Building a garden gazebo seems like a rather complicated undertaking. However, everything will turn out to be much simpler when we find out exactly what the various stages of building a garden gazebo look like and we will perform them step by step. See what the construction of a garden gazebo looks like and how to complete all the activities related to the construction of an arbor step by step.
Building a garden gazebo will be easier if we do everything step by step
Before we startbuilding a garden gazebo , you must have a garden gazebo project, a building permit, if required in our case, and a list of necessary tools and materials needed to build a garden gazebo.If we already have all of this, theconstruction of the garden gazebo can start
Step 1 - determining the shape of the gazebo
The construction of the garden gazebobegins with marking the floor shape on the ground. If the floor is a rectangle, the matter is quite simple. If, however, it is to be a regular hexagon (with all sides of the same length), then a circle is drawn first, and then the hexagon is inscribed in it. Here a math revision may come in handy - the radius of the circle is equal to the length of the side of the regular hexagon inscribed inside it.
Step 2 - building the base for the gazebo
Then we proceed to make the base of the gazebo, on which the entire structure will be supported. If we plan a light gazebo, made entirely of wood, it is enough to pour concrete foundation footings and attach metal profiles or anchors in them, in which the wooden logs supporting the gazebo's roof will be embedded.Wooden logs are placed in the anchors and then screwed with screws.
For heavier gazebo structures, with posts or even brick or stone walls, and with a heavy tiled roof, concrete foundations must be poured. It is better to entrust the construction of such a gazebo to specialists.
Step 3 - wood and metal maintenance
Before startingconstruction of the gazebo , the boards intended for the gazebo must be protected against weather conditions. Therefore, they should be impregnated using wood impregnations on the outside, and then covered with a waterproof stain, paint or varnish. In the poorest variant, you can simply use a dye impregnation.
Note! We impregnate the boards after making any cuts in them. If they were impregnated earlier, after making the cuts, we additionally impregnate these places.
Metal elements used for joining wooden elements should also be protected. It is best if the metal parts are made of stainless alloys or galvanized. If they are not, protect them with a suitable metal enamel before assembly.
Step 4 - building the roof of the gazebo
After the roof support pillars are in place, you can start assembling the roof. The easiest to make is a flat roof, slightly sloped of course (so that water can run off it and there is no snow in winter). However, it must be remembered that the roof significantly affects the aesthetics of the entire gazebo, so it is worth trying to have an effective roofing. In the case of gazebos with a quadrilateral area, it is worth making a hipped roof, and in the case of gazebos with a regular hexagon - a hexagonal roof. The simplest to make, but the least impressive, is the single-pitched roof.
If you build a gazebo made entirely of wood yourself, the easiest way to cover the multi-hipped roof is with impregnated linen mats or roofing felt. Such a covering will be light and will not require the creation of a very solid (resistant to overload) roof skeleton. Unfortunately, such covers will not be very durable and are not the most aesthetic (especially roofing felt).
A straw or reed thatched roof will look much more effective and natural. In this case, a wooden skeleton of the roof is built and then thatched. It is worth protecting the thatch against fire by covering it with special preparations (the treatment is repeated every 3 years). However, it must be remembered that even such a roof covering is heavy and requires a solid truss, the elements of which are connected with appropriate carpentry joints.
Other natural materials for covering garden roofs of gazebos are: wooden shingle (most often made of coniferous or aspen wood) and mineral slate. The roof of the gazebo standing in the backyard garden can also be covered with tiles, which can turn out to be particularly attractive when we use the same tile as the roof of the house - then we will get the effect of consistency.
Laying roofing is unfortunately quite complicated. If you do not have experience, it is definitely worth employing a proven specialist.
Step 5 - finishing the floor of the gazebo
The last item left to be discussed is the finish of the gazebo floor surface. It should be hardened and necessarily even enough to be easy to keep clean, and to place a table and chairs on it. The floor can be finished with wood, natural stone, concrete slabs or cubes. First, remove a 15 to 20 cm layer of soil on the surface of the planned floor, level it with sand, sprinkle it with gravel and harden. On such a prepared substrate, we can lay a board floor. Fill the joints between the boards with cement mortar.
To calculate the amount of material needed for the floor of a gazebo with a regular hexagon floor, a mathematical formula may be useful to calculate the area of a regular hexagon (i.e. the floor area of the gazebo):
where a is the length of the side of the hexagon (equal to the radius of the circle in which the hexagon was inscribed),
Even if the structure of the gazebo is very solid, remember to check that the structure of the gazebo does not require maintenance or repair after each season, when the leaves fall from the shrubs and creepers that cover the gazebo.
Finally, I would like to mention that if the self-construction of a gazebo seems too complicated for us, and at the same time we do not want to employ specialists, a pergola can be built that is much easier to construct. A pergola is a structure composed of vertical posts supporting horizontal beams around which plants grow (so it does not have a roof as such). When the spaces between the beams are overgrown with vines, resulting in some kind of roofing, the pergola will also provide a shelter from the sun's rays and light rain.
