Andy and family get a lot more use out of the area now.
After struggling with various outdoor umbrellas that never seemed to quite cover enough area and a pop-up gazebo for a few years, it was time for a permanent solution.
I have always been keen on doing things myself, mainly because I am not so keen on paying someone else.
My theory is if my wife gets a man in to do a few jobs around the house, before long I could be replaced in all facets of daily life.
I contemplated a timber structure as I am comfortable working with wood — somewhere in a display case at Lytton High School there is a cup with my name on it for being top of the class in 4th form woodwork.
However, looking at the style of the house, I though something else might be more suitable.
The neighbours have a well-known arched pergola and on closer inspection I thought, “I could build that”.
My initial plans involved a number of drawings, a pipe cleaner and Bluetak model.
Most of my projects take some time — not because I take a long time to finish them, but because I take a long time to start.
The design is basically a series of tubes with “tee” and “cross” joiners.
I looked at using cast Hurricane style fencing couplers but decided these would look too industrial and not what I wanted.
“Maybe I should weld some up myself,” I thought.
But this created two issues:
' I don't have a welder
' I don't know how to weld . . .
So as is common with DIY projects, I bought a small Mig welder and just included it in the cost of the project.
Now, to learn to how to weld. I am pretty good at soldering — how hard could it be?
Turns out it's pretty tricky. After many hours on YouTube and blowing holes in bits of pipe, I managed to fuse two bits of steel together.
I do not profess to be a great welder or even a good welder — in fact, my early welds looked like a bird had crapped molten steel onto a join.
The phrase “Do your best and grind the rest” sprang to mind . . .
After calculating the number of joins I would need to make, I explored other options. The solution was a company in Taiwan that made components for handrails used in stairways. They manufacture a wide variety of joiners including the ones I needed and even 135-degree angle connections.
This meant I only had to cut, weld, grind (and repeat), about 20 brackets and joins.
The biggest brain strain of the whole build was getting the roof arch consistent as the patio area is not a simple square — rather it's two rectangles joined by a 45 degree wall.
To maintain the curve of the polycarbonate roofing material over the width of the roof required uprights at the shortest end, reducing to nothing at the long end. (see photos)
The first part of the actual construction was the attachment to the house. Fortunately with a tile roof it is easy to slide the tiles up and access the top chord of the roof truss so I could bolt the main bracket straight to it.
This made for a really strong connection, rather than just coach screwing into the timber holding the eaves on.
Once the brackets were in place, I was like a kid with a Meccano set consisting of a bunch of aluminium tubes and a collection of joiners.
I measured and cut each tube on site with my trusty little timber drop-saw fitted with an 80-tooth blade — a great way to cut aluminium and so much quicker (and straighter ) than me with a hacksaw.
As I intended to get the whole thing powder-coated to match the aluminium joinery of the house, the initial cut and build was just temporary to get the lengths right. I found the easiest way was to hold it all in place with Gaffer tape — I even had the kids convinced that it was all I would use when finished as it would “probably hold”.
After getting the tubes for the three main arches rolled at a local engineering company I completed the mock-up.
Then I pulled the whole thing down again to take it to the powder-coaters.
The only flaw in my cunning plan was that all the identifying names I had put on the parts were covered by the powder coating, so when I picked them all up afterwards it was like putting together flat pack furniture without the instructions.
I eventually worked out where all the bits went and started Tek screwing it all together.
For the three main support poles, I welded a foot and used 5mm nylon board to lift it off the concrete to prevent ugly rust stains forming — 5mm nylon can be bought from homeware stores. I used kitchen chopping boards!
To attach it to the concrete, I used stainless steel threaded rod with a two-pack concrete adhesive — expanding dynabolts would have most likely cracked the concrete as the holes were close to the edge of it. It is always nice when I don't break more than I build!
Once the frame was all in place it was simply a matter of screwing the roofing material to it — which was pretty straight forward.
I looked at using a grey tint-coloured roofing material but found that it still let in a lot of sunlight, so we went for the opal coloured version. Even though the grey would have looked nice, I didn't build the roof just to have to put a sun umbrella up under it to keep the heat out.
I added some vertical pieces to keep the area nice and watertight and the job was basically done. The only thing to finish is to attach the guttering.
It is amazing how much more usable the area is now and we are looking forward to a classic Gisborne summer under it.