Constructing the Arbor Part 1

This is the husband, Jake.

First and foremost, let me emphasize right off the bat that SAFETY ALWAYS COMES FIRST!!! Please be safe at all times and use the appropriate safety gear. Please use safety glasses, good tools, and a good ladder. If you don't believe me, I'll send you a picture of my x-rays of my dislocated elbow from falling only 5 feet off a ladder. And yes, I was being careless on the ladder and paid a big price. I don't mean to be scary, just honest. So everyone, let's be safe and have fun!!!!

NOTE: I have not included exact measurements but I will tell you what to measure. As with everything, it's tough to be exact so you have to measure as you go. For the beginners, remember that boards don't measure out to how they are named. Example: a 4" x 4" x 8' (pronounced four by four) is not actually 4x4 inches. It's actually 3.5" x 3.5" but the length of the board is exact. Go figure. Be wary of this when measuring as it can throw things off a bit if unaccounted for.

This is the first post showing how Jen and I built our arbor in the back yard. This arbor will have grape vines growing on it. We got the basic plan for the arbor out of a book from the library which gave a parts list. The book plans had a bench in the arbor which we didn't want. So we just mimicked the opposite side instead. Also, we decided to put our arbor where our garden gate is. The posts for the garden gate were already cemented so we just attached two of the four main arbor posts to the gate posts with lag bolts. Since this is not the normal design, I'm not going to include those lag bolts in the parts list.

So here is the parts list for our arbor:

4 - 4" x 4" x 10' (posts)

4 - 2" x 6" x 8' (cross braces and beams)

18 - 2" x 2" x 8' (verticals and slats)

6 - 3/8" x 48" (dowels)

8 - 80lbs bag of cement (2 per post. We only used 4 total. See above for the reason why)

16 - 1/4" x 4" galvanized lag screws with washers (attaching cross braces)

8 - 1/4" x 5" galvanized carriage bolts with nuts and washers (attaching beams to posts)

36 - 2.5" galvanized exterior screws

These are the tools I used (the most important is capitalized):

circular saw, miter saw, hand saw, jig (saber) saw, drill, wheel barrow and shovel(mixing cement), level, pencil, tape measure, SAFETY GLASSES, and socket set

As I said previously, we used the existing cemented posts for the garden gate to attach 2 of our posts to. We used 4 lag screws with washers for this. Tip: pre-drill a small hole before screwing in the lag screws. We had 2 of the heads break off. They were 90% of the way in so it didn't matter. 

Next, we dug the 2 holes for the other posts. The holes for the posts are 2 feet deep so that the total height of the posts above ground is 8 feet. 

Make sure you center the post in the hole (unlike this picture). 

Since two of the posts were already bolted in place, we used the straightest 2" x 2"s we had at the top and bottom of the posts to hold them in place for cementing. Use the level at this stage to make sure the posts are straight up and down. After we had the 2 posts leveled off and secured, we mixed the cement in the wheel barrow one bag at a time and cemented the posts. We let the cement dry for about 2-3 days, removed the 2" x 2"s, and continued. 

The posts needed to be cut so they were all the same height. I measured and marked one post at 8 feet. The two posts we cemented were about an inch or two taller than 8 feet. After I marked the one post, we used a straight board and a level to mark the other posts. I used the circular saw to cut the posts. 

Note: the notches go on the outside of the posts for the beams that will go left to right in the picture here.

Now, I needed to cut out the notches in the top of the posts for the 2" x 6" x 8' beams. Careful here! I penciled in the notches and Jen caught that I had them on the wrong side. She saved the day!!!

Also, remember that a 2" x 6" is actually 1.5" x 5.5"

I used the circular saw to do most of the cutting but I had to use a hand saw to finish. 

After I was done, I put one of the beams up just to see how it would fit. Looks good!