Overall Rating 4.4 / 5 Based On 7 Reviews
Delivery 5 / 5
Quality 3 / 5
Price 4 / 5
Assembly could be made easier
The Arbour was delivered on a pallet. We checked the components prior to assembly and found that some were not as described in the Assembly Instructions (e.g. Fixing Kit screws were of different length and quantity; centre seat support was not bevelled). Before assembly we decided to repair the wood knots and splits with glue filler, sand down the green salt spots from the pressure treatment process and fully paint all parts. The Assembly Instructions are intended only as a guide so be warned! An Electric Screwdriver is a must for this job. Some of the screws are too short and do not join the wood parts together and some of the screws are too long and push right through the wood; we used own 50 mm screws in some places instead. When fitting the Back rest (4) to uprights (step 2) move the back rest (4) in about 13 mm from the back of the leg (6); if you follow the drawing exactly as is the seat back will not reach the corner back rest slats (step 5). When fitting the Back lattice pane (5) to uprights (step 3) the seat back should be just in front of the lattice, not underneath it as shown in the drawing. Make sure you are working on flat ground when joining the Corner backrest slats (step 5) and the two arbour halves; if the ground is not flat consider building a flat decking area to stand the Arbour on instead. The Centre seat support (11) is not bevelled as the drawing shows (step 6) and is very difficult work on from underneath the back of the Arbour so we decided to drill screws in from the front sides instead. The Corner lattice (step 7) has to be positioned perfectly at the right angle of the posts so that the screws pull the two halves together and do not show through the posts. The Roof panels (step 9) need to be positioned before fixing to ensure that all three roof panels will align at the front of the Arbour; if you follow the drawing steps and push the centre roof section (18,19) up it may not align with the left (16) and right (17) panels either side. When we did run into problems we contacted Rowlinson Garden Products support team but no support was given so we just carried on by visiting a garden centre to see how they had assembled it and with more trial and error until we eventually finished it. It took two of us about 10 hours to fully assemble it. This would have been much easier to do if Rowlinson had bothered to drill all the pilot holes and had improved the Assembly Instructions to be more accurate.