Thread: Gazebo - stage 1

Note: Sorry for doubling up and sorry if you found the other instance of these posts - I thought by naming the post I could change the thread name but it didn't work and I wanted members to know this is a wip not the other discussion.

Pic 1 is bearers cut and numbered - I did this as I progressed around the hex, clamping the bearers together and drilling the holes for the stirrups, so that when I put it together the holes would line up with the particular stirrup, which were also numbered. I realised here that the angle of the bearers would leave a triangular space inside the stirrup, so I drilled a hole in the horizontal place for water drainage and colgal painted it again.

Pics 2 and 3 are the bearers and joists being painted - I didn't cut the joists to final size as I'd prefer to measure the space between bearers to get the right size than go from a plan (I do have a plan, but I know I produce some variances). Before assembling any part I will paint it with 2 coats of solarguard, then when it's all up I'll go over it with a third coat to give it more depth.

Pics 4 and 5 are the bearers in place before the concreting. I thought about pouring the concrete with the stirrups in place then putting the bearers on, but figured I'd have problems with getting the stirrups in exactly the right place. What I did was connect all the bearers to each other via the stirrups, level the whole thing with various bricks and offcuts, leaving the stirrups hanging in the holes - then I'll mix the concrete and pour it around the stirrups. When it sets I'll remove the bearer supports and hopefully it will stay put.

That's it for now, more later.
Cheers,
Adam

Hi all,
Bit more progress.

Pic 1 shows the base of the gazebo in place with the concreting finished and all the joists installed. Pic 2 shows a bit of detail for a problem join - where the central bearer joined the outside hex, there was already a stirrup plate in the joint, so I had to figure out some other method of supporting the central bearer. Not sure if this is the 'correct' method but it looks ok and doesn't creak when I walk on the bearers.

Pics 3 and 4 show the side frames up - there are 5 panels which will hold lattice under the handrail and one entry panel, where the lattice will go up the sides to the roof, leaving an opening about 1 metre.

I'm busy planning the roof (which is a lot of fun) and painting lattice (which is a pita as I don't have any spray gear and don't know how to use it anyway).

Cheers,
Adam

The gazebo is looking real good Adam. Thanks for sharing the WIP.

It sure looks nice and solid.

Nice pics.

Very nice! Choosing the colour can be a tough decision. Is there a reason you chose white? Existing structures perhaps?

Damien

Looks the goods!


I'm planning a putting up a hexagonal gazebo in the next year. Can you take a pic of how you've joined the uprights to the base?

Cheers!

Hi all,
Thanks for the kind words.

Damien, the colour is tied in to existing things - our house is painted white, so it was the obvious colour - don't mind that much, white always looks good, especially when its fresh. Our roof has black and blue tiles, so I'm going to do the outer surface of the roof in blue and use the same blue for the top surface of the benches, then use a terracotta red for the flooring which will match some cement slabby things we will use as a footpath leading up to the gazebo.

Matthew, the uprights are not actually fixed to the base - at least not directly. I've attached a couple more pictures (sorry but I didn't take photos of the process).

Pic 1 shows the layout for each panel - the frame is made from 90 x 45 treated pine and has a 20mm dado cut around the inside edge, as does the bottom of the handrail, to house the lintel at the top (cunningly disguised facia boards - the only 180 x 20mm thing I could find at bunnings) and the lattice at the bottom.

I um'd and ah'd about how to fix the panels together - eventually came up with the design in Pic 2. In the bottom left is the overhead shot of a bearer joint, showing the stirrup and the bolts that pull the joint in tight. The top right shows the same joint with the panels superimposed over the top - I made a long 60 degree cut where the panel would meet its neighbour to give me a large area to screw together, and another smaller 60 degree cut which will give me a flat bit to screw a kind of cover plate to hide the outside of the join. The little thing in the middle of the pic is the profile of the upright.

So I screwed through the uprights into the top rail, handrail and bottom rail with 65mm type 17 stainless steel screws, then screwed the lintel in place with 35mm galvanised treated pine screws. Each upright also has three 65mm screws holding it to its neighbour uprights, a universal nail plate bent to 120 degrees and screwed to both uprights at the top, and then the base rail has 3 screws going down into the bearers. Hope this is clear enough.

Actually I had a barrel of fun making the uprights as I'd never tried using my triton table saw for angle cuts - couldn't get it to do more than 60 degrees as the opening on the table top is not wide enough, but it worked a treat.

Busy painting lattice now (should only take about 30 hours...)
More later.
Cheers,
Adam

So the uprights of the panels are attached to each other and the bottom of the panel is attached to the base.

Sounds good to me.

The Gazebo looks great Chumley

I wrote a gazebo calculator to try and make it easier to work out the dimensions and angles etc. Seeing as how you are actually building one (I never have), any suggestions or feedback on how the calculator is set up would be appreciated.

It lives here
http://www.blocklayer.com/Gazebo.aspx

Or here on your phone
http://blocklayer.mobi/Gazebo.aspx
.
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Hi Blocklayer,

I like your calculator - very comprehensive. It matches my calculations almost exactly (I'm still adjusting as I go). I used a combination of high-school maths and VisioPro.

I'll certainly be looking at your calculator more as time permits -- one thing that struck me was that I'm thinking of putting in a couple of creeper rafters (jack rafters?) but without using centre rafters - I'm still dithering between colorbond (mini-orb) or hardiplank for the roof - if I go with hardiplank I need somewhere between 450 and 600 centres, so I'd need a couple of jack rafters to fill in the 1600 width at the roof edges, but I don't think I need full centre or half centre rafters.

Thanks for the nudge - I've seen references to your calculator before but hesitated to look as I thought I had it all under control (the kiss principle) - now I can at least use yours as a check to mine.

Cheers,
Adam

Originally Posted by Blocklayer

any suggestions or feedback

Maybe a pic of a gazebo pointing out which bits are called what?

eg: Hip Rafter Thicknes (sic). What is a hip rafter? If you told me, I'd probably say "Ahhh, that's what you're talking about!"


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Maybe you could put the dimensions directly onto the pic of the gazebo? That would help to put measurements to parts.

Thanks for checking the dimensions Chumley.
If you check the 'Extra Creeper Rafters' box and select the 'Half Center Rafters' radio button (or combinations of all) the calculator will draw different types of roof layouts so you can see some possibilities

Masher, thats the go. I'll add a picture of a gazebo with the pieces named. If I add the names to the plan drawing it looks all mixed up, specially with more than 6 sides. Tried different colours for different pieces but it looks a mess also. The 'hip rafters' are just the main rafters, which are at lower angle than the actual roof, and as someone here said a while back, they are hip and not common rafters? The problem seems to be that everyone uses different terms for the same pieces. If I change it to suit 1 person, someone else seems to get confused

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Rafters

I did a bit of a diagram, naming the different members in this post.