DIY Pergola

Hi there fans !!! Sorry for the long delay in posts but had to finish some out door projects before the Fall weather kicks in.

Just a little history on this project. When we moved into this house there was a canopy on the deck but no cover. And as we all know the designs change quickly. We found a cover that almost worked and with some slight modification we made it work.

Our mistake was to leave it up during fall and winter. A long story short is we got some heavy snow fall and it bent the metal braces for the cover.

We had to trash the cover and remove the roof supports for the canopy.  We were left with just a basic frame.

So rather than take it apart and get something to  replace it, we just decided to incorporate a pergola idea.

 

We began with getting 8 12 foot 1×4’s. And stain them Fruitwood.. Which by the way is getting hard to find in a gel.

Here are the 1×4’s notched 1.5in to fit over the metal cross bar.  I fit each one as i went to make sure the depth was correct.

 

Different angle. But notice i left 12 inches on each side for the overhang as effect.

Here i began to block in between each 1×4, to cover the top metal bar making it look more like a true Pergola. And giving strength to all the boards.

I blocked in on both sides of the outside area.

This is a better view of what i’m doing to the outer perimeter. One it adds strength but also hides the metal from view.

On this over view you can see that i staggered the blocks in the middle of the  Pergola, strengthening the whole build.

And i began to attach the top using a 1×2 as a spacer for the 1×4’s as the top.

A couple of different angles of the finished project.