so i built a pergola...

[dan moran]

i dunno if this falls into woodworking proper, but its somewhere on the woodworking/carpentery borderline.... i think.

material: cedar (the species that the lumber yard sends when you ask for cedar)
the posts are solid 6x6.
the corner braces and girders are made from 2x8
the rest of the parts were fashioned from 2x6

total footprint was around 16' x 8'
and it's set upon 10" diameter concrete footings poured 48" deep with a 6" galvanized anchor bolt set in the concrete for bolt down post bases(simpson AB66Z).

heres a screencap of my basic layout:


i had to do a lot to the stock with a power planer, belt sander(50grit), and ROS(varied grits to 150) to get the stock, especially the 18' 2x8s to the "smooth apperance grade" that i ordered, but i didnt want to send it back and wait another 3 days to get started..

the homeowner let me set up shop in his basement to cut parts and to assemble the subassemblies. heres a shot of the pre built subs stacked and ready to go:



i made the end details and corner braces by using my jigsaw, a template and flush trim bit in my router- finishing off the edges with a 1/8" roundover bit in a laminate trimmer. everything was sanded to at least 100 grit..

heres a pic of the preexisting deck that i built the structure around..
note the girder assembly ready for erection:



heres the rear girder/posts in their fully upright position:


next is a photo of myself horsing around after the girders and posts were set in place/temp braced:


installing the subassemblies:


and the (almost) finished product:


i made the post caps by taking 2 2x8 squares, gluing and screwing them together and cutting 45degree x 1-1/2' bevels around the top edges..

i used stainless steel for all the hardware in this project- 3/8x 4" lags for the girders and 3" deck screws for everything else..


i hacked out the front of the original deckrail, took a piece of it and filled in the old deck entrance and now its ready for grilling(sorry if the pic is so dark, it took the whole day to do all this stuff):



i also made some trim to hide the post bases by cutting out a 1/2" cove in some 1x4 and ripping it to 3/4 so the coved part would hug the post while the rest of the board would hide the bases..



(^^this picture is totally out of scale- my batch resizing program turned all the pics to 640x480 and this is what i get when i do that to a portrait oriented picture)

im just glad its done and the customer is happy with it..

Many thanks to Don Brese for sharing the story of how he built the pergola he posted on this site with me- it really helped me think the whole process through before i got started and im sure i avoided a bunch of snags because of it.

thanks for looking
-dan

[dan moran]

to clarify on the bases:

this is what i did:



and this is what it looked like installed:



i kinda cheated and used 18ga galvanized brads to pin the corners until the titebond 3 could set up..
please forgive me..

[Martin Shupe]

Most excellent work, Dan! Well done! Congratulations!

Thanks for posting.

[Jim Becker]

Sure does look like a pergola! Nice work! The caps at the base of the posts was a darn good idea, too.

[David Cramer]

Great job Dan and you did a fine job of being well organized during the entire process. Thanks for posting your start to finish progress!

Dave

[Garth Keel]

Great final product! And fast!

[Scott Rader]

I built one over a flagstone patio that I installed at our house. I used Ipe (both 4x4's and 2x6). That was fun.

I have wisteria growing over it after 3 years.

[dan moran]

thanks everyone, i really appreciate the positive feedback..

i was a little worried that you guys might be a little hard on me after the Jesus knot pic

im glad that i could hide that one behind one of the girders..

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Dan,

Nice Job! About that knot, get a better pic and get it on one of the morning shows then ebay it. It could finance your retirement.

[dan moran]

Hi Dan,

Nice Job! About that knot, get a better pic and get it on one of the morning shows then ebay it. It could finance your retirement.

im not interested in that kind of publicity..

[Scott Loven]

What was the material cost on this project? How many hours did you have in it? I have a friend who wants something like this on his house and I was just curious.
Thanks
Scott

[Craig D Peltier]

Nice work! Looks like you adddes some extra step details.

PS Knot pic I think was just a way for some us to have fun with.

[Paul Douglass]

Very nice job. I sure would like to figure out something like that for over part of my deck. Why is it always so peaceful to sit under something like that? Does it create good Karma?

[dan moran]

What was the material cost on this project? How many hours did you have in it? I have a friend who wants something like this on his house and I was just curious.
Thanks
Scott

the lumber was $1100 from a smaller local independent lumberyard.. hardware ran about $200 for the bases, screws, and lags(from the big boxes). i put about 40-50 man hours into it(a lot of it (15 hrs or so) was getting the lumber surfaced via power planer/belt sander etc, and i saved by only using a helper for the pouring of the crete/actual installation procedure). concrete and tubes ran around $100..

im gonna say $1500 in materials total with 50 hrs labor

im sure the labor hours would have been a LOT less had i had a surface planer to take care of the stock prep, but alas, i dont own one yet, i was kinda taking my time/being methodical about my notches on the fabrication stage as well

hope that helps..
-dan

[Ben Grunow]

I like the project and I think that many people underestimate the need for bracing on these things. Nice to see that you didnt.

What I want to know is how you got so many pictures in one post? What happenend to the 5 pic limit? (not to hijack but what the heck?)