Assembly is straight forward and I did most of it myself. When putting the frame up, I would suggest having 3 people to help support it. That portion only takes 20 - 30 minutes. There is also a lot of repeat assembly so I would recommend putting all the fasteners in bins so you can quickly grab and assemble. Have a good drill with torque settings, this will help you snug parts together before tightening. Because this product is metal, all the holes will line up very well and you won’t waste a lot of time getting things to fit. I only had one hole not tapped correctly, so if you have an M6 tap laying around, that can also help. All bolts are M6 x 3 different lengths. They will provide 2 wrenches and 2 bits to use with your drill. Total assembly was about 12 hours total of labor, but could be done in 6 if you have 2 people from the start

Amazing find. Price is unbelievable for the quality of this pergola. Completely transformed my small backyard to an oasis. Took me and handyman 8 hours. We put it on piers to give the needed height. BILT app rocks. So pleased. Highly recommend!

The price for something that will last us forever is great! Customer service has been so helpful twice! Once to send us a new piece and once to order another one! The top pieces would be more beneficial for shade if they they were taller, but we are getting sun drapes anyway.

We bought this pergola as a focal point to a new paved patio in the middle of our backyard. We hired a landscape architect and landscaping company to completely redo our backyard. We ran out of budget to have a pergola built so bought this pergola instead. The company installed it for us and the crew said it was easy and components were high quality. The architect was very impressed and said she would recommend to other clients. It overwintered great. We wiped some dust off and it still looks brand new. Very happy.

The Pergola is awesome! It took two people ~12 hours to complete. All the steel pieces were individually wrapped in plastic sleeves. The printed instructions were exceptionally easy to follow. The design makes this a very sturdy pergola that should stand up over time. The only caution would to be careful not to over tighten the bolts as you could cause the nut-weld to fail. I added an 8 x 12 sail that is constructed specifically for pergolas to give more shade in the summer. Am very happy with my decision to purchase this pergola constructed from steel versus one made of wood, aluminum or plastic.

We put this pergola on our deck and it is a beautiful addition, adding just enough shade without closing in the area or blocking the outdoor views. The galvanized powder-coated steel is very sturdy and won't need maintenance with repeated staining or painting. It is much heavier than aluminum or vinyl and we feel it will hold up well to the wind and hail we have in our area. We didn't anchor it because it is heavy enough that it's not going anywhere but we still could add anchors if we feel we need them down the road. Construction definitely takes several people. There were some issues with attaching the joist assembly to the legs as the hex socket screws were hard to get into the opening and not have them fall into the leg and not be able to retrieve them. Definitely need some special tools for this part of assembly. So far we love our pergola and could not be happier.

We searched for many weeks online and at big box stores and found the Backyard Discovery products to have the features we were looking for. The Pergola is very sturdy and even though it was accompanied by an assembly app called “BILT” (which was helpful for an overview of assembly) we opted to open all four boxes and preassemble all of the pieces first on one day and then the following day my wife and I erected the structure in about 3 hours. All total we spent about 8 hours for complete job. Not hard work and most pieces even once assembled were easily handled by us.

I have purchased now a total of 3 of the Stratford pergolas by Backyard Discovery. I purchased 2 - 14x10 and 1 - 16x12 Stratford's; these are excellent pergolas. The quality is top notch, and they are easy to assemble. The BILT app makes putting the pergolas together quite easy.

Definitely going to need two people to put this together. Very sturdy, stable and heavy. Instructions easy to follow.

We are so extremely pleased with this purchase! The app and directions are very easy to follow and assembly was a breeze for my husband and a friend of his. I was a little nervous to go with the steel versus a wooden pergola, but now I am so glad I went this route. I wanted something sturdy, yet maintenance-free since this is at our vacation home. We just want to relax when we are there and we know we will never have to paint or stain this pergola. It is made of heavy-duty galvanized steel and the construction is solid. It is very well made and I am most likely going to order another for our home residence. What an amazing product! We can't say enough good things, we are so extremely pleased with our purchase! Once I have it all styled with furniture I will share pictures:) Update: here is our pergola built and we added a bar underneath! It is perfect! Very sturdy product and super easy construction, my 15 year old son and his friend did most of the pergola construction! Highly recommend this product!