Outdoor Living Today assembly
You have ninety days to build it, and the clock starts when the truck leaves.
It is a condition of Outdoor Living Today’s warranty: the kit must be assembled within 90 days of delivery, to prevent warping and shrinkage from the cedar sitting too long. Buy it in October to build in April and you have already voided it.
Cedar is alive, and OLT have written that into the warranty
This is one of the nicest kits on this directory. Western Red Cedar, handcrafted in British Columbia, panelized so the components arrive pre-cut and partly pre-assembled, with all the carriage bolts, screws and nails supplied. There is, as Lowe’s put it, no dangerous or time-consuming cutting required. People are very happy with them.
But cedar is a natural material, and a stack of it sitting in a garage does not sit still. It warps, it shrinks, and then the panels that were cut to fit each other do not. Outdoor Living Today have made that your problem, explicitly: their warranty requires the product to be assembled within 90 days of delivery, and they say plainly that this is to prevent warping, shrinkage or damage from the materials sitting too long.
That is fair. It is also a trap for anybody who buys a gazebo in the autumn sales intending to build it when the weather turns. Ninety days from delivery. Plan the build before you place the order.
What it takes
OLT’s own estimates and comparable cedar kits.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| 8x5 Grill GazeboOLT’s own figure. "Minimal tools." | 4 to 6 hours | 2 |
| 10ft / 12ft Bayside OctagonPanelized, but it is an octagon with a cupola. | a full day | 2 |
| Large cedar pavilionsThe figure comparable cedar-kit makers quote. | 16 to 24 hours | 2 to 3 |
| Staining or sealing itAnd again every 1 to 2 years, for the life of it. | +a day | 1 |
| Your warranty windowFrom delivery. Not from purchase. From delivery. | 90 DAYS | — |
Panelized construction is a genuine advantage. There is no cutting, and the panels do most of the geometry for you. It is the deadline that catches people, not the difficulty.
What to know before you order
The 90-day assembly requirement is a warranty condition
Read it again, because it is unusual and it is binding. The product must be assembled within 90 days of delivery. Their reasoning is sound: cedar left in a stack warps and shrinks, and a panelized kit depends on its panels still fitting each other. But it means the sequence is: prepare the site, book the help, THEN take delivery. Not the other way around.
The warranty covers rot and decay. That is all it covers.
Three years, limited, against rot and decay on the cedar substrate. It is not a general product warranty. That is not unreasonable for a wood kit, but it does mean that keeping the cedar sealed is not a cosmetic decision, it is the thing standing between you and the only failure the warranty addresses.
Cedar is a maintenance product, and nobody says so at the till
Untreated Western Red Cedar weathers to a silver-grey patina, which many people love and which is perfectly sound. If you want the warm colour it arrives with, plan on staining or sealing every one to two years, forever. That is the deal with cedar, and it is worth knowing before you fall in love with the photograph.
The footprint is not the name of the product
This bites on cedar gazebos generally. An owner buying a cedar gazebo listed as 12x10 found the actual footprint was 7x10, which happened to suit her concrete pad perfectly, but only because she checked. Measure the FOOTPRINT dimensions in the manual against your pad, not the name on the box.
Do the sub-assemblies first, and pick your day
Panels are large and light, which is a lovely combination until there is a breeze. Build what you can flat, and raise the panels on a still day. It is the same discipline that every panel structure on this site rewards.
Order of operations, and it matters more here
Prepare the site FIRST. Level, square, and to the footprint dimensions in the manual.
Then book whoever is building it.
THEN take delivery, because that is when your ninety days start.
And buy the stain at the same time, because you will want it within the first season.
Why hand this one over
Because of the clock. The most common way to end up outside an OLT warranty is not to do anything wrong, it is to do nothing at all for four months while life happens.
Because a panelized cedar octagon with a cupola is a lovely thing built well and a slightly wonky thing built in a hurry, and cedar shows every joint.
And because somebody who does this for a living will seal it properly on the day, which is the one piece of maintenance that the warranty actually depends on.
What an installer does
- Builds within the 90-day window, so the warranty survives.
- Prepares a level pad to the manual’s real footprint, not the product name.
- Assembles the panelized cedar kit square, on a day the wind allows it.
- Raises the roof and sets the cupola, which is the two-person part.
- Seals or stains the cedar, which is what the rot-and-decay warranty actually depends on.
- Fits the optional screen kit and benches, and clears the packaging.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
Is there a deadline to assemble an Outdoor Living Today kit?
Yes, and it is a warranty condition. OLT require the product to be assembled within 90 days of delivery, to prevent warping, shrinkage or damage from the cedar sitting too long. Buy in the autumn to build in the spring and you have already fallen outside it.
How long does one take to build?
OLT estimate four to six hours for the 8x5 Grill Gazebo with minimal tools. A Bayside octagon with a cupola is closer to a full day for two people, and large cedar pavilions of this type generally run 16 to 24 hours.
What does the warranty actually cover?
Three years, limited, against rot and decay on the cedar substrate, provided the kit was assembled within 90 days of delivery. It is not a general product warranty, which makes keeping the cedar sealed rather more than a cosmetic decision.
Do I have to stain it?
Not if you are happy for it to weather to a silver-grey patina, which is natural and structurally fine. If you want to keep the colour, plan on staining or sealing every one to two years. Cedar is a material you maintain.
Is a panelized kit easier?
Considerably. The components arrive pre-cut and partly pre-assembled, so there is no cutting, and the panels carry most of the geometry. The difficulty is not the assembly, it is the deadline.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Outdoor Living Today. Outdoor Living Today is a trademark of its owner, referred to here only to describe the assembly services that independent installers on this directory provide.