Pergola nip - n - tuck

 

Figuring

 

One more attempt to force

Fiddeling with it another evening after work and working the hammer and other persuasion.  Then sleeping on it and playing with level, plumb and square. 




Slipping in the new boards

 I determined that those joists were binding up the works and that they had to go.  So we cut out the middle, drilled out the single peg and pounded them back out of the mortise.  And it worked!  The structure that had fit togther so well in the driveway settled back to square and all of the pieces fit perfectly!  Pshew!



Mostly done

Next step is to cut the moutise's an inch deeper (take advantage of the notch I had put in the header) and use a cut down 2x8 to replace the 2X6 I had extracted.  This allowed a little beefier structure (still avoiding corner braces); filled in the new mortise and allowed the reuse of the predrilled holes.  I also used my thickness planer to resurface the board by 1/32 to allow it to slide in from the end with minimal binding.
 

The details


Originally I had used one peg for each connection to allow the structure to move as I leveled, plumbed and squared the structure.  As it turned out the morteses were so tight that there was no movement in this regard.  Now I used the come along bring the structure as true as possible and complete the pegging (2 for each joint).  A little copper flashing for the tops of the posts and we are ready for the gardners to take over.


17 slats in a row




Westeria will block this view



The Pergola at the Pond