 7" to get it to fit below the eave.To maximize the height of the pergola, I needed to position it so that the louvers would rise up next to the fascia of the house, meaning the whole pergola needed to be 6" away from the house, which meant that three of the legs would be just beyond the deck. This demanded that I create three supports on the outside edge of the deck for those legs. Fortunately the deck has a facia comprising a 2x8 and a 2x6 nailed together, providing ample wood onto which a piece of pressure treated 6x6 could be bolted, providing the additional 6" needed.We drilled some drainage holes in the deck to match the drainage holes in the steel plates make the base of each leg.Because the pergola was up against the house on one side, and at the edge of the deck on the other side, outside access to the long sides was impossible. We therefore had to combine some of the assembly steps. We added parts G (linkage arms) after the first half of step 21. Then, as we added each louver, we also added part S (clips) which necessitated raising and lowering the louvers each time.We bolted the legs to the wooden deck using lag screws instead of using the supplied anchors.The system is well designed and well built. The parts go together well and some smaller parts have spares supplied in case you loose a couple. The two halves can have the louvers set independently.Water handlingWe had a huge rainstorm the day after we erected it which provided a good test of the rain water handling. Generally it was good, but we did get some drips coming through along the edge next to the house.The water flows from the top of each louver through holes and onto the end caps above the gutter on the inside of the horizontal beams. As it dropped off the endcaps, some splashed onto the side of the gutter and then onto the floor.I pushed each endcap outwards towards the beams so that the momentum of the dops carried it closer to the beam and gutter instead of towards the inside of the shelter. This seems to have fixed the issue very well, except for one louver where there was a gap between the endcap and the drain hole in the louver allowing water to run through, unhindered, fast enough for the surface tension to allow it to run along the underside of the louver and then miss the gutter completely! This was solved by making a small bend in the endcap so that it touches the drain hole.I also found that we had a lot of water gushing from the center pole next to the house (perhaps we misjudged where the drainage hole locations?) so I drilled some additional holes next to the base plate.We erected the pergola as horizontal as possible, and perhaps we should have let it have a very slight slope away from the house to aid water drainage to the outer edge. I might jack it up and place a shim under the middle pole on the house side so we get less of a puddle where we walk into the house.I don't expect the area to be 100% dry in a rainstorm but with the small tweaks described, the water drainage works extremely well.Update: Today we had an almighty cloudburst rainstorm. The amount of rain coming down overwhelmed the gutters and everything below got wet. It is not surprising, and very much acceptable. I do not expect anything to stay dry through such a storm, so just be aware not to leave things there that should not get wet if a big storm is approaching.

This product is well made and engineered beyond my expectations. It was well packed and shipped damage free. All parts were there and it assembled very easily. All parts fit perfectly. We had no issues with any part of this