Continued from: How to Install a DIY Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Setting the Posts & Beams 6/12 We will put a bolt through once all four corners are done then we will be ready to lay up and get all the posts leveled. We then attach some temporary 2 x 4’s attached to the upper beam and we have it all lined up as in this example pictured right. The attached 2 x 4’s are only temporary from the upper beam on down and it helps to get it all lined up. Make sure all the posts are plumb, square and level. With that leveled we just check out the bottom. Continue to: How to Install a DIY Timber Framed Pergola Kit; Other Notes 12/12 How to Install a Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Time Lapse Installation 1/12 How to Install a Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Getting Started 2/12 How to [...]

Continued from: How to Install a DIY Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Prep for Posts 5/12 You can see now the post is just sitting over the knife plate itself and then you don’t see the knife plate. Here you can see the final post going up. We have made sure everything is drilled and ready to go and it just drops right over the knife plate. We then lift the post up, over and they just lock down in with the dovetail. Mouseover the above illustration to see Western Timber Frame's The Dovetail Difference™ slide down for easy assembly. This 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 it hit over 11,000 lbs.!!! Once your posts and beam end extensions are up just take a rubber mallet and [...]

Continued from: DIY Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Setting Roof Rafters & Shade Planks 9/12 Here once the roof is on we do a little bit of the touch up. And for any of the nicks, any of the markings that happen during installation that might need some additional touch up. Just keep in mind that it is normal if it ends up taking forty-five minutes to an an hour and a half to just walk through and touch up to make it nice and neat again. We have it touched up, stained everything is completed. You can walk underneath it and notice that you do not see any lags, bolts, hangers, hardware in the roof. Everything is done from above. You have got that beautiful wood to wood connection on all pieces. You can see how tight these joints are with the dovetail. As the wood expands and contracts since [...]

Continued from: How to Install a DIY Timber Framed Pergola Kit; Setting the Knee Braces 8/12 Once we get the rafters set, right now they are just laying down, and we want to make sure that you have got the lay out. So you have the layouts on the end here. And then we have made a mark here, to where is slides over flush to this beam. On this one here we are going fourteen inches past, yours may be twelve. We’ve just got a layout mark we’ve got there and then it sits right down in this notch and then we just do two toe nail screws in. That’s going to hold the bottom. See there it is sitting down in that notch layout. The layout notch is going to help reduce the bottom of it from twisting out. And then the top we are going to have [...]

Continued from: How to Install a DIY Timber Frame Pergola Kit; Knife Plate Layout 4/12 Now we have got our posts laid out here and out map complete. We’ve drawn up here is the house. The critical post is number 4 because it’s got power drilled through it. So that is one we want to watch. So we have numbered them, one, two, three, four. This here was the highest post. And so we started with that one and you can see that we just minus an eighth off of each additional post. The 42 7/8 is considered 0. Then we just minus 1/8th per post around. We have already marked out our posts here. We have come down and then one is going to be set at nine feet. And then the next post, too, we will just minus an 1/8th off of it. You can see a faint [...]