The Artemis is not the cheapest gazebo around but it is certainly one of the best! The quality of the materials is outstanding and the spruce feels lovely and looks the business. Delivery was on Saturday morning, in the rain and cold, but we cracked on and my father-in-law and I had it finished, except for the shingles, by the end of the weekend. The delivery team from the Liverpool branch was brilliant; they left all the pieces in the best spot for us to be able to get to work. The build itself was not too tricky, provided you have spent some time looking through the instructions ahead of delivery, but the addition of the back and side panels certainly added time to the build, as you have to make sure it all fits together - do not be too surprised if you end up loosening and re-tightening horizontal posts to make sure everything fits just right in between them! If there is one tool I would say makes the whole thing much easier, beyond a drill for pre-drilling and an electric screwdriver, it is an impact driver - the roof beams would have taken ages without it. The 200 pieces that make up the roof boarding take a little time and you are going to have to walk on the roof, so be ready. On that, someone advised leaving 4mm between each board but we stuck with the advised 2mm and found that any more would have been a problem squeezing all the pieces on when you get to the top; maybe the wood size varies but I would advise you to stick to the recommended 2mm. Laying shingles was easier than I expected, having watched lots of YouTube videos in anticipation. I would even say that I quite enjoyed it over two afternoons! Best advice I would recommend for that process, much like when nailing the roof panels, is a bum bag full of nails - much easier to reach to your waist for the next nail than struggling in your pockets when you are stood on a high roof! The very last thing we did was the bolts through the panels and into the concrete floor to secure the whole structure, using the impact driver again, which has made a solid unit feel even more solid! We chose not to secure the legs to the floor, in light of the 24 x 16mm bolts securing the panels and I am confident we made the right choice. I would recommend this gazebo all day long and my family and I are looking forward to spending many hours in there over the coming years, especially soaking in the tub!
