My favorite thing about this attached to house pergola plan is that you don't have to be a carpenter to build it. You won't need expensive tools or complicated joinery to learn how to bring all the pieces together. A circular saw, cordless drill, and jigsaw are enough to get the job done.
Pergola Plans - PlansNOW.com
If you can follow this pergola plan down to the last detail, you'll certainly have a well-made addition to your house. I'm all for focusing on small details, but I wonder if most builders of pergola plans might think this plan is a little over the top for what they're trying to accomplish.
For example, I'd imagine that most builders would simply mount the corner posts flush against the side of a house, and maybe caulk the gaps that the lap siding would leave exposed. However, in this pergoal plan, the designer suggests that you cut out notches along the posts so they'll have a flush fit against the lap siding. That means you'll have to first scribe the lap siding pattern on to each post and then figure out a way to cut the notches out.
PlansNOW's solution to this problem is to get out your circular saw and make alternating cuts - one deep, one shallow - to define the top and bottom edge of the notch (whew). Then get out a chisel and a handsaw to carefully remove the notched areas. Wow. That's a lot of work, but I suppose if you're inclined to build something with these kinds of fine details, this would be the way to do it. The fact of the matter is, this kind of joinery is probably better suited to something you would do in a woodworking shop using a router and maybe a drill press. But then this is supposed to be one of those outdoor projects that I suppose necessitates the use of outdoor tools. The beams are a little easier to get flush to the siding. That's because the 2x6s are thin enough that you can use a jig saw to cut the pattern.
The plan also calls for lap joints in the beams, which can be a little tricky because the a 4x4s are a fairly bulky piece of wood. You can do it though, using a circular to cut a series of passes across the end of the beam (about 25 or so), and then chipping away the scored wood with a chisel. More work.
At this point in the pergola plan, you could probably just fit everything together and be happy enough with a simple pergola with square-ended rafters. If that doesn't make you happy, then you can certainly continue on with the plan and make some more decorative-looking rafters. That means getting out more tools, though, like a router, to get some decent looking arches and patterns to show on the ends of the rafters.
Overall, this is a very nice design for a simple-looking pergola that's not so simple to build. If you're the type that likes a challenge, regardless of what you're trying to build, you'll like the tricks and turns in this plan. And of course, all this will make much more sense to you if you already have a woodworking background. For everyone else, this pergola plan still offers some good, basic know-how for approaching the task of building a pergola.
Pergola Plans - Wood Magazine
It may not be the easiest pergola plan you can find, but the Build-to-Suit pergola from Wood magazine is one of the most attractive I seen. The sweeping arches and notched joinery in the girders set this project plan apart from much of what you'll find on the Web. And though it's probably cheaper to use treated pine, Wood magazine's suggestion to use cedar is probably a good one - especially if want this project to last.
This particular structure takes up a space approximately 9 x 12. However, like most pergola plans, you can modify the dimensions to fit your own space. Also, you can build it as a freestanding pergola - or attach it to an existing deck or patio. The basic steps for construciton start with raising the posts, then constructing the frames, then fitting the slotted girders together. The mere size of the lumber can be a little intimidating, but the overall construction is fairly simple. Everything can pretty much be cut using a portable circular saw and a crosscut guide. You can finish off some of the boards with a simple handsaw.
If you're building on an exisiting deck, use the steel post brackets (from your local home center) that are designed just for this purpose. You'll be mounting the brackets directly to the floor of your deck - one for each corner post of the pergola. What's nice about the brackets is that you can fine tune the position of each corner post befor tightening things down, which you'll likely do a few times before getting the corners perfectly square. Note: this pergola plan suggests that you attach wood blocking underneath your deck - directly below the location of your posts - to help support the beams when they go up.
Once the brackets are where you want them, you'll need some help to stand the girder assemblies up in the post bases. Make sure they're plumb and then secure them in place. After that, you can screw the bases to the posts. The rest of the pergola plan assembly is primarily about attaching the rafters to the end girders. This can all be done with a simple power hand drill and a variety of deck screws.
Like most of the pergola plans from Wood magazine, the instructions and illustrations in this pergola plan are large and easy to read. I also like how the drawings are on their own separate pages, which means I can separate them from the rest of the plan and carry with me only the instructions I need for a particular step of the pergola project.
Pergola Plans - Lowes
The thing I like most about these pergola plans is the simplicity. The plan shows that you can still have a very attractive structure without spending a lot of extra time and money for sweeping arches and decorative rafters. The square, blunt end of a 2x6 has a style all its own, and makes a perfectly fine rafter for most pergola designs.
I also like this plan include because of the different approach Lowes takes in mounting the 4x4 beams to an exisiting deck. Rather than use steel brackets mounted to the deck floor (like the Wood magazine pergola plan), Lowes suggests that you mount the beams to your underlying deck joists. This means you'll need to cut four different square holes in your deck floor to let the beams pass through. Then you'll attach the beams to the joists with carraige bolts.
At first I thought this approach might be more trouble than it's worth, considering that the steel post brackets are so convenient and easy to use. However, if your backyard gets hit occassionally with high winds (like a lot of yards do in new suburban housing developments) the extra support provided by your deck's floor joists could be exactly what you need to keep your pergola upright. Also, this might actually be easier to pull off than trying to mount an extra support board under the deck, as Wood suggests in their plan.
The tricky part in this mount-below-deck approach is making sure the four hole locations you lay out on your deck floor are perfectly square to each other (this is called the footprint). If they're not, your pergola won't be square, and none of boards from this point on will line up the way they need to line up. So you'll need to add a little extra care at this critical stage of the poject if you want everything to work.
Also keep in mind that your deck may not be perfectly square itself, so don't use the deck joists themselves to lay out all four corners of your pergola. However, do line up your first two posts along one joist in your deck. This will give you a snug fit for driving your first set of carraige bolts, as well as give you a starting point to lay out the position of the remaining two posts.
You'll need to find a way to locate post #3 at a perfect 90 degree angle to that line. The 3-4-5 rule is a a handy builder's trick for quickly finding that 90 degree angle. The rule demonstrates that a triangle measuring 3 x 4 x 5 will always yield a 90 degree angle. Here's how to use the 3-4-5 rule to set up the position of post #3 and #4.
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