The Pergola - Part One

It has been forever since my last blog post but a lot has changed at Casa de Sheldon.  This will be the first part of a two part post about the new side patio I have built.  The first part will cover the building of my new pergola and then the second part will cover the building of the patio.  If you remember from some previous posts about the fireplace, this area of my yard used to house old cars before I owned the home and was infested with weeds. 

After clearing out the weeds and building the fireplace, it was time to build a pergola.  Just to match everything else I have done to this point, I decided to go way over the top on the pergola.  I designed the pergola to have a lot of architectural elements but to also match the front of my house so it would all tie together.

The first step was to install the main support posts.  The pergola was designed to be 16 feet by 16 feet so there needed to be quite a bit of support.  This involved using eight 4” x 4” posts that are 12 feet long.  All the posts were painted beforehand so it would also be faster to assemble.  I dug all four holes about 30 inches deep and then pre-assembled the posts in pairs so they would be straight when set in the concrete.  Once the posts were in the holes, they were set with concrete and made perfectly level.  You will see in the picture below that the paint did not go all the way to the bottom; this is because rock will go at the base of the columns and cover the wood.  The posts mimic the front of the house as well.

After a week to make sure the concrete was cured (and because I had work) my brother and I started on the top part of the pergola.  I really did not want to paint the wood above my head so I pre-painted all the wood in my garage.  This pergola has over 550 linear feet of lumber so it took up my entire garage.  Although many pergolas are made with cedar which has a rough texture, I wanted a cleaner design so I used pre-treated exterior #1 grade douglas fir.  I patched a few of the knots in the wood and then coated them with a sold stain so the grain of the wood could still be visible.  I used the stain that I used for the arbor above my garage (in a previous post) that I originally created by mixing five stains together until I found the perfect color.   In the picture below you will see about half of the lumber which has been stained.

All of the lumber is 16 feet in length and quite heavy.  The main supports of the arbor on each side are two 2x10 pieces bolted into the main support beams.  My brother and I hung them with screws temporarily while we made sure all measurements were correct and the wood was level.  There is a slight slope to this area for drainage but we wanted to make sure the arbor was straight otherwise it would look weird with the house.  Once Level, we went back and bolted the main supports to the support beams.  After everything is installed, there will be almost 1,000 pounds of lumber resting on the main supports.   In the below picture you can see my brother putting in the last of the bolts to get ready for the next level of lumber.

We also added 2x8 side supports and additional 2x6 center beams to help with the strength.

The next step was to add the cross beams which are 2x6 pieces of lumber.  The way the main supports were built allowed me to have a spacer 2x4 for me to screw through.  It is hard for me to explain, so please see the diagram below. 

I screwed long screws from below through the 2x4 and then up into the 2x6.  This not only allows me to hide the screws, but also allows a better metal connection to keep the wood from warping.  Below you can see all the top braces installed.  You can also see in the pictures that I angled the ends of the lumber to give it a little better design. 

The last step was to add another layer of 2x4 pieces of wood to connect the 2x6 boards together.  This also keeps the wood from warping while adding support.  Below is a picture taken from the top of the pergola. 

Every point where wood crosses over another piece of wood has either been screwed or nailed from above and cannot be seen from below.  On the entire pergola, only the main bolts can be seen and all other fasteners are hidden.  Here is another picture with the rest of the beams installed. 

Finally we added PVC molding across the top of the posts to mimic the columns on the front of the house.  We use PVC because it will not warp and for the details you want the seams to line perfectly.  It is a little more expensive, but it saves you a lot of trouble in the long run.  This product is installed the same way as wood with nails, screws, and caulking and can be painted just like wood.  Here are just a few more cool pictures.

One of my other reasons why I left an opening between the main support beams was so that I could add LED lighting.  I really wanted to have lighting that was always on so I decided upon tying these lights into my low voltage landscape lighting.  I found some LED lights that are dimmable on e-bay for $2 each that run off 12 volt AC or DC voltage.  I also bought a DC dimming module off e-bay for $4.  Since my landscape lighting runs off AC current, I needed to convert it to DC to run my lights.  I had some bridge rectifiers sitting around (yes I do keep those around) so I soldered one into a piece of wire and connected it from my dimmer to my landscape lighting wire that I have running around the house.  This makes no difference to the rest of the lighting because the rectifier is just on the wire leading to the pergola. Below is a waterproof box that I have inserted into one of the stone columns that allows me to dim the lights.  

To make the LEDs look really nice with the pergola, I purchased the lights with a polished aluminum ring so it looked like they were already in a light fixture.  I took a 2x4 that was pre-stained and laid out where the lights should go.  I then used a 2” hole saw to bore a hole in the lumber that would make a tight pressure fit with the light bulb and I could still remove them later if needed.  

I used low voltage landscape wire to run between the lights and connected the wire to G4 bases so the lights could plug into them.  The entire cost of the lighting, wiring, and dimmer was about $50.   I then place the piece of wood in the opening and attached with nails.  I filled the holes and touched up the stain so you cannot even tell that nails were used. 

After linking up the wiring and attaching the dimmer everything turned out great.  It was an easy project but really took the pergola to the next level; not to mention created much more of a living room feeling to the patio.  Below you can see the lights on at night but they can be dimmed to a low level or turned all the way up making a very bright area.  I will add a light fixture in the center of the pergola at a later point but it will also run off the low voltage landscape lighting system. 

Well that is all for part one.  I have the rest of the patio in and most of the stone work completed so I will leave you with a sneak peek at part two of the pergola post.