Screened gazebos

Best for: a first screened gazebo on a normal patio. At about $1,100 for 12×10, netting and full-length curtains both come in the box on a dual track, so you can close the bugs out and still pull privacy curtains across. The aluminum posts don’t rust or need staining, and Sunjoy states 50 mph and 3,700 pounds of snow on the 12×12. The catch: the warranty runs one year and excludes weather damage, and Sunjoy doesn’t publish a separate term for the netting. Who should buy something else: anyone who wants the lowest price with both in the box.

Best for: the same setup for less. The 10×12 is about $800, and Domi says it comes with curtains and netting. Its warranty is the longer one on the structure, five years on the roof and frame. The catch: curtains and netting get one year, so a torn panel in the second summer is yours to replace. Why it isn’t higher: for about $300 more, the Kingston’s aluminum frame and its stated 3,700-pound snow rating suit a yard that sees a real winter. Who should buy something else: if you mostly want privacy, any kit in the table below with curtains will do; if you want bug-tight walls that never come down, look at a screen room.

At 10×12, the middle of the hardtop gazebo market is about $1,170, and the middle half of prices runs from $930 to $1,500. Most kits with netting in the box sit at or below that, which means the netting rarely costs you extra when it comes with the gazebo.

It does when it doesn’t. Backyard Discovery’s cedar gazebos have a bolt-on mosquito netting kit at $449 to $699 depending on size, $499 for a 12×10 Barrington, and Yardistry’s mesh kits run about $600 to $900, more with assembly. Paragon sells netting for its Santa Monica separately too. Those are solid gazebos, but add the kit to the price before you compare.

A hardtop with netting is an open gazebo with mesh panels that zip closed and slide back along a track, so you can open one side to the yard and close the rest. A screen room has fixed screen walls or sliding screen doors between the posts and usually costs $3,000 or more. If you want a bug-free room you never think about, the screen room is the better product; if you want an open gazebo most of the time and a screened one on buggy evenings, the netting is the better fit, at a third of the price.

A pop-up screen tent or a soft-top gazebo with netting costs a few hundred dollars, but it’s a summer shelter that comes down before winter. This page covers kits that stay up all year; for fabric roofs, start at all gazebos.

Get both if you can. Netting keeps insects out and lets the breeze through; curtains block low sun, wind-blown rain and the neighbors. Kits with both hang them on a dual track, netting on one rail and curtains on the other, so you can use either or both on each side.

Several kits in the table include netting only, with a second rail ready for curtains you buy later. That’s fine if bugs are the problem and privacy isn’t, but price the curtains first: Sunjoy’s run from about $100 to $350 depending on size.

The netting is fabric, so it wears faster than the roof and frame, and the warranties say so. Domi covers curtains and netting for one year against five on the structure. Kozyard covers its gazebos for a year but netting and curtains for 90 days. Sunjoy’s one-year warranty doesn’t state a separate term for the netting.

Replacement is cheaper than the warranty gap suggests. Sunjoy sells netting for its gazebos from about $50 to $155 depending on size, and Kozyard sells replacement net sets for its models too. Buy from the gazebo’s maker where you can, because netting is sold by model and size to fit that frame’s track.