Gazebo Selection

Your gazebo selection has details will that affect your enjoyment of the gazebo for years to come. Most important is gazebo size.

Gazebo Selection: Size?

buy the gazebo size to attractively fit into your backyard
buy the largest gazebo to accommodate the activities you plan to use the gazebo for.
For example: to host dinner guests allow 15 sq. ft. per guest. Six guests will need 90 sq. ft or a gazebo 10 x 10 just for the dinner table & chairs.
Three or four lounge chairs for a shady place to read or chat will take up as much space as a dining table.
Although Yardistry gazebos can be as large as 12’ x 20’ the typical largest gazebo made by other manufacturers is 12’ x 12’.
Yardistry 12 x 20

Gazebo Selection: More than one?

If one gazebo will not meet all your needs consider adding another one. Decide how much grass or garden space you can give up for shade. Remember that children will prefer to play on grass or in a sandbox rather than on a hard gazebo floor.
If you purchase more than one gazebo will they be placed side by side? It might make sense to separate them if your backyard is large enough and if the gazebos will be used for different activities.
If you place the gazebos side-by-side remember that rain will fall in the gap between the two. Don’t put chairs there.

Gazebo Selection: Location?

How close should the gazebo be to your house? Too close to the house and the backyard view is blocked. The backyard will look crowded. Too far from the house and it’s inconvenient for carrying trays of food or beverages to the gazebo. It can be inconvenient running back to the house to answer a door bell or bring out seat cushions..

Will the gazebo be too close to flower beds, a swimming pool or trees that may do damage to the gazebo roof? Or will a position close to the pool or a barbecue fit in with your entertainment plans?

Sightlines

The sightlines to and from the gazebo determine:

what you will see when seated in the gazebo
what you will see when looking from the house to the gazebo.

When looking from the house to the gazebo is the gazebo framed by an attractive view? Does the gazebo help highlight your flowerbeds, shrubbery, trees, etc.?

Similarly, when sitting in the gazebo what will you or your visitors see? Will you be staring at a neighbour’s mess? Will you feel boxed in if your view is blocked by a fence?

Gazebo hemmed in by a neighbour’s fence: crowded.

What you can see of neighbour’s property may be overshadowed by what you can hear. If the gazebo is close to a neighbor’s property will you endure piercing screams of unsupervised children or drunken adults?

Level the Gazebo

The surface that the gazebo sits on matters. The first concern is to anchor the gazebo to protect against high wind. (We’ve dealt with that in another post). Anchoring the gazebo on a wooden or concrete deck is straight forward. But, on grass or patio stones it may be necessary to drive rods through the feet of the gazebo deep into the subsurface. Our gazebo assembly team will deal with this.

If the gazebo will be on grass, is the surface level? Will guests be seated on an angle? Will rain water flow through the assembly? If the surface is not already level our gazebo assembly team will deal with this also.

If the gazebo will be on grass, are you prepared for grass cutting around the legs of the gazebo and your chairs? For this you will need a line trimmer even if you lay a floor on the grass.

Gazebo Selection: Lighting

Enjoyment of your gazebo will be enhanced with deco lighting. Battery lights are an option but hard-wired lights are more durable. For a dedicated circuit and plug(s) near the gazebo you will need an electrician. Contact your electrician during the early stages of your gazebo planning. He will advise how to comply with the building code and how to avoid other buried utilities.

Gazebo Selection: Insect Curtains

If you planning lights remember that evening use of your gazebo will invite flying insects. Insect curtains are essential.

Gazebo Selection: Gazebo Roof

Consider the durability of your gazebo. The weak point is the roof. Exposed to sun, wind, snow and ice a typical fabric roof has a life span of maybe three years. A vinyl or metal roof will last 10 years. Consider this when calculating initial costs. A solid roof will also give better rain protection.

Yardistry 12 x 14

Time elapsed video of a Yardistry 12 x 12 cedar gazebo.

Built on the shore of Lake Cecebo, Ontario, July 21, 2021

Beach Gazebo

Few sites will be as picturesque as shaded seating by the water’s edge. A beach gazebo offers that & more.

Follow the link below to our Beach Gazebo video. Sit back & relax.

Secure Gazebo Assembly

Secure Gazebo Assembly.

Protection from the Wind

fraser assembly gazebo assembly — A Wind Damaged Gazebo

In a strong wind the shape of a gazebo makes it resemble a kite. Even a heavy wooden gazebo can become vulnerable to wind damage. The wind may not completely lift the gazebo off the ground. But the wind can shift the gazebo enough to twist the frame or buckle the legs and destroy it. When that happens, everything close to the gazebo is at risk. Secure gazebo assembly requires a plan

GAZEBO ASSEMBLY: On What Surface?

Start with the surface the gazebo will rest on:

Wood Concrete
Paving stones, interlocking bricks
grass

Gazebo Installation on a Wooden Deck

If upward wind forces the gazebo to lift, will the downward pull of the wooden deck be strong enough to overcome the lift?

Make sure that the gazebo legs are screwed through the deck boards to the deck structure itself. Where possible, reposition the gazebo and use longer screws to reach the deck structure. It may be necessary to add wood beneath the deck to connect the deck structure to those boards where the gazebo legs will meet the deck.

GAZEBO Assembly on CONCRETE

Secure gazebo assembly on concrete is the easiest to achieve. No matter the wind strength, a concrete deck cannot be shifted by wind-driven uplift on a gazebo. Use concrete screws, (Tapcons) to attach the gazebo to the concrete. The instructions on the Tapcon packaging are simple. We normally charge $25.00 for this service

INSTALLING A GAZEBO ON Paving Stones, INTERLOCKING BRICK, GRASS

Unless paving stones or interlocking bricks are cemented together they provide little downward resistance to the upward lift of a wind-driven gazebo. A secure gazebo assembly will use 3 ft rods drilled through the feet of the gazebo, through the paving stones, then through the subsurface material.

Step One: Two 5/16″ holes are drilled through the gazebo base plates & the patio stones beneath.

Step Two: 3′ high carbon steel rods, stiff enough to resist bending when driven through the patio stone, the gravel beneath the stone and the clay subsurface.

Step Three: Two rods have been driven 3′ into the ground. Note how the rod ends are flattened to prevent the gazebo base from slipping off the rods.

The rods should be high carbon steel to avoid bending when hammered.
The rods should have mushroom heads to hold down the feet of the gazebo.
The rods should be spiral shape for better grip in the ground.
A concrete drill bit 12” long helps penetrate the paving stones & subsurface.

Secure Gazebo Assembly Starts with Planning

Get ready to secure your gazebo before you start the assembly. Identify the assembly surface and have the necessary long screws, Tapcons, rods, drill bits, sledgehammer on hand. It may be easier to have a qualified assembly service do this job. The assembler will have all the tools on hand to do the job properly without running around at the last minute looking for tools & parts.

gazebo Assemby Tip: How Much Does it Cost to have Secure Gazebo Assembly?

The costs of secure gazebo assembly are surprisingly low.

Surface	Attachment Tool	Cost
Wood	Screws	No Charge
Concrete	Tapcons	$15.00
Paving Stones, Interlocking Brick	3’ rods, drill bits, sledgehammer	$75.00
Grass	3’ rods, sledgehammer	$50.00