Wedding Pavilion that I'm building.

[EddieWalker]

Every now and then I get to build something kind of unique. This started out as one of those projects, and has evolved into something more. While I always come up with wild ideas to push a project, most of the time it's too expensive to actually do them. This is one of those rare times when they say do it. Make it as nice as possible. Make it something special.

This client owns a Bed & Breakfast. I'm the guy they call when they need something fixed or installed. Sometime over the summer, the wife got the idea that she could make money holding weddings there. They have ten acres, horses and a real nice house.

We spent months going over ideas, working on what they could afford, but that would sell itself. They wanted something that would improve the value of their place if they ever sold it, and be so nice that couples would want to pay them to get married there.

I ordered the materials the week before I started and had them staged where I wanted them. The first picture shows the location it will go with orange flags marking my corners. Then the PT 6x6 posts went into the ground. We considered using cedar, but the price for cedar was three times what pressure treated is. While staining will add to the cost of the pressure treated, it's still not even close in comparison.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

I bolted all my joists to my posts with 2 half inch carriage bolts per post. I only bolt or notch my posts and will never nail or screw to them in order to attach anything load bearing. This makes it very strong and I'll never have to worry about it failing. One of my big concerns with this project is that there could be a very large number of people on it at one time. With no way of controlling the numbers, it has to be strong enough to handle any sized crowd.

During the planning stage, I suggested to the clients that I could cut an inlaid into the deck to give it more appeal. I gave them about two dozen ideas to consider, and several sheets of paper with the deck drawn onto it to scale with the lumber in place. The husband spent several hours working on ideas before deciding on a compass symbol. His design was crazy complicated with all sorts of small details. I took it and redid it so that it was something that I could create that would last and still look nice. Basically, I simplified it.

During the framing of the deck, I added supports so that the inlaid would be strong. I didn't want any of it to span anything if I didn't have to, but there was a limit to what I could add to it. The picture shows most of the bracing, but by the time I had it installed, I pretty much doubled it.

Then I installed the decking. I went with PT 2x8's for extra strength, and a beafier look then 2x6's. I thought 2x10's would cup too much, and I didn't care for the way they looked. 2x8's just have a really nice look to them on decks. Everything on this is screwed together with 3 inch, coated, deck screws. I used three screws per joist, and the josts are on 16 inch centers. The deck has three sections. The two outside sections are 10x10, and the middle section is 16' wide and 14' deep. I bought 16 foot long boards, that I had to but up to each other in places. I cut the ends at 22 1/2 degrees to do this so I'd get a nice clean joint. I also lined up most of them so the ends were in the middle of the inlaid. That way, when I cut out the inlaid, I'd lose those ugly end pieces.

Eddie

 

[NSBound]

Nice setting, for sure! Do you have a drawing you can post to show us what it'll look like? I hope they plan to pave or put patio stones or interlock or something down on the ground around it, the bridal party will be wearing heels!

 

[EddieWalker]

The two outside sections will have an open roof, but with slats to create shade. The middle section will have a roof on it with exposed beams. I'm doing all of this by myself, so I have to plan what I'm doing. I'm not strong enough to lift the entire beam, but I can lift one end of it and work it up to where I need it. It's kind of slow, but for the few times I need help, I've been able to figure out ways to do it myself.

For the middle trusses, I screwed together three 2x10x16 for bottom. Then I cut and screwed together three 2x8's for the tops and three 2x8's for the middle support. All those pieces overlap each other, or slide into each other when assembled. The curved pieces are two 2x12's that I cut the curve into.

I cut and fit each part of the truss on the deck, then installed it one piece at a time. My guess is that they weigh over 400 pounds each, but the peices were light enought that I was able to handle them on my own.

I did have to use my scaffold. I tried to do the top pieces from my ladder, but it was they were too heavy for me.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Nice setting, for sure! Do you have a drawing you can post to show us what it'll look like? I hope they plan to pave or put patio stones or interlock or something down on the ground around it, the bridal party will be wearing heels!

Ian,

I'm actually nearly done with it. I started it before Thanksgiving and should be done with it in a few weeks. I just found out that I'm doing the walkway, so I'm still trying to figure out what that's going to do to my schedule. I'm also going to build a kind of fancy arbor for the bride to walk through on the path to the pavilion. I'm not sure what the walkway will be. It was going to be concrete, but now they don't want concrete. I told them that I'd tell them what it costs to do when they tell me what it will be. LOL

Eddie

 

[NSBound]

Sounds like an interesting project, I didn't realize from post #1 that you were that far along! The arbour sounds nice too, tell them to plant a tall-growing climbing rose bush on both sides of it. I used to have an arbour at the front entry to my old home and a wedding party stopped to take pictures there because of the white roses climbing all over the arbour. Keep the pictures coming!

 

[EddieWalker]

Since there is no reason for insulation, I just laid the 2x8's for the ceiling on their flat sides, across the tops of the trusses. The trusses are on 7 ft centers, but there's 6 1/2 ft of space between them for the boards to span.

I time theywill sag, so I put half inch plywood on top of them and screwd it to every board every 12 inches. It was allot of screws, but I think it was an important thing to do.

I doubled up the facsia board with a 2x6 and a 1x4 to give it a nice look. So far, of the dozens of people who have looked at it, nobody has commented on this, but I think that if I hadn't of done it, they would have thought it was missing something.

As you can see, I ended up with a foot of overhang on either side of the deck. The reason I made the deck 14 ft deep, was to allow me to use 16 ft long boards on the roof and be able to get that overhang. With them being one piece, I have allot more strength then if I'd used shorter boards, or had to cover a larger deck.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

One of those things that got added to the plan after I stared was the pergola. I have built several of them with glass blocks, and the client really liked the way they looked. Since there is no attic or any space to vent, the cupola is strictly for looks. The roof pitch is 6:12, so I made the pitch on the cupola 12:12

I also put a light in it !!!

Then a few days later, the weathervane arrived.

Eddie

 

[rtdiggr]

it looks really nice Eddie.

 

[EddieWalker]

While I was working on the roof, I started building the circle for the inlaid. I cut 8 peices of 2x12 at 22 1/2 degrees to creat an octogon that would give me an 8 ft circle. I put three bisquites in the ends and glued it together with exterior grade liquid nails. Then I clamped it and wraped it with a strap.

When I was ready for it, I made a jig for my router and cut it on my shop floor. It was slow going. I've never done a circle this big before, and this was the first one that I've made out of 2x material. I started out with my Porter Cable router, but burned it up in about five minutes. I then did the same thing with my Craftsman router. Two routers dead and I wasn't a quarter of the way through the outside part of the circle. I bought a brand new Bosch router and was able to cut the outside and inside rings with that router without any more problems.

After cutting it, I added more 2x4's to it for support and then loaded it onto the top of my truck bed. Since it's an 8ft circle, it wouldn't fit in my bed. I straped it to the top and felt like I had a space ship back there while driving to the job site.

I then cut the circle into the deck, but didn't even get halfway done with the outside circle when the bid stoped cutting. I went and bought another big, and finished without any more problems.

Then I cut out the boards for the compass symbol. I screwd them to the deck, where there were going to go, and marked their outline. I then took them off and cut out the outline. This is when I added the additional bracing that I mentioned earlier. There is an amazing number of screws in it, but I can't imagine using any less. It's rock solid, and will last through any number of people on ther for their wedding.

The client has been working on a color scheme for staining it. They just gave me the list of what color stains will go where. I had suggested Cabots stain, but they said that the wanted Behr. It's good stain, so that wont be an issue.

Eddie