Pergola over deck

[Andy Mac]

Hi there,
Just thought I'd share a couple of photos of a job I've been busy with at home over the last 4 weekends- a pergola and railing.
The concrete deck was on the house when we bought it: exposed and hot, high and not very safe for little 'uns, an obviously unfinished job. It had two sets of steps coming off it, wider at the bottom, with no banisters, and a mate almost snapped his leg one night during a State of Origin!:eek:
Anyway, I recently scored a near new pergola for $200 if I took it down and transport etc, and it was a kit job from Stratco or Clearspan or similar. It just happened that it fitted almost exactly over the deck with those angled corners, only 1m short.
So the first photo is from the driveway, and you can make out a barren area on the right where one set of steps were. Rocks indicate a new garden bed.
The railing and the 2 end uprights are steel, although the original posts were aluminium. I made the railing so they screwed to the posts with teck screws, using welded cleats at the ends. The timber is cheap palings ($2.10 per 1.8m) which I docked in half and put through the thicknesser, then hand planed the arris'es all round. Timber is mixed hardwood mostly spotted gum, which I coated with Cabot's decking oil before fixing them, and they've come up well.

Cheers,

[Andy Mac]

Here's a shot from under the pergola looking NNW (towards the workshop). There is still a bit of sun sneaking under but when full summer comes it should be better ...certainly an improvement on the original deck!
Note on top of the steel railing where the timber slats are screwed, I will cap it all around with wider timber, to finish it off and act as a shelf/bar.
I really struggle to work on this scale, especially when things aren't plumb to begin with! The concrete slab, being 2 pours, slopes differently; the facia isn't plumb with the walls, and one section isn't parallel with the other, and the facia isn't square with the concrete pad!!. So there are a few problems which meant some pretty unprofessional finishing...
Now to get into the garden, and fix a few other things that have fallen over.

Cheers,

[Bleedin Thumb]

Andy that looks like a great place to sit and have a nice coldie.

[Dusty]

Andy that looks like a great place to sit and have a nice coldie.

Spot on, just what I was thinking.

The aspect looks awesome Andy. Good work, you must be pretty chuffed with yourself and rightly so.

Dusty.

[Bluegum]

Great job Andy,

Really nice job. It compliments the look of your home extremely well mate.

[pawnhead]

Great looking pergola, and you saved a heap of money. Those cheap palings look good.
I can't notice any downpipe, unless it's tucked around the corner there.

[JDarvall]

Looks good Andy.

I've found fence palings good in that way too. Cheap. A quick plane up and they look fine eh.