Pavilion Kit Review: A Structural Engineer Builds a Western Timber Frame Pavilion
A Structural Engineer’s Perspective • Todd Fratzel, P.E.
Review originally published March 25, 2018 • Republished with attribution
This pavilion kit review follows licensed civil and structural engineer Todd Fratzel as he compares building a timber frame from scratch with ordering a Western Timber Frame pavilion kit. After pricing more than $10,000 in raw materials alone, before making a single cut, he chose the pre-cut, pre-stained, kit instead. It shipped 2,400 miles from Utah to New Hampshire in 2018 for $14,397 delivered, and a crew of four assembled it in about seven hours. Not every pavilion kit review begins with someone trying to build the product instead. This one does.
Key Takeaways
- Kit price: $14,397 delivered 2,400 miles (UT to NH), including pre-cut joinery and pre-stain.
- Building the same frame himself: over $10,000 in raw materials alone — before cutting.
- Build time: about 7 hours for a crew of 4, including a plywood roof deck.
- The reviewer: Todd Fratzel, P.E. — a licensed engineer who manages custom-home builds.
- The joinery: the patented Dovetail Difference® system — tight, pre-drilled, fast to assemble.
- The wood: Douglas Fir — stiff and strong for its weight.
Why This Review Carries Weight
This pavilion kit review comes from someone who could have built the frame himself. Todd Fratzel is a licensed civil and structural engineer who manages the construction of custom homes — he has the tools, the crew, and the training to cut a timber frame from scratch. In
2018 he documented, in unusual detail, how he designed, ordered, and raised a Western Timber Frame™ pavilion in his New Hampshire backyard. His original write-up is hard to reach now, so we have retold his account here in his own flow, quoted his words throughout, and linked his complete original at the end.
Todd’s project didn’t start with a pavilion — it started with a backyard. Over the better part of a year, he and his family took on a large outdoor-living build: a patio with a built-in fire pit, a retaining wall, an in-ground pool, and a pavilion to anchor the seating area to the pool. Anyone planning a backyard pavilion runs into what Todd ran into: there are a lot of ways to get one built. You can frame it yourself from scratch, hand the whole job to a general contractor, or bring in an architect and design anything from a simple shelter to, as Todd put it, “the Taj Mahal
of pavilions that would make structures at Disney proud.” Being an engineer, he didn’t just pick one — he priced out three.
- Design and site-build it himself. He drew a pavilion much like the one he ended up with in SketchUp, generated his own material list, and planned to build it from Cedar timbers using steel connection plates and structural fasteners.
- Have a traditional timber frame cut. In this version he’d take that same 3D model to a local timber-frame shop and have them cut a traditional mortise-and-tenon frame from Douglas Fir.
- Buy a timber frame kit. This is the road he took. Several companies sell pavilion and gazebo kits you can raise yourself or hire out, and he chose Western Timber Frame for the quality of the Douglas Fir, the unusual frame connections, and service that, in his words, “made the entire process very smooth.”
With the three priced out, the math did most of the talking. Building the frame himself meant buying and cutting every piece — and the lumber alone, before a single cut, ran past $10,000. The kit, with the joinery cut and the finish already on, was $14,397 delivered from Utah to New Hampshire.
The Review, in Todd’s Own Words
On the Cost
Engineers tend to begin in the same place: with the numbers. Before Todd considered convenience, craftsmanship, or installation time, he compared what it would cost to build the frame himself.
“The price of this kit, shipped from UT to NH, was $14,397. When I started pricing my own frame to build the cost of materials alone was well over $10,000 and that was before I cut anything to size!” — Todd Fratzel, P.E.
The comparison wasn’t simply between two prices. It was between raw materials and a finished timber frame that had already been engineered, precision-cut, pre-drilled, pre-stained, and delivered.
Pricing note: Todd purchased his pavilion in 2018. Lumber, freight, and manufacturing costs have changed since then, so today’s pricing will be different. What hasn’t changed is the comparison he was making: raw materials versus a completed, ready-to-assemble timber frame. For current pricing based on your project, request a custom quote.
On why he chose the kit
Building from scratch wasn’t beyond Todd’s ability. It was beyond the amount of time he wanted to invest.
That’s an important distinction.
As an engineer and builder, he already knew he could make the frame himself. The question wasn’t whether it was possible. It was whether that was the best use of his weekends.
If you’re weighing the same decision, our guide on how long a pavilion kit takes may help.
When I started pricing my own frame to build, the cost of materials alone was well over $10,000 — and that was before I cut anything to size. So the price of tOne of the big reasons I went with the kit was time. My schedule is so hectic that it wasn’t realistic for me to spend the time necessary to build the structure from scratch. Boy am I glad I made the choice I made — we got this pavilion up just in time to beat old man winter. — Todd Fratzel, P.E.
Truly Custom. Surprisingly Simple.
Todd had already poured his foundations six months earlier — long before the final design existed — to build the patio the spring before. That is the kind of constraint that usually turns a build into a fight. It didn’t here. He sent sketches with basic layout dimensions and answered a short list of questions: stain color, brace style, structure height, coping details on the beam ends, and whether he wanted the columns pre-drilled to run electrical. From there the shop produced a drawing for his review and sent the full package of installation notes, so he could plan the crew and the day before anything shipped.
He signed off, got a delivery date, and the kit arrived complete. What showed up covered nearly everything structural:
- Columns, beams, rafters, ridge beam, and braces
- Structural fasteners, wood plugs, and the foundation anchors
- Tongue-and-groove ceiling material and touch-up stain
- Drill bits and detailed installation instructions
The short list Todd supplied on his end: the foundations themselves, fasteners for the tongue-and-groove, cap flashing, and the finished roofing. He added a layer of plywood over the T&G for New Hampshire snow loads — optional, his call — and chose a black standing-seam roof to tie into the black hardware, fixtures, and fence already on the project.
If you’re weighing the same decision, our guide on how long a pavilion kit takes may help.
When I started pricing my own frame to build, the cost of materials alone was well over $10,000 — and that was before I cut anything to size. So the price of tOne of the big reasons I went with the kit was time. My schedule is so hectic that it wasn’t realistic for me to spend the time necessary to build the structure from scratch. Boy am I glad I made the choice I made — we got this pavilion up just in time to beat old man winter. — Todd Fratzel, P.E.
On Ordering a Custom Size
He ordered a custom size from the pavilion kits page, and the process stayed simple.
“Ordering our new pavilion from Western Timber Frame was really straight forward even though I had custom dimensions. They have an entire team of people from sales, project management, and designers to make the entire process easy and timely.”
On shipping it 2,400 miles
Buying something you’ve never seen in person takes trust. Buying something that weighs thousands of pounds and has to travel 2,400 miles takes even more. Todd’s biggest concern wasn’t the design—it was whether the pavilion would arrive exactly as promised.
“The pallets were covered in shrink wrap, the fasteners were in a weather tight container and everything showed up in perfect condition. The entire shipping process exceeded my expectations in every way possible.”
On the joinery
Fast installation rarely begins on installation day.
It begins months earlier—during the engineering, machining, and precision cutting that ensure every timber already knows where it belongs before it ever reaches the job site. That’s the idea behind the patented Dovetail Difference® system (U.S. Patent No. 9,797,149 B2), inspired by traditional timber framing and engineered for modern precision.
“Western Timber Frame uses a very interesting dovetail joinery system that produces a really strong joint that’s fast and easy to erect. I was very impressed with the quality of the joinery and how well the entire frame fit together. All of the joints came pre-drilled for the large fasteners which also helped speed installation.”
On Raising It
The raising is where a kit either earns its price or exposes it. Todd’s crew of four had the pavilion standing in about seven hours, plywood included. Every piece was pre-stained, straight, and free of defects, and — the part that matters most to someone who does this professionally — the dimensions were accurate.
The speed comes from the joinery. Western Timber Frame’s Dovetail® system joins rafters to the ridge beam, beams to columns, and the truss cord and ridge beam to the king post with large, tight-fitting dovetails. Every joint arrived pre-drilled for its structural screw; the crew seated each one with a rubber mallet and drove the fastener home. Strong joints that go together fast — which is exactly how four people raise a pavilion in an afternoon.
“Every piece fit perfectly and it only took about 7 hours for 4 of us to completely erect this pavilion including the time it took us to install a layer of plywood on the roof.”
The details held up to a builder’s eye, too: coped beam ends with smooth cuts, edges chamfered after cutting, tight joints throughout, and a pre-stained finish still in good condition after a cross-country trip and a day of being wrestled into place.
On the quality and the details
Professionals tend to notice different things.
Most homeowners see the finished pavilion. Engineers tend to look closer—at the milling, the tolerances, the joinery, and whether the details still hold up after shipping, handling, and assembly.
“The quality of the materials and the milling that went into the kit was exceptional. The coped beam end has very smooth cuts, chamfered edges (they route the edges after cutting), all of the joints are tight, and the pre-stained finish is in great condition even after a long journey across country and after all the abuse of erecting the frame.”
“Every piece fit perfectly … most importantly the dimensions were very accurate. I would definitely buy another one of these kits for any of our clients without doubt.”
— Todd Fratzel, P.E., licensed structural engineer
Read the full engineer’s review →
About Todd Fratzel — Full-time builder for a large New Hampshire construction company, running its design-build division for custom homes, commercial projects, and sub-divisions. Licensed civil and structural engineer. Editor-in-Chief and founder of Tool Box Buzz.
Quotations are drawn from Todd Fratzel’s published review of his Western Timber Frame pavilion, used with attribution.
Read the full original, archived on the Internet Archive: web.archive.org copy.
Questions Buyers Ask Before Ordering a Pavilion Kit
How long does it take to build a timber pavilion kit?
For Todd’s kit, about seven hours with a crew of four — including a plywood roof deck. The pre-cut, pre-drilled joinery is why it goes so fast. See what to expect on build day.
Is a pavilion kit worth it versus building the frame yourself?
For a structural engineer, the raw materials alone ran over $10,000 uncut, while the finished kit was $14,397 delivered with the joinery and stain already done. The kit removed the cutting, the tolerances, and the time — and cost less than the value of what it replaced.
Will a kit survive long-distance shipping?
Todd’s pavilion traveled 2,400 miles on shrink-wrapped pallets with fasteners in a weather-tight container and arrived in perfect condition, with the carrier confirming delivery and forklift access in advance.
What wood are the pavilion kits made from?
Douglas Fir by default — stiff and strong for its weight — with other species available for specific climates. Browse more builds in the pavilion kits collection or the timber frame FAQ.
About Western Timber Frame™ — Based in Payson, Utah and building since 2008, Western Timber Frame has engineered 7,000+ structures to code across all 50 states. Recognized with the 2026 SBA Manufacturing Award, an HGTV Design Excellence Award, and 28 Best of State Awards. Kits ship pre-cut and pre-stained with the patented Dovetail Difference® joinery already done.
Read Todd Fratzel’s Original Review (Archived)
His full review, preserved on the Internet Archive so his words are not lost. Quoted here with attribution:
- Original review — Page 1 (intro & ordering)
- Original review — Page 2 (kit inclusions & shipping)
- Original review — Page 3 (dovetail joinery & fit and finish)
- Original review — Page 4 (final thoughts)
If you searched “pergola builder near me” and ended up here, you are already doing your homework. We have built in every state and possibly in your neighborhood — talk to our design team. Your backyard is different from everyone else’s. That is why no two of our projects are the same.
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