MELLCOM 12'x18' Hardtop Gazebo, Metal Double Roof Aluminum Gazebos with Curtain and Netting,Brown Permanent Galvanized Steel Pavilion for Patio, Lawn & Deck

This gazebo is quite nice. It was fairly easy to put together. Just be sure you start with everything square or at the end you will have problems. The one thing I still haven't got figured out are the curtains. No matter how I try to get the Velcro wraps around both the screen and the curtain. It isn't working! The little hook that is supposed to go into the post, will not go in because the curtain is there and there are no instructions on how to do this!

This is a great item at a great price. Took 2 days for two of us to put together. Instructions were actually really good! Took our time, followed the steps and was fairly easy to assemble. Very pleased with everything.

This review is for the Mellcom 12x14 WQG-030-2 metal roof gazebo.This was a difficult build, no doubt. My husband and I have assembled plenty of stuff over the years; we know what good kits look like, and we know how to cobble stuff together to make it look good even when nothing is level or square. This kit is pretty good, but so many pieces and so few instructions when you need them! I did not get any photos during the build - the most useful photos would have needed a 3rd person, as our hands were full.Over the project, we definitely found some holes were a touch off. We felt the tolerances overall were not very good. And we found the hardware machining to be not great at times. Nothing was a deal breaker, and nothing felt cheap or wrong, but there were times that brute force was needed to get 3-4 holes to line up properly. In our team, I do all the organizing and layout, my husband does most of the heavy lifting or strength-relevant steps. He also takes more time with setup and modeling, often putting it all together without parts before he does the real work - it can take extra time, but this does prevent costly mistakes. He does have an issue with heights, but is fine if there's something to touch nearby. I'm fine with heights, but very short.I will be addressing only those steps where we found we needed more info - there are plenty of steps that are self-explanatory and need no further comment. I will not use part names, page numbers, or step numbers, as every kit seems to be different.The day before we started:• I put all the long boxes upside down and cut away the tape and strapping where the lid came down to the bottom. Then flipped over and removed the lids. The instructions and hardware were in the largest long box. I didn't mess with the largest wide heavy box - that has the roof tiles.• I read through the instructions a few times. I also read back through all the reviews and made notes on some of the pages.• For the hardware, I prepped a pile of ziplocs with colored sticky notes with the info on each bolt/screw. I dug all the hardware out of the laminated packaging and put each item in it's prepared ziploc. Finally, I used colored markers on each page of the instructions to match the colors of the sticky notes. This way, I would be able to tell my husband "next step needs the green bag".• Every single item is in a piece of plastic. I unloaded every box, removed the Saran wrap when needed, and opened up the taped end of each plastic cover. I left the plastic on to protect the pieces, but I made sure it would be easy to remove each piece. I also dropped each group into a dedicated box base or box top (some pieces did share a box, but not many).• These steps so far took 2-3 hours - no joke. And during assembly, there are a few dozen little stickers that have to be scraped off as installation progresses. But that can't be done in advance unless you have a very large space to stage materials.Day 1 of assembly (7 productive hours - a bit of rain put the project on pause mid-day):• First, and so importantly, keep your attachments loose to start! Hand tight or even LESS… let it be wobbly. When you realize you're about to cover a bolt, go ahead and tighten properly - there aren't many hidden bolts.• Second, and also super important, you MUST have a level and square assembly. You may not be able to do any work on this until you have assembled the 4 uprights and the lower horizontal rails, but at that point, PAUSE and make sure you're level and square. This is essential to the rest of the project. We spent 1 hour on this.• Before you get to the point above, there is an instruction to stabilize the horizontal rails using some bolts with spacers from the OUTSIDE of the horizontal pieces. We actually couldn't get 2 of these in at all, even after we leveled the frame. This was our first and only time we saw holes that were genuinely badly drilled. Later, one of the angle braces on that corner also wouldn't fit. We moved on and got the rest built, but even after everything else went together fine, we couldn't apply these spacer bolts.• When you're ready to do the top frame, make sure you either have a ladder over 6' tall or a person taller than 5'. We did the top a little different. We assembled just two of the diagonal supports, then I stood on the ladder and held the assembly up in the air (arms fully extended - thank goodness it wasn't breezy!) while my husband tacked down the 2 corners. But then we realized only the person on the ladder could attach the remaining 2 diagonals at the summit. This was challenging for a 5' person standing on a too-high rung of a 6' ladder. But on the other hand, I would have struggled to hold up the weight of the whole assembly with 4 diagonals. And my husband could not stand on a ladder holding the whole thing in the air unless he had something to stabilize him… My point is - PLAN this step carefully. Of all the points in the project, this is the one where 3 people would have been nice. Or we could have taken out our 16' convertible ladder that weighs a ton. Both of these would have been far safer than how we did this.• I read many reviews about "use so-many curtain clips on this side or that side" but you need to read your own instructions!! It seems 10' sides need 6 clips on each half, 12' sides need 7, and 14' sides need 8. What you need will be in your instruction book.• At this point, we unpacked the roof box. We laid out just the tiles we needed for the roof vent, and found some portions of the edges weren't bent quite enough. A bit of rework with pliers fixed them. We also had a couple very small dents, which we decided to ignore - we know it will have more with falling branches and hail. But we did strategically place the dented pieces to be less obtrusive.• The clips on the roof tiles seemed pretty secure in our kit. In fact a couple were so snug I couldn't get them on. That said, there were 2 or 3 tiles where the clips did get unhooked, but that was before we figured out how to apply the roof tiles properly. I don't recommend taping them or doing anything extra. Just know you may need to redo a bit once or twice.• We finished Day 1 by applying the roof tiles on the vent and getting the roof cap into place. That went pretty well.• We also attached 2 legs to the ground at this point. We didn't use the bolts supplied, as we have a brick patio. We have heavy duty spiral anchors drilled into the ground and we used cinched web straps to attach each leg to the anchors. My point is - before applying the large tiles, bolt or lash it down! For us, Day 2 was very windy and these canopies are really just huge sails until they're fixed in place.• At the end of Day 1, we decided to "quickly" tack up the horizontal braces for the lower roof tiles, and also do the step where the horizontal bars on the end of the roof trusses end. I think some people call that piece a "gutter", but it's not very gutter-like. My point is, do NOT apply that end piece that will wrap around the tile ends just above head height. DO NOT! Even though the instructions clearly say to do this before installing the roof tiles. We ended up removing these pieces on Day 2.Day 2 (8 hours, including 2 wasted hours messing with the roof):• We started this day by laying out every one of the lower roof tiles, repairing the edges that needed more fold, and strategically placing the couple of dented panels. Overall, everything was in fair-to-good condition - no show stoppers. We also applied all the clips at this point.• After a few frustrating starts and stops and too many useless YouTube videos, we finally figured out the installation. If you have a rectangular model, start on one of the SHORT walls. And if you have a side that will be difficult to access, do that side earlier in the process. And all that being said - it's helpful to do an easy access side first to see how it all works.• Also, contine to do hand-tight or less, but if you have a difficult access situation, full tight may be best to do as you complete each piece on that section.• Seperate about 10 of the nuts and bolts that go around the perimeter about 6" from the edge, where the roof tile will be bolted to the horizontal frame pieces from the first few pages. Give the bolts to the person who will place and adjust the tiles, and the nuts to the helper. The helper should also grab a handful of the plastic trapezoid spacers. Restock these parts as your stash gets low.• To apply the lower roof, start with the triangular corner pieces, with one person on a ladder outside the perimeter, the other person inside the perimeter. Slide the tile up from the bottom and line up the holes about 6" from the edge of the roof tile. The helper positions a trapezoid spacer in the gap under one of the ridges, maintaining the hole alignment. The ladder person drops a bolt down until the end is accessible underneath, and the helper applies the nut. Hand tight or less! Do this on just one of the holes in the middle - not the side edge. There is no need to do all of the edge holes yet - you may need to nudge things a bit as you go.• Move to the next piece, but now slide the overlap ridge on top of the first tile. Be careful not to unseat the clips as you slide the next piece under the clip on the previous piece. Repeat the spacer/bolt/nut application for 1 or 2 holes, but I don't recommend doing the overlap hole just yet.• Move to the next tile - note that as the roof tiles get long, the ladder person may need to reposition to the top edge of the tiles and nudge the edges.• When you get to the center of a short side, or almost center of a long side, go to the other corner and build up from there.• The instructions show these steps with some arrows pointing up and sideways. But there is no sideways motion - just get the corner piece attached, then slide all remaining pieces straight up from the bottom.There is a support bar at the top that prevents any sideways movement for certain pieces.• When each tile is secured, attach the longer bolts that are 2' or so from the ends - some will require the helper and trapezoid spacers, and for us at least, many of those mid-tile holes were quite poorly aligned. Be sure to use the correct hardware - our kit used 3 different bolts for the roof tiles. Again, hand tight or less!• If you don't have any access issues, do both short sides before doing the long sides - when you get to the center tile of each long side, it's super easy because the top edge is straight and has no clips to align.• Once all the tiles are up, detach all the remaining nuts and bolts and fill in all the missing spacers at the edges. This goes pretty fast, even though there are so many of these! This is also the time to fully tighten the edge bolts and the mid-tile bolts. The person underneath needs the supplied wrench (or a proper wrench) for this step.• The last roof step is to apply the end pieces ("gutters") - and 2 people are helpful for this, as each bolt has to go through 4 layers that may or may not align. The helper just holds the other end, but it's quite important to prevent damage to any of the parts.• Once all the parts are applied and all the hardware is gone - go back and tighten EVERYTHING - use the instruction book to remind yourself of all the stuff you need to revisit.• When installing the curtains, the finished side of both the solid panels and the screen panels faces outside. I found it helpful to wedge a wide screwdriver into each clip to open them up a little and help the grommets slide in. But they are plastic, so don't wedge too far.• Install the fabric side first, on the outer set of clips - you may like to keep them all zipped together as shipped. Just make sure the grommets line up with each post.• The screen panels have a hook and velcro straps sewn on. Again, the finished side faces out - and the hook also faces OUT. The hook goes through the solid fabric grommet and clips into the metal upright.• I haven't fully figured out the velcro straps yet. But it was super windy and I just wanted to be done! I think the straps are designed to allow flexibility in keeping one or the other fabric tied back without undoing both. But it's an odd design and it feels like there is missing velcro.One last tip - the roof is MAGNETIC, so if you want to rig up string lights, you may like to pick up some magnetic hooks or cable clips. These are much easier to apply and move around than adhesive hooks.

Let me tell you, the box that holds the ceiling tiles is heavy AF. That's the box that's the heaviest and is 130lbs. But anyway, this is a nice gazebo. All the reviews saying you need multiple hours is true. It can be done with 2 people, and for my wife and it took us roughly 11 hours from start to finish. After done I sat back and enjoyed the fruits of my labor. Depending on your setup you will need to modify the instructions (if that's what you want to call it) a little.1) when adding the roof pieces (particularly the very top part), save yourself loads of time, put one of the holding bracket pieces on first. The tile pieces up top do not bolt into anything, so when you slide the pieces in,they will simply slide back out. But if you put one bracket on at least one side that you are working on, it will allow you to set the pieces in there and not let them fall out. You'll notice this when doing the long side, when you add the middle piece it will cause the left panel to slide out. This caused a large amount of frustration until I figured just to add this piece first in order to help make the installation smoother.2) when adding the bottom panels, if you are adding to a gazebo and can only safely access 2 sides (see my picture for example) make sure you add the top screws as you go along. Or you will never be able to reach them later on when you need to. My wife noticed that early enough that we were able to take care of it while adding together.3) Get a rubber mallet, when screwing in the tiles up top,some cross bar holes won't line up, but a mallet fixes that with no problem.4) Step 2 when you are adding the side bars connecting the 4 pillars, don't tighten them until you get to step 4. You can then tighten them, afterwards, it's alot easier to add the roof part with it a little loose.Hopefully this info helps you out with putting yours together.

this went together real nice,took a couple of days for my wife and I to do it.I am very pleased with the results.well worth the money,time,and effort.good product

As others have mentioned the bottom part is a breeze. Roof has issues. I wasn't able to finish putting ours together because a cross member on the bottom half of the roof has a manufacturing defect. Cross member F4 has the screw in tab on the wrong side and doesn't have a hole to screw it in even if it was on the correct side. Now I am stuck. If I can get a new part in a timely manner, I will update my review. As of right now this is terrible! Update: So the seller asked me to drill a hole in the cross member F4 which only partially fixes the issue. The tab on the cross member to secure it is still on the wrong side of the bar. I will never buy such a large, complex and expensive item from any business that doesn't have a local store for me to get what I need again. I was able to secure the cross member by drilling the hole but I had to mount the F4 over the top of E1 instead of under it where it's supposed to be. Seller offered me $30 bucks for the inconvenience. That's not going to cover ot for me. Thanks but no thanks.