Once all the boards had been sawn, we started putting the first ones up. We used z-shaped deck hangers on the posts to support these first beams and keep them level while we centered them with the same amount sticking out past the posts at both ends. Once they were centered, we tacked them in place with 16p nails.
With the outside boards nailed in place, we drilled a guide hole through the posts. Once we got through, we held up the inside boards and marked them with the drill also. Then we used another drill with a 5/8" spade bit to widen all the holes to fit the bolts.
Every aspect of putting up these (very heavy) boards was complicated by our need for ladders. Here Dave, Pete & Dan work together to bolt the second inside board into place.
The second layer of rafters rest on top across the first layer, and to complicate matters they are notched to fit. This requires lifting the boards into place, marking them, lifiting them down, cutting the notches, and then lifiting them back into place again. I guess that probably explains why my torso muscles are all so sore today!
We called it a day at this point, with three of the end sets done & bolted into place. This is a lot of work to build, but I am really pleased with the results. I love the scale of it, it doesn't look like a regular "backyard" pergola, it looks like something you might see at a public park or a resort - it's heavy duty!
Cary was pleased to note that it holds his weight just fine. This is good, since I'm sure it will be very popular with local hairless monkeys, at least until the vines grow over it.Hopefully we'll find some time mid-week to continue working on this project, but if not I'm sure we'll finish building it next weekend, and then move on to putting down some pavers of some as-yet-undetermined kind for the floor of it. The fun just never stops around here!
8 comments:
nice pic of you, addie! very curvy!
Yeah, Cary insisted that that one go on the blog... :)
That looks like some fine handywork. I'm so impressed with all the work you've gotten done in just the past couple months!
I wonder how many local hairless monkeys could be supported by this structure? What if you add in some semi-local hairless monkeys? What if the hairless monkeys are additionally loaded by 12 oz. bottles of liquid with a density similar to that of water? What if the additionally loaded hairless monkeys are shifting their weight from one side of the structure to the other in an erratic manner?
We will have to conduct rigorous experiments to investigate this matter...
I'm sure this pergola is strong enough to hold up more hairless mokeys than we could possibly fit on it. I don't care how many 12 oz bottles each monkey holds. The real question is how many 12 oz bottles can each monkey have without falling off of his own accord? I'm sure time will tell.
What if the local and semi-local hairless monkeys are allowed to bundle their 12 oz bottles into packages or boxes? They could each hold a lot more that way. We'll have to run the expiriment a few different ways, to determine the optimum set up, I guess.
Of course, to be statistically viable you'll have to run multiple relpications of each scenario
Good think I know all you scientific types, otherwise we might never solve this mystery! I'll be sure to pick up some clipboards before our next bbq, so we can keep track of all our data in style.
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