Pergola 1
Before I launch into my most recent project to quickly let me begin with a little bit of background. My wife and I have owned a used bookstore for the past three years. We made the difficult decision about three weeks ago to close the doors for business. Once all the tears were shed and the dust had settled I looked around and saw 1×10 pine boards as far as the eye could see. The shelving in the bookstore was built from both pine and particle board material. All the shelves had been sealed with a tinted lacquer to give them a uniform look. The uprights were approximately 7′ long, while the shelves were about 4′ long. So, as the saying goes, when we were given lemons, we made lemonade.
My wife and I had just finished laying a 16′x20′ brick patio made from bricks salvaged from a house that was being demolished. We were able to haul away 2000 bricks and build the patio for less than $100. Pretty dang amazing! Well, with a new brick patio to relax on, we knew we also wanted to build a pergola over the top of it. I began pricing out the cost of 4×6 posts, 2×8 lumber, and 2×4 lumber, and quickly realized a pergola the size we needed was going to be out of our price range, and I would be dreaming about it and trying to figure out a way to swing it until I went insane! Then my wife had a brilliant idea: “If we built the patio on the cheap by reusing old bricks, why not build our pergola on the cheap by reusing old lumber, which we now had in huge quantities from the closing or our bookstore?” I answered with, “You are absolutely brilliant!”
So, before me was the task of resurfacing and gluing hundreds of pine boards into 4×8 and 2×8 material. I began with the main support by gluing up four at 3.5″x8″x9′ long. Not quite true 4×8 material, but I didn’t care. I then glued up eight beams at 2″x8″x12.5′ long. Each side would consist of four lengths, two lengths on either side of the posts, butted together, and bolted in the middle and on the ends, forming a massive 22′ long beam. I also glued up two 2″x8″x16′ beams to connect each long side.
All the beams were glued with either a polyurethane glue or Titebond 3. I used two types of glue because that is what I had laying around. I ended up using over a gallon of glue just to glue up the beams you see in the pictures below, and we are still not done! All surfaces were sealed with one coat of Sherwin Williams Deckscape finish. The supports were bolted to heavy duty metal braces which were set in concrete footings.
Hopefully in the next week or so, we will have all of the rest of the cross beams installed, along with some other vertical supports and lattice work. Maybe.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Nice work. I am always impressed with the way you improvise.
Looks great!