How to Build a Pergola _ Mitre 10 Easy As DIY

A pago can be a great addition to any home .

It can give you a nice shady space that adds real character to your backyard .

Putting one up isn't much of a drama .

If you're interested in having a go , I'm gonna take you through the job step by step .

Now , generally any structure over one m high needs a building consent .

So best check with your local council about the applicable building regulations .

Another tip , some environments in New Zealand are quite corrosive to metals .

So metal fixings need to be protected against the elements either by hot dip galvanizing or a more aggressive environments .

You want to go with stainless steel .

This paola is going to be 3.5 by three m .

We'll start by marking out where our post holes will go .

We're now going to build our profiles , profiles and string lines are essential to establish a square and level area .

We build profiles to fix string lines too , place your profile at least half a meter back from your outside corners , lay two bits of four by one down , pig them in place and make sure they're level , put two nails into the profiles in line with the corner marks and run your string lines .

Finally , we measure the diagonals to ensure their area is square , right ?

You see this corner , this is the outside line of our post .

Our post are gonna be 400 square by 500 deep before you start digging , contact your local utility companies to make sure you don't hit anything .

You shouldn't .

I'll put my string lines back on and in the bottom , we'll toss a concrete block for the post to sit on .

So the post set off the ground , then we put in the post line them up against the string lines , then brace them , make sure the plum and then pour in your concrete .

Use a stick to vibrate the concrete to make sure there's no ear bubbles in it .

I've let our concrete set for 24 hours .

I can now take down our string lines , profiles and braces right time to make the post to length and where the rebates for our bearers to sit on will be we're making our paola two m high to the underside of the bearers .

I'm just gonna use an off cut of the bearer to mark out our rebate .

I now want to transfer a rebate mark onto our other three posts to do this .

I'm just gonna knock in a nail on our Reba mark , taking a nice straight piece of timber , put that on our nail , throw our level on there and transfer that mark onto our other posts .

We're now gonna chop the top of our post off .

Next thing we need to do is chop out our rebate .

Yeah , I just want to set our blade of our circular saw to the depth of our cut right now .

It's time to cut our bearers .

My paola is 3.5 m wide .

I'm gonna overhang our bearer 300 millimeters past the sides of the post .

So that means our bearer needs to be 4.1 m long .

Now I'm gonna shape our bearers to do that .

I'm gonna come in 300 millimeters and then down 35 .

The next thing to do is to mark the position of the rafters on the bearers .

I'm gonna use eight rafters .

So I'm gonna mark out the bearers to make sure they're evenly spaced .

We come back to our 300 millimeter mark square that up , do that on either end and then we can evenly mark out our rafters .

I'm using an off cut of a rafter to get the width right .

Our paola is three m deep .

We're making the rafters 3.6 m long .

This includes an overhang of 300 millimeters on each side .

Now , I'm gonna cut the batons that go on top of the rafters .

The bela is 3.5 m wide .

So I'm gonna make the batons 3.6 m long that includes a 50 millimeter overhang on either side , the batons go on to the rafters a quick way to mark the positions is to line all the rafters up and mark them .

At the same time , I'm going to put my batters at 300 millimeters apart , but you can do whatever you want .

Right .

Just try your beer and your rebates and just clamp them to the post so you can drill the holes for the bolts .

And just remember when you're up a ladder , be careful lay the rafters on the bearers .

And because we've already marked where they go laying them out is easy , just one skewed nail on either side , should do it .

If you want to speed things up , you can use one of these .

And finally , we just lay our batons on top of our rafters and just fix straight through .

Here's another tip pre drill the holes at the end of each batter to stop the timber splitting .

Now , let's just make sure we've got our 50 millimeter overhang and then just nail them on job done .

And now you're the proud owner of your own pago .

Easy .

As for all the help and advice , you need to get the job done .

Just head down to 10 .