Building a pergola

[Melt In The Sun]

I did...not sure what species/grade you're using; I'll find out what's easily available here tonight/tomorrow. A redwood 2x8 will span 14', but not with much room to spare. I guess my gut feeling is that if you're that close to the maximum, it's gonna sag within a few years. Blocking is a given, for sure.

 

[duraleigh]

not sure what species/grade you're using

#2 Southern Yellow Pine....often just called Southern Pine. Very strong and for us good ole' boys in the South a LOT less than redwood.

 

[martinkennedy]

I know this is a bit pricy but it’s the system I am going to be putting in for my new pool build. The slats will open and close or move to any position in between to allow as much sun light in as required. The great thing about this system is that you can completely close them to if it rains. I am using this as a cover for my outdoor kitchen.

www.equinoxtexas.com

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Yeah they are really cool...but, out of our price range for sure.

A much more economical similar thing is to angle the louvers so that winter sun is allowed through while summer sun is blocked. Not sure if we'll go that way, but this is the idea:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/environ/h ... olas.shtml

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Long overdue update!

Here is the "final" design, with permits being filed with the city within a couple days. I already spent some time talking with the permit folks, so things should be pretty straightforward. I did learn that the setbacks are sorta flexible in the sense that they don't apply to footers or overhangs, so I can put my posts right on the lines and have the overhangs extend to 3' from the property line. Every bit of shade helps!

I'll be pulling pavers and starting the digging for footers this weekend, and hopefully we'll have the steel up within a couple of weeks. 4x4x1/4 steel posts, 4x6x1/4 beams, then the top in redwood 2x6s and 1x3s. It's a bit less ambitious in the carpentry department than some of the ideas we were floating, but it will be a heck of a lot easier and quicker, and will still look very nice.

We are still fighting with the HOA about the finish on the posts...they want them wrapped and finished with stucco. The problem I have (and they must address!) is that they just approved a variance for a board member for a much uglier structure that has plain steel posts and a corrugated aluminum roof...looks like a pole barn. Given that the finish on the posts is literally the last thing we would be doing, I'm starting everything else now, so hopefully we can have some shade by the time swim season starts for real!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Permit is finally in hand! It's been an infuriating 2 months, between the HOA bulldoody and the city. The city ended up telling us we needed it to be designed by a structural engineer, after they explicitly told me in the initial meeting that it would not require that.

Anyway, I hope to have breaking ground photos up soon...it's getting warm here and I need some shade. And best of all, it's only taken 7 months to get to this point!

 

[woodyp]

Ever thought of incorporating one of those shade sails into the design?

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Nah, don't really like them.

 

[txnole]

Regarding the metal panels, those are premade and available online. Wife showed me a similar picture and website several months ago. I will try to find the site, but I recall there being more than a few nice designs on precut sheets.

EDIT: yep, here's the link: http://www.parasoleil.com/gallery/patterns/

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Interesting! Water under the bridge now though...

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

Got any photos of the work (hopefully completed)?

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Not at the moment...I keep meaning to get some up but keep forgetting! It is not done yet but is close...

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Update time! It was finally finished finished in January, 15 (!) months after the first plan was officially submitted. Now, 9 months of work in just a few minutes:

well daddy, I'm done digging, can I come up now? Footers are 18" x 36", as per the structural engineer Notice we had to cut four (four!) un-permitted not-to-code things - sink water, sink drain (3/4" PVC......no wonder it never drained well), power to one of the convenience outlets, and an abandoned gas line (abandoned after last time I cut it in the other corner of the yard).


The "inserts" that will be stuck in the footers. Steel posts will be welded to the flat face on top.


Insert in the footer. 3 others just like it! I hauled 56x 80lb bags of concrete in the back of my ford focus. 10 at a time didn't blow out the suspension, and somehow not my back either. Mixed in a wheelbarrow, one bag at a time. We temporarily reconnected things, pending a decision about keeping the sink/bar or not.


Steel coming in. This is the last time we'll ever see the yard we've known for almost 5 years...looking forward to having some shade!


End of day 1. Looks much bigger in real life than on the computer screen!


Ledger going up, on day 2


Nearing completion


Steel is done! It looks absolutely gigantic. The top part is 10' to the bottom of the beams, the lower part is 8'. Higher than I would have liked, but i was outvoted.


Painting now...you gotta do what you gotta do! It was primed back at the shop, but between bouncing around in the trailer and burning the paint off the ends during the welding, it needed a fresh coat (or several).

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Redwood 2x6s, 16' long. Picked through a whole bundle and a half, yet I'm somehow still smiling.


Beginning the install of the hurricane ties required by the engineer. This was the most agonizing part, somewhat unsurprisingly. The combination of the thickness of the steel (3/16 or 1/4 depending on the piece) and the size of the holes in the hurricane ties (#10 screw max), meant that the self-drilling screws wouldn't work. In order to get a drill tip long enough, you had to use a #12 screw. So, I pre-drilled every hole (all 350-ish of them) and installed the brackets over several loooong days.


Rafters up on the upper part. Glad to be done with this...I'm not a real big fan of ladders. You can see my one-man setup for attaching the fascia boards too.


Upper fascia mostly attached. One rafter at a time, yanked and pushed into place, clamped, predrilled (redwood likes to split at the ends) and screwed.


Done with the top rafters!


Same process for the bottom. The angle across the corner of the pool required some thinking to get the lengths right...glad I married an engineer.


Really starting to look like something now!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Starting the slats! These are 1x4 redwood, spaced a little under 1" apart. That gives about 80% shade with the sun directly overhead, and more shade when it's at an angle. 2x 10d nails per slat, per rafter. If you look closely you can see a couple nails poking out the sides of the rafters. I got better with more practice, but I wish in hindsight I had paid more attention to the grain direction. Some of them just wanted to go sideways, the whole length of the board!


pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop..... The steel ended up a little out of square, which wasn't a real big deal (fanned the boards out slightly to match), but did embarrass the steel contractor when I told him later.


Each slat had to be cut to fit in situ, becase nothing is ever as easy as it seems in your head. I wanted to stagger all of the slats, since we can see the top of this thing out one of our bedroom windows. So, I would go to the end, cut off the extra length, then start the next row with that cutoff piece. It turned out well.


Someone is lounging in the pool taking pictures while I am hard at work! The angled ends will be cut off all in one fell swoop with the circular saw, once they're all up. Seem nerve-racking! It was!


Stringing up some lights.


The posts are now wrapped in 2x lumber, foam, and wire for stucco. The stucco has been hired out, because I hate hate hate doing it.


Done! Posts are stuccoed, capped, and painted. The upper and lower light sets are on separate strands, so they can be turned on/off separately. Eventually I plan on hooking them up through a couple of dimmer switches, and things will really get swanky!







Who's it all for? Certainly not me...this little 2-week squeaker (grouching at me while I type this) and her big brother have a daddy who loves them very much.

 

[pwrstrk]

Wow that turned out very nice ! You've done an awesome job on it.

 

[kimkats]

Love it!!!

Love the child labor pic! CUTE!

What a cute little baby! I bet she was grouching at you "DAD! You KNOW you are to only pay attention to ME!" LOL

That is going to make your backyard time SO much nicer! You did wonderful work!

Kim

 

[pooldv]

Sweet!

 

[jblizzle]

Wow that looks great!!!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Thanks! It has been far more work and hassle than I initially imagined, but what project isn't? It's not as aesthetically pleasing as some of the others that I've seen here and elsewhere (one person called it "Soviet"), but it gets the job done and absolutely maximizes the amount of shade given the existing constraints (pool and property line setbacks).

A couple other pictures now that I'm at my work computer:





- - - Updated - - -

And, photos of moving the bar out.

Here's how far we got it before deciding we didn't have enough people:


And where we decided we need a new plan, since there's no room to stand on either side to lift it


Nothing a skilsaw and diamond blade can't fix


Out! Not my problem anymore!


And, in its new home across the street. They replaced the broken tiles with some extras we had, re-welded the frame together, patched the stucco, and now you can't tell it was ever decapitated.