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Stronger Pergola Anchor: NO Soil Removal NO Concrete Dry Time

By |2019-02-27T09:53:46-07:00February 27th, 2019|Pergola Kits, Technical|

Western Timber Frame® offers an exclusive anchoring solution for arbors, trellises, pavilions, pergolas, gazebos, decks, gates, bridges and more. This simple and rapid installation is done without excavating. No damage to landscape or structures Perfectly leveled structure No delays between the end of the installation and the beginning of works Ideal for restricted spaces Possible no matter the season A removable and reusable system Western Timber Frame® has teamed with GoliathTech® to bring you the best for a fast, easy and stronger structure. Harnessing the Power of Two Great Ideas! INSTALLATION IN HOURS USING SMALL EQUIPMENT No Concrete Delays or Dry Time Removable and Reusable No Blocks or Strapping [...]

What to Expect: Stain Touch-Up After Your ShadeScape™ Install

By |2018-08-24T20:35:49-06:00August 22nd, 2018|Technical|

A Design Manager spearheads a project, making sure your preferred outdoor living needs are met, that it is aesthetically pleasing, structurally sound, and within your budget and time constraints. Knowing what to expect after your Arbor, Cabana, Gazebo, Pavilion, Pergola, Ramada or Trellis is installed can benefit you in the completion of your ShadeScape™ Kit. The final step to completion is the stain touch-up.  Through every stage from design to finish, Western Timber Frame™ offers a Design Manager and a dedicated support center that holds themselves to the highest standards to ensure that your ShadeScape™ experience will be enjoyable and stress-free. Your post-experience reflection is important to us and how you viewed your project in each step to completion. Whether your structure is simple or complex, the touch-up process should be easy and straightforward from start to finish. No touch-up should take [...]

Aluminum, Metal, Timber Frame, Vinyl or Wood Pergola Kit

By |2020-07-09T08:10:08-06:00June 29th, 2016|Technical|

Western Timber Frame™ is often asked about weathering, maintenance and material comparison on our timber frame ShadeScape® pergola, arbor, gazebo and pavilion kits. Western Timber Frame™ offers a 25 year warranty on our 8000, 10,000 and 12,000 Series ShadeScape® heavy rough-sawn timber frame DIY pergola kits and a 15 year warranty on the 6000 Series ShadeScape® heavy rough-sawn timber frame kits. Check out the Western Timber Frame™ website to view the differences between the 6000 ShadeScape® Series and and the Oversized ShadeScape® Series heavy timber kits. However, a warranty is only as good as the manufacturer. Western Timber Frame™ has been working with timber for over 30 years. It is their passion. They back up their products, as testament to our across the board 5 star reviews on all 3rd party review platforms from Google, to Houzz. Conventional timber pergola [...]

What Can Be Done to Prevent Checking in Over Sized Timbers?

By |2017-05-24T14:03:20-06:00January 13th, 2016|Technical|

This is a question we get at times. The answer to the question? "Nothing. This is a good thing." It is a natural characteristic of wood to display checking. Checking of wood is a lengthwise separation of the wood as a result of seasoning that usually extends across and through the rings of annual growth, often called "seasoning checks". Wood dries from the surface to the center. As the wood begins to dry, the outer layers dry faster than the inner core it begins to shrink in the radial and tangential directions of the wood.  In every species of wood, a logs shrinkage occurs more in a radial and tangential direction than it does in he longitudinal direction. Checking in wood can occur in green or dried lumber, logs and final products during the drying process, storage, manufacturing and end use. Many factors in the wood such as the wood [...]

What Outdoor Structure Are You Looking For?

By |2017-05-22T11:55:58-06:00January 4th, 2016|Pergola Kits, Technical, Timber Arbors, Timber Pergolas|

I have customers call in or email on a regular basis that are looking for some type of outdoor structure but there seems to be a lot of confusion about what these structures are called. They say they want an Arbor and after asking a few questions I see they want a Pergola or they ask about a Gazebo and I find what they really mean is a Pavilion. Even in the articles written on outdoor living I see many different names for the same structure types. This is not too surprising to me since there are so many outdoor structure names. For example there are Pergolas, Arbors, Awnings, Trellises, Pavilions and Gazebos. This is my effort to try to get us on the same page. I will start on the smaller structures and work my way up to the larger. An awning is [...]

The 4 “Must Haves” to Price a Pergola or Pavilion Kit

By |2017-05-22T11:56:49-06:00December 30th, 2015|Technical|

Need a quick quote for an amazing timber frame pergola, gazebo, pavilion, arbor, pool house or other timber frame structure? Hi, I am Mark, the production manager here at Western Timber Frame™. I would like to show how you can get an even faster answer when you call for pricing. I have customers that call everyday just looking for a price for their pergola or pavilion project. I'll start asking questions about what they are looking for and sometimes they say, "Just give me a price." There is a lot of information I need in order to give that price and I like to explain it this way: If you were in the market to purchase a vehicle and you called a car dealer to know the price of a vehicle they would need to know what exactly you were looking for and how you were going to use your [...]

How to Cosmetically Repair Extreme Checking in Heavy Timber

By |2017-05-23T08:50:24-06:00October 28th, 2015|Technical, Timber and Wood|

TIMBER PERGOLA, PAVILIONS, TRELLISES AND ARBORS Hi, I am Mark with Western Timber Frame™. Today, we are going to talk about how to patch extreme checking in timbers when that occurs. This is just a cosmetic fix for checking, if it is an extreme case. When you have checking it can occur over the first year of having your timber product. If that happens you will want to wait for at least a year before applying this technique. The reason why is that when timbers check they dry faster on the outside than they do on the inside and they open up and crack. That is the natural process of timber. As it dries the rest of the way through the center the gap can actually close back up a little [...]

7 Questions to Ask Before Getting A Quote on a Pergola Kit

By |2017-05-23T12:41:38-06:00September 21st, 2015|Pergola Kits, Technical, Timber Pergolas|

Often when a client says they would like a 14' x 16' DIY pergola kit for their patio they are usually talking about where the posts will sit on the patio, which would be the footprint size. A pergola is a permanent outdoor structure and as a designer we often have pergolas with varying roof over hangs depending on what they want to accomplish. For example, a pergola going in next to a pool might have the roof close to the edge of the pool but move the posts back to keep them out of the walkway around the pool. This makes the roof overhang bigger on one side of the pergola and that is something we do all the time but for this reason we price the pergolas by the roof size and not the post footprint. Now that [...]

Splitting up, Cracking down: Understanding “Checking”

By |2017-05-23T12:56:41-06:00August 17th, 2015|Technical, Timber and Wood|

Question: Is cracking down or splitting up like this normal? I know this might seem extreme to you if you are not familiar with real wood products. This is why we recommend that you re-stain your pergola within the 1st year so that the wood has time to acclimate to the climate and then stain all the cracks. This is so common in timbers that there is a term for it called “Checking” which can seem to have the appearance of a split or a crack. Checking is a more common trait in Cedar timbers. A few of our clients still prefer Cedar especially in a Natural finish for its inherent beauty with knots. Here are pictures of checking from some of the displays in the show room at Western Timber Frame to show how common this is. Timber is an organic, natural product and “checking” is to [...]

Low Cost, Easy Upkeep Pergola: Aluminum Reinforced Vinyl vs Timber Frame

By |2018-06-14T15:55:59-06:00August 3rd, 2015|Technical, Timber and Wood|

[/fusion_builder_column] We use an innovative massive mortised dovetail joint connection system we call The Dovetail Difference™ throughout our timber construction process, creating very strong rigid joints. On the test pictured above it didn’t give until over 11,000 lbs.! We are often asked about weathering or maintenance on our timber frame pergola, arbor, gazebo and pavilion kits. People want something that easy and stress-free; which is why some have been attracted to vinyl pergolas advertising as a "low cost", "low maintenance" product. Here I will show the veritable costs and upkeep of an aluminum reinforced vinyl pergola kit compared to a solid wood, timber frame pergola kit, a permanent outdoor shade structure from Western Timber Frame™. Our timber frame kits we ship out daily, throughout North America range from 2,500 to 11,000 lbs. (and often larger on commercial or large custom projects). We [...]

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