CORNER POSTS. Your Pergola posts will actually be part of your deck railing structure. Just extend them up as high as you want the pergola (or as high as you can purchase them) We used wolmanized, of course.
We're not master woodworkers, just two people trying to save a buck. I hope these photographs will provide you with ideas. I picked up a book on decks, which had clear instructions on how to build the basic pergola. I tweaked it a bit with my own design to make it unique. To make the decorative ends on the grid top...I played with a few designs on paper. When I found something I liked, I drew it onto the wood and cut it with a jigsaw. I then filed the ends with a wood file and hit it with the palm sander. Make sure your boards are as straight as possible...and go big. Get the really sturdy wood b/c this pergola is HEAVY and you want it to stay up nice and straight.
Would love to know how you anchored it in the ground.. I can dig & pour concrete, but have purchased some "deck blocks", that are very heavy but just sit on top of the ground. I wonder if it would be top heavy, and maybe tip if it was just resting & braced in the blocks. Mine would be free standing, not attached to a deck floor or railings. Thanks for the picture of the corners, I can cut the notches now that I can see it.
ReplyDeleteHey there, we used concrete. Using a gas powered auger, we dug down 4', added rock, then the posts and concrete. Just kept checking for level. Because of the extreme weight, you really should use concrete. Our posts are actually part of our deck structure.
ReplyDeleteIn our area, we had to use concrete by code. We also added a matching swing and arbor.