Pergola

Step 1: Planning and Design

As with any construction project, perhaps the most important work begins before you ever even make the first cut or hammer the first nail. The design of your pergola is going to set the upper limit on how appealing it looks, as well as how it functions. Your skill in creating it can hopefully meet that bar, but is never going to exceed it.

The pergola you build is going to be an important part of your landscaping and the way your home looks for years to come. It’s also going to play into other aspects of your yard as well.

A pergola will affect the comfort and enjoyment you have outdoors by creating an outdoor living space. It can also help increase the beauty and productivity of your garden if designed so as to allow trellising of vines.

Set the Plans in Stone before Pouring the Footers

One common mistake that is made by many do-it-yourselfers is to get into too much of a rush at the beginning. This can lead to costly mistakes, both in regards to time and money. Realize that this isn’t a race, and you’ll probably finish faster and with less expense.

The most important thing is to make sure you have a well designed set of plans ready before starting the construction. While a pergola may seem like an easy build because of the simplicity of it’s structure and visually obvious nature of it’s components, it’s deceptively difficult for those very reasons. There is little in the way to firm up the structure, so the design and joints have to be perfect. There’s nothing to cover up your mistakes, so each component has to be just right.

Invest in some professionally designed plans if you’re unsure of yourself here. You can find high quality pergola plans for less than $100, and it can save you a lot of headaches down the road. In any case, make sure you have those plans finalized before you start the build!

The Right Wood Makes all the Difference

Understand that not all types of wood are created equal, especially for outdoor use. While pine is a very inexpensive material which generally has good grain and doesn’t warp too much, it simply isn’t going to hold up outdoors for very long. Keep it for interior framing, not for pergolas.

Redwood and cedar are two of the more popular choices for building outdoor structures. Both have good resistances against insect pests such as termites, as well as a measure of protection against water damage. Plus they both have beautiful rich colors. Either is a great choice for building a pergola.

Step 2: A Strong Foundation

The footers for building a pergola on are perhaps more important than they are for any other outdoor structure. This is because the open nature of the pergola doesn’t allow for much in the way of support against swaying horizontally. Set the footers deep so that you can eliminate as much of that swaying as possible.

How deep you need to go is going to depend on the consistency of the soil. Hard and rocky soil will help the footers remain stable, even though it makes digging them much more difficult. In such cases 2 feet deep footers may suffice. Sandy soils can mean trouble as the cement footers can more easily wobble in their holes as the sandy soil compacts. To help avoid this problem, ensure the post footers are at least 3 feet deep and that the bottom and sides of the hole are well compacted before pouring the cement.

One way to help firm things up on softer soils is to make the tops of the footers extend out or connect into a patio. You can visualize such a footer as a T shape, where not only is the depth of the footer working to prevent wobbling, but the width at the top is as well by pressing down on the soil below it. For this to work well, you should incorporate steel reinforcement into the footers, otherwise the extensions at the top may be prone to cracking at which point they lose any effectiveness they had.

Incorporated Footers into a Patio

If the pergola will be installed with a new concrete patio, you can do away with the need for deep footers in some cases. Pergolas are rather lightweight structures relatively speaking, and so don’t apply a whole lot of downward force. A steel reinforced 6 inch thick slab should be ample foundation for most pergolas. Though again the firmness of the sub-base can be a factor in how thick the slab needs to be.

The determining factor as to whether to use the patio as the footers or not generally depends on whether or not you want to give up the usable area of the patio to allow for the pergola’s posts, as well as if the patio will have steel reinforcement. Without that reinforcement cracks in the patio can cause the posts to wobble, and the leverage of the posts can exacerbate the cracking as well.

With existing patios it’s probably just easier to pour the footers outside, rather than have to drill into the cement to attach the post connectors. This will help avoid any potential issues that might arise from the old patio not being strong enough to support the pergola too.

Choose the Proper Attachments

As we keep mentioning, a pergola doesn’t have great lateral stability. What it does have comes from the small area of the joints, as well as the tie-in to the footers. This means there’s a lot riding on the metal strips you choose to tie down your pergola’s posts.

Bear in mind that water is going to be the biggest enemy to your pergola. Not only will rot and mildew affect the looks, but it will also cause the joints to become loose and wobbly. This is important to consider in regards to how you attach the post to the concrete. Concrete acts something like a sponge, absorbing moisture. This moisture, if in direct contact with wood, can cause a lot of problems.

For this reason, we suggest you go with posts bases that have built in standoffs. The standoffs ensure that the moisture in the concrete won’t affect the posts, and that moisture in between the metal and the post can drain or evaporate off as quickly as possible.

These are flat metal that have been formed to cup around 2 or more edges of the post. Then they are set in the cement themselves, often with an anchor that extends deep into the footer (or can even be tied into the steel reinforcement of a slab).

We also recommend bolting the footers rather than nailing or screwing them. This will ensure that the metal remains firmly pressed against the wood posts, maximizing stabilization. If you do choose something other than bolting, definitely use screws rather than nails. Over time nails will become loose and the stability of the pergola will suffer for it. Just be careful not to strip the screws as you may need to tighten them from time to time.

Step 3: Mass Production Of Components

Once you have the footers or patio poured, you should let them cure before installing the pergola. This will maximize the strength of the foundation.

During this “down” time you can be fabricating the various components of the pergola. Because pergolas are generally very simple structures, with a lot of repetitive components, it makes sense to mass produce as much of it as possible. Some people will go with prefabricated pergola kits for this very reason, as these types of components lend themselves to factory production.

However, you can achieve much the same thing with the standard “DIY Toolbox” that most handymen will have at their disposal. A table saw, chop saw, and jig saw are good to have, though a skill saw can cover for the table saw and chop saw in a pinch. (Or if you have the skill!) Other useful tools are a planer (hand or table) and for more intricate pergolas a router can come in very handy.

The Easiest Work is Work You Avoid Adding

One thing to bear in mind is that you can avoid the lion’s share of the work simply by selecting your building materials carefully. Don’t just go into the nearest home center and take the first two-by stock you see. Check to make sure the boards you select are straight.

Warped lumber is going to be difficult to work with given how you can’t just cover up the irregularities with siding. A few minutes carefully selecting your lumber can avoid hours of work on the table saw and planer. It also will help ensure that your pergola looks as beautiful as it should.

Guides and Jigs

While it’s great to be able to free hand scallops and 90 degree cuts, most of us handymen are going to mess up more often than not. The key to getting perfect cuts every time is to do the work beforehand.

A guide or jig to help steady the power tools is going to make a big difference in how well the pergola turns out. You can use these simply to mark the cuts with a pencil beforehand, or actually to guide the router as you make intricate scroll work at the ends of each runner.

With a skill saw, part of the “skill” is in how you set up the cut. Simply marking a line to cut can help out a lot, but if you take the time to set your framing square right you can use it as a guide to make a perfectly square cut every time. This can take some practice since it requires one hand to hold the square. If you’re having trouble with keeping it steady as well as making the cut, you can always lock it in place with a couple of clamps.

Helping to Firm Up the Pergola

One thing you can do that isn’t always shown in pergola designs is to notch the joint on each runner where they will attach to the main beams. This allows the runners to help stabilize the structure, as well as to give themselves a better attachment to it.

If you are mass producing the runners, it can be a rather simple thing to set up a jig to create these joints. Doing so should not affect the visual appeal of the pergola at all, but will greatly enhance it’s structural integrity. This is especially true in pergola designs where the main posts are parallel to each other, without lateral posts to shore them up.

Step 4: Erecting the Posts

This might seem like a simple step, but it’s actually one of the most complicated and important aspects of building a pergola. Each post needs to be well-seated in it’s attachment point to the footer, plumb, and square.

While you can force the tops a little bit to fit with the components you’ve already cut, doing so is going to add a lot of stress on the footer and attachment. This could cause a failure, or at the very least for the footer to wobble more later on.

Predrill for Bolts or Screws

Depending on what type of attachment you are using, you’re going to need to predrill for the bolts and screws. You need to make sure these holes are drilled perfectly, because if they are off, the post won’t be plumb when you tighten things down.

Because of this we recommend you use a drill press after carefully marking the holes to be drilled. This is doubly important for when using bolts.

Have a helper around to keep the post lined up while you mark the holes. If you don’t have a helper, you can rig up temporary braces that will keep the top of the post steady while you concentrate on marking the holes. Double check to make sure whatever notches or miters that you’ve made for attaching the beams are aligned correctly before marking!

Tighten Securely, Don’t Strip the Screws

This is one area where bolts have a clear advantage over screws and nails. You can tighten the bolts almost with impunity, because they won’t strip. Nails you can hammer in, but they will pull out over time. Screws you can tighten to a point, but then the head will strip, or worse yet, it will strip out the wood and lose any holding power it had.

With bolts you can tighten it down, and re-tighten later if you have to. Use self-locking nuts to ensure than they will stay tight over time. In general, a pergola which is attached to the footers with bolts is going to be much more stable than one using screws or nails. Don’t skimp here!

Step 5: Beams and Trusses

If you’ve done everything correctly up to this point, this should be one of the easier steps to complete. Most pergolas have only 2 or 4 beams to set up, and you should have already straight, notched, and ready to go.

However, if your posts haven’t been set right, you could be in for a big headache. Try not to force things too much, as with a lever several feet long you are applying tremendous force to the footers and connectors. If worst comes to worst, replace the post. It’s more cost and work in the short term, but will save you lots of time and worries later on.

Firming up the Joints

Various types of joints can be used when framing a pergola. However, because of how critical it is to get the joints right, not all of them are actually suitable.

Half lap joints between the posts and beams can really help to firm things up, especially if they are used in conjunction with waterproof wood glue or an epoxy suitable for outdoor use on wood. Miter and butt joints are generally not good ideas because it’s difficult to stabilize them and they don’t work well with bolts.

We also recommend using bolts to tie the frame together. Lag screws could also be a good choice. In both cases you can recess the head and washer, so don’t skimp on the size of the washer. The larger it is, the tighter you can tighten.

The key here is to make sure that the joints are firm and don’t wiggle. If you’ve notched the runners, make sure to check at both ends to make sure the width is just right before tightening it down.

Step 6: Adding the Runners

This is really the simplest task, even if it involves the most work. By this point you’ve got everything firmed up pretty well and it’s just a matter of measuring the spacing right, and screwing it down.

If you have notched the runners where they meet the beams, consider a little wood glue or epoxy in each joint. It can really firm up the structure, especially against twisting. In general though, the joints on the runners aren’t that important. Little in the way of stresses will affect the deck of the pergola.

Step 7: Staining and Sealing

Now that you’ve gotten the pergola constructed, it’s time to lock in your investment. Even though Redwood or Cedar will hold up pretty well outdoors, you can extend the life of your pergola immensely by protecting the wood. The right stain and sealer will highlight the natural beauty of the wood. Also it will help protect against UV rays bleaching out the beautiful reddish color of these two types of wood.

Step 8: Enjoying Your Pergola for Years to Come

Now that the work is done, sit back and enjoy the beautiful lines of your well-built pergola!

When shopping around for a pergola, it’s easy to get distracted by the beautiful looks and forget that often the price tag is terribly inflated. While pergolas have to be constructed to high standards to ensure that they are sturdy, the materials and work involved are not really that expensive. So why pay thousands for something you could build yourself (or have built) for a few hundred dollars?

One reason people often turn to high priced pergola kits or custom construction is the difficulty in laying out the design plans. While pergolas aren’t terribly complex structures, they do leave any mistakes completely exposed. There’s no covering them up with siding or a roof, now is there?

That doesn’t have to mean you are stuck with high priced retail pergolas though, because you can find well thought out and beautiful pergola plans rather inexpensively. One such offering is available here for only $19.97, and can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars when adding a pergola to your landscaping.

You can choose from a wide selection of dimensions from small 8′ x 10′ designs up to a large 16′ x 16′ plan to ensure you get a pergola that fits your yard perfectly. These are sturdy pergolas, with simple yet stylish looks that don’t require a lot of skill to build. With a grape vine or bougainvillea crawling over it, your new pergola will look as good as any high priced pergola kit without costing anywhere near as much. Get your Pergola Plans now!

In order to design a pergola to be sturdy and beautiful, you first need to know the types of pergola construction materials that you will be working with. The strengths and weaknesses of different materials, and especially in regards to the ratio of weight to that strength, can dramatically impact design decisions such as length of spans, thicknesses of structural components, and even the color schemes that will be available to choose from.

Pergolas can be built from a wide range of materials. Countless types of wood, various metals, and more modern man-made materials such as PVC and vinyl are all options. Before you ever pick your building plans you should at least narrow down the material you are going to use to a general category of construction materials so that you.

Another aspect of construction materials that needs to be taken into account is how they will fit in with the general look and feel of your home. While an industrial steel pergola may look very modern and appealing on it’s own, next to a more traditional house it would look very out of place indeed. While there are some tricks that you can utilize to blend in divergent materials, often it’s just easier to start with those which are visually compatible in the first place.

Wooden Pergola Design Considerations

Wood is perhaps the most common material used in pergola construction. Easy to work with, relatively inexpensive (for most types of lumber that is commonly utilized), and possessing a natural beauty, it’s not hard to see why that would be. Paradoxically, a wooden pergola brings a look that is both uniform due to the structural components, and flowing due to the grains of the wood.

When working with various types of wood though there is a huge variation in weight of the materials, suitability for outdoor use, and the look of the grain. Some types of wood like cherry or rosewood have very pronounced grains with wonderful coloring, whereas others such as teak have much more muted tones and difficult to distinguish grain. (Teak is a very popular choice still for outdoor structures and furniture due to it’s natural resistances to weathering and pests.

In general, because of relatively low strength to weight ratios, wood pergolas end up more stocky than their metal counterparts. This can mean that some styles of pergolas just aren’t suited for wooden construction, especially those which incorporate wide spans with lithe beams and posts. Often though, the type of look one would want with wooden components is easily achievable, as the “natural” look tends to be more substantial.

Using Metal In Pergola Designs

The use of metal structural elements in pergola designs have really opened up a lot of possibilities as far as design features are concerned. That “opened up” is literal in fact, as the types of pergolas that can be constructed by metal can be far more svelte and open than what can be achieved with wood. Beams can be smaller and/or extend further over spans, while posts and even slats can be much smaller dimensions without losing their strength and rigidity.

The main drawback with metal is how to incorporate it into more traditional designs without the look of the material causing dissonance with the style. In some cases, such as with wrought iron, the look actually goes well with more classical or traditional styles. Of course wrought iron isn’t a lightweight material like aluminum or steel, and so will necessarily result in a much more bulky structure.

Classic Design with Stone or Concrete Pergolas

The first pergolas were probably nothing more than some wooden poles extending from the eves of roofs, but the ones that exist from antiquity certainly had to be made of more substantial materials. This is perhaps why when we think of pergolas from Ancient Greek or Roman times, we tend to picture massive stone or concrete columns, arches, and a general sense of solidity.

Stone is a very expensive material to build with in most cases, and very difficult to work with as well due to the weight. With concrete though the difficulty of building large structures is drastically reduced. However, you may end up using more steel in a concrete pergola post than you would in a steel one, due to all the reinforcement necessary!

Often the slats or runners on a pergola of this sort will be made of metal or wood though. It’s only for the posts and beams that stone and cement make much sense. The thickness of the runners would have to be rather substantial to span much more than a couple feet.

Modern Materials for Pergola Construction

More recently man-made materials have become popular for building outdoor structures such as pergolas. Due to very high strength to weight ratios, along with resistance to the elements, uPVC and vinyl pergolas are often available in kit form from local hardware stores and home centers.

Using Varied Materials for their Strengths

When designing a pergola, bear in mind that using the same materials for all components isn’t necessary. Dramatic and beautiful looks can be achieved by contrasting different materials with one another, or by utilizing the suitability of one material for some structural components, and using another for decorative elements. In this author’s opinion, not much can beat the look of wrought iron posts and beams, decked with a rich, dark hardwood for the slats above.

Understanding the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various types of components can help you to visualize and design a truly unique and gorgeous pergola that will be as sturdy as it is beautiful.