Pergolas

We’ve a couple, this one on the back of the house which I put up to support the wisteria we bought about twenty years ago. For any who may have the suspicion that I think I’m a bit of a smart a*** I’m always willing to own to things that go wrong. This is the wisteria which died last year. I had my suspicions about it as it didn’t produce any “jimpys” as we call them, the irritating side shoots that can grow six inches over night. Neither was it short of water. On our other wisterias the removal of these side shoots are constant chore through the summer, even this late in the year.



As with all my constructions, it’s soft wood with the good old Dulux Woodsheen applied every few years and it shows little sign of rot. The front support beam is doubled up with the two 4” X 4” support posts bolted in between.
I made it double at the front as it’s sixteen feet long and there are only two posts. It hasn’t bent an inch in all this time. It will easily take my weight if I need to get on the flat roof.
The base of the posts sit on a half brick bolted onto the patio surface. This is covered in a dyed cement render, rounded and shaped and keeps the base of the posts dry.




The new plant is starting to grow across the top. We’ve also a new jasmine climbing up one of the dead wisteria trunks.
I always remove these wisteria side shoots as they appear, as for the few who might be unaware, these plants are easy to train and their progress can be accelerated if unwanted growth is regularly removed. I always use the analogy of a hosepipe, if you’ve “leaks in it” then there won’t be much happening at the front end.



This is the wisteria for which I had to replace the pergola, as the old one wasn’t going “to see me out.”



The new one I built last year is far more substantial. I had to support the wisteria on frames made of 3” X 2” whilst I cut down the old one and built the new one. It was a bit difficult threading these 16’ beams in on my own. I also had to design and make new brackets to accommodate the garage guttering.

 

"The base of the posts sit on a half brick bolted onto the patio surface. This is covered in a dyed cement render, rounded and shaped and keeps the base of the post dry."

Any chance of a close-up photo so I can see how you've done that? I'm about to embark on mine (Thread about my proposed Pergola, and in particular anchoring the feet, is here All opinions gratefully received )

I like the oriental-style panels at the bottom of your pergola (4th photo). Nice touch

 

No probs, I'll take a photo tomorrow when I'm in the garden. I've been wondering what to put in the brick circle in which our almond tree stands. We tried cyclamen but they didn't look right
I bought three new miniature rhodos today "Snipe" a delicate shade of pink (a "final flurry" before my hip operation next week). My intention is for them to totally fill this area over time. They are evergreen so they'll look good all year round and shouldn't get in the way of the mower.



The panels are the same as these, the rails of the tea house. I copied them from an old photograph in a 1920s book of garden architecture from the Victorian period I found in Manchester Central reference library, I had to draw them on some graph paper as they don't let you take those books out but changed them a bit to fit the space, the poolside ones are more elongated and I cut them out of plywood with a jigsaw. They don't look too bad...from a distance.



I rebuilt the poolside rail of the pergola, when I changed the rest of it last year, the panels still fit into their original frame.
The hand rail and bottom two rails in which the panels sit are rails usually used for balustrades to stop people falling off garden decking.
There's about a 2 inch groove in the underside to facilitate the fitting of posts. The bottom rail I turned over, so the panel surround frame could fit in it and the middle rail went the correct way round on top. The pergola panels are just thin plywood. The ones in the tea house rail are in half-inch marine ply.
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Here you go Kristen

Here’s a photo of the “foot” of my pergola post as promised.




This is how I built it.

“For those who don’t want to know the score….”

As I’ve mentioned before, all my constructions are of cheap unplaned soft wood from a timber yard. Which I planed down and sanded, rounding the edges. Obviously, hardwood should be the material to use, but it is horrendously expensive now and it ain’t really “hard” wood any more. If you can push your thumbnail into it, it isn’t "proper" hard wood. Most of the stuff described as hardwood in timber yards will fail this test. I have two short steel hand rails, one outside the kitchen door and one outside the French windows at the side of the steps in case my wife needs them to get in and out. They have 4" thick recycled Honduras mahogany tops and believe me that’s really hard.

There used to be a saying in the business twenty years ago; “You can get £10’s worth of timber under one arm.” Make that £50 now.

I always select my own timber at the local wood yard. I threaten them that if I get any substitutes of bent wood when it arrives, it’ll go straight back. (A lot of wood they buy comes in bent or goes bent after they’ve had it a while and they have to dump it on someone). It's best to wait until there's been a week of fine weather before selecting timber which is being stored outside.

My projects rely on the “Woodsheen’s” plastic membrane to stop the rot. It ain’t cheap, nearly forty quid for five litres now.
I built the 16’ x 5’ frame and painted the side of the beam which would be against the house with clear Cuprinol.
I stood both posts in a bucket with about 2” of Cuprinol in the bottom and left them over night. I then did the other ends the following night.
I painted the area of the posts and frame where they would meet with Cuprinol.
I calculated where the feet would go using higher mathematics.. Actually youngest son and I propped it up, checked the levels and uprights (I’d worked out how much longer the right hand leg needed to be, because of the fall I’d made in the patio to get it to self-drain and we then moved the posts six inches to one side while I screwed the half bricks to the patio in the position I'd marked.
We then took it down while I screwed two “L shaped” brackets to the bottom of both feet. One either side and later drilled the bricks and secured the brackets.
We put it back up again, sitting on the half-bricks and I then fixed the back beam to the wall of the house. I used frame fixings. For those unaware, these are brilliant. They are like a very long screw (they come in different lengths) with a plastic sleeve. You drill into a wall through the pre-drilled hole in the wood with the “right” masonry bit. You then remove the screw from the sleeve and push the sleeve all the way into the hole so the end of the dleeve sits nicely in the counter-sunk hole in the wood. You then push the screw into the sleeve as far as it will go and then just hammer it home. Job done! You can if need be unscrew these fixings.
I screwed the cross-pieces onto the beams making sure the heads of the screws were well down and then covered each head with a blob of brown frame sealant.
The bottom of the posts are only about six inches below the top of the render. Each time I re-paint. I make sure that I get it to trickle down between the post and the render which always shrinks a bit when it dries.
It has lasted over 20 years.

That little retaining wall has blocks designed to have a capping stone as the tops aren't finished. I just applied a thin render of dyed mortar shaping it to a slight curve which hides the brick joints, I finished it by brushing it while it was still wet to achieve a smooth effect.

That little bed contains a young wisteria an established jasmine, some new heathers and some new stocks "ice cakes."
The idea is to provide a pleasant scent for most of the summer.




Another small tip for building oriental style projects.

As you can see, my tea house was entirely constructed, using traditional pin joints.






As Ricky Tomlinson would say; “My a*** it was.”)

All the joints are screwed and glued. With each screw-hole I followed it with a bigger drill bit to a depth of about an inch. Then screwed up the joint. I then used slightly over-size dowling pegs I’d made with rounded ends, put in a bit of glue and hammered them home.
“Simples!”

 

Many thanks for that. My project start is imminent!

 

Hi Doghouse. Wow! You certainly take on some projects -my your garden looks amazing. I have a stupid wisteria that has never flowered. They are gorgeous when in full bloom.
Your posts are so interesting to read :thumb:

 

Thanks for your kind words.

A word on wisterias. I'm always suspicious of wisterias when buying them.
It's adviseable only to buy one when it is in bloom. We've bought them in the past and they've never flowered, I believe if they have been grown from seed this can occur.
The way to get them to bloom is to cut the side shoots back to either two or four buds in January. We do ours now in very early January due to global warming.
In this way you should get the blooms before the leaves even start to come out.

 

Thanks for that, the "fakery" extends to the three nine window pane doors which are really only three panes per door with added hardwood strips glued to the plastic. As are the two side windows, just one pane each made into nine pane with added strips.



There's no windows on the right hand side, (no point, the fence is only two feet away), though the finish is as good as the left. The rear is just finished plain wood, again a couple of feet from the rear fence.
The molded "plinth" is just Victorian style skirting boards screwed to the base and they are clear of the ground. After all it's just a glorified shed.

I wanted to create an illusion which could be seen from our lounge.

I can light it up the whole garden from a bank of 4 switches in the lounge,

One turns on the 4 side lights, 2 on the side of the garage, one on the front of the shed and one on the side of the tea house and a light inside the tea house which can be seen through the opaque windows.

Another controls the two spots on the pergola over the pool.

Another the two sets of fairy lights on the pool pergola and the eaves of the tea house and the lanterns in the left hand border.

Another turns on the light on the wall next to the french windows.

It can be like "Blackpool illuminations" if I have them all on at the same time.