Sojag Monaco Champagne 12 ft. x 14 ft. Gazebo

It is amazing well built took one person two days. Couldn't be happier

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is a review of the Sojag Monaco Champagne 10 ft. x 10 ft. Gazebo. I have had those cheap gazebos with tarp/cloth coverings and having to replace the cloth every year due to elements was making them more expensive than just getting a higher end gazebo like the Sojag. The gazebo came in 2 boxes – one with all the roof tiles and the other box contained all the other pieces. The roof box was 92lbs and then the other box was around 180lbs. However, no single piece is heavy – there's just a lot that makes up the finished product. When finished you will have put together over 190 pieces using over 300 bolts/screws. This is really a high quality and thought-out gazebo. I put this together with my son and it took just under 10 hours, but I'm old and senile and don't move as quick as I used to. Although I love everything about this gazebo – here are a few highlights: • 4 mosquito nets that wrap around the entire structure. They slide so smooth and can be secured open or closed. There is also a small square mosquito net that can be velcro'd at the top roof tier to stop mosquitos from coming in from up top. • 2 tier roof adds a nice high-end quality look and allows for release or air when there are high winds. • Gutters – I was concerned with where I was going to place this as I wanted to put it close to the back door so you could walk out the back door and immediately be under the Gazebo if it was raining. Then it hit me that if it rains the water would be coming off the angled roof eve straight at the back door. However, when putting it up I saw how the water would roll down the roof tiles into the outer edges which are like gutters. The water than flows through those and out the legs. • They spent the effort in making sure this gazebo is squared up. There are just so many cross joints at each level to be sure when you're finished that it's truly secured and squared up. My older gazebo may have had a cross beam, but this gazebo would have a cross beam and then a left arm, right arm, top right, top left, etc. • When finished it's just under 300lbs. All individual pieces were actually really light weight, but when all put together it'll be heavy. We have 30+ mile per hour winds today and it's not moving. I included several assembly photos and have a few tips below: • All the bolts and screws and even the mosquitos net clips have extra pieces – so don't worry if you lose one. There are extras. • If you're under 6 foot and/or have short arms - I would make sure I had at least (2) 8 foot ladders. It can be done with one, but some of the higher items may be more difficult. If you're under 6' a step ladder also comes in handy and can easily be moved around. • Power drill won't help much initially. None of the bolts/screws really tighten that much. Not like you're tightening anything an inch where it would save time. For example, the roof bolts tighten maybe a ¼ inch at most. • When doing the roof beams, cross beams, etc. – just loosely tighten. The holes have some give around the bolts. If you tighten them completely then when putting on the roof shingles the holes may not align real good and you'll spend 15 minutes trying to get one bolt in when you could have done it in 15 seconds. We tightened everything real tights and then about half-way though went back and loosened up these beams and holes aligned much easier. Just be sure to tighten the bolts you won't be able to reach later as it's being assembled. After all roof pieces were done, I then finally made use of the drill. I set it to a 3 for tightness and then had about a quarter inch final turn with the hex wrench. I'm pretty sure we wasted at least 90 minutes messing with trying to get bolts in where if we just would have not tightened so much, we would have been fine. • For the roof panels get one bolt in place (loosely tightened) and then align the remaining holes. Since panels overlap – put the next panel up and one bolt in place (lightly tightened). With only one bolt in place, it will allow for the roof panel to move – at this point align the holes from the first panel and the overlap panel and get your bolts put in the first panel. There is an optional Winter Support Post I may look into purchasing since we just had a 5-day ice storm. I can see how that would benefit anyone who has bad winter conditions. Overall, I am really happy with the finished product and would highly recommend the Sojag brand. It's a very high-quality product and as mentioned they really put some thought into the final product and design.