Build A Garage Pergola, step by step

Parking our car got a little more scenic this weekend with the completion of our carport pergola. Or, cargola (pergolaport?) if you will.

Last week we talked about dressing up our carport with the assist of some pergola plans from Workbench Magazine. The plans took a lot of the guesswork out of it, but there was still plenty of actual work. All-in-all it took about 4.5 days of work (the half day was spent picking up the materials, which we talked about here) but I am gonna boil it down to one plain post. So here we go.

What you need to know is that there were four main parts to this building project: 1) the column, 2) the braces, 3) the joists, and 4) the lath.

Most attached pergolas do not have the column in the equation (they simply attach to the walls beside or above a garage door or a french door), but because our carport only had posts on the left side (see below) our first assignment was to add one on the right to add symmetry and create a place for the pergola to attach.

To attach a post to our concrete floor, we used this post base which is built for situations like this. And I got to break out my hammer drill to make a pilot hole for the concrete anchor, which was a good time. I picked up the hammer drill back when I was starting the deck, but never ended up using it, so I am glad I had it around because I needed it is drill-plus-hammer motion to get through the concrete. Then I hammered in a wedge anchor and tightened the nut to keep it in place.

I attached another metal post base on the ceiling (this time simply using heavy-duty screws) so that we could slide a 4 x 4″ post right in there and nail it into place.

Since that post is neither quite attractive or big sufficient, we used the same method as we did when we beefed up our porch columns. They did not sell any pre-primed pine in long sufficient boards, so we primed and painted the two 1 x 6″ and one 1 x 4″ boards before hanging them. Here I am using our nail gun to attach the boards in place and give the column a chunkier look.

After we caulked the seams and brought in some touch-up paint, our first of four steps was officially checked off the list. And I should add that this took me the better part of my first day (with occasional “hold this with me” and “take a picture of this step” and “assist me paint while Clara naps” assistance from Sherry).

The other part of day one was spent getting began on my braces (or “knee braces” if I am feeling formal). These were by far the most complicated of all four steps, since there were four sub-step when it came to building each one. We originally hoped to purchase these pre-made, but we could not find any in the size that we needed. In the end, I am glad I made them because it was much cheaper.

Some of the braces that I saw online were going for $50 – $100 a piece, depending on the size. Each of mine were made from one single 12 ft piece of 2 x 6″ and a few bolts, making mine about $22 each. So the first step was to cut my 2 x 6″ into the lengths that my plans called for. Burger double-checked my work.

First up was what I am calling the “base” (the part that rests against the column). They were fairly straightforward. I cut some decorative notches on the bottom with my miter saw and then used some hole-boring bits to make a few places on each side to countersink my bolts. Again, my plan took a lot of the mystery out of what to do, but it was still a bit tedious.

The next pieces I tackled were the “beams” – the parts that would stick out from the base at a 90° angle. They were truly straightforward, which was lucky because I had to make four of them. I in fact clamped two together when I made the cut so that I’d be sure the beams that got paired together on the same brace were absolutely identical.

With the straightforward stuff out of the way, I turned my attention to the “arch.” Yes, a dreaded curved cut. Cue the dramatic music. To mark my curved line, I tapped some temporary nails into the wood at both ends and at the middle/top of my curve. Then I used a thin piece of scrap wood (a small piece of PVC works too) and bent it over my nails to create an arched shape. That held long sufficient for me to mark the curved line between my two nail-points.

Next was the challenge of in fact cutting that line. Since I do not own a scroll saw, I had to rely on my jigsaw. It did the job okay, but since it is sometimes hard to keep the blade perfectly vertical, my arch had a couple of wonky spots (not majorly wonky, but wonky sufficient that I noticed them) so we sanded the heck out of it to try to smooth things out.

After some vigorous sanding they were a lot better looking, and some primer further cleaned things up (we primed all of our brace pieces together once they were all cut out).

Then we had to assemble them. It was a tricky system of clamps, temporary nail gun nails, and balancing on scrap wood pieces to get it done, so do not even try to make sense of this picture (it is upside down, if that helps).

In short we had to get both of the beams and the single arch piece aligned (and centered and level) and then screw them to the base using some 3″ lag bolts. It took a bit of finesse to get it all done without attaching something slightly crooked, but eventually we got the job done.

Then we had to drive some bolts through two beams (and the portion of the arch that sat between them). It sounds quite straightforward, but the process took me a while and the rest of the day was spent rerouting a gutter and outdoor light fixture. So by the end of day two we had built two braces, but I could not call this step complete since they were neither painted (that happened the next morning) nor hung (which also got done the next day).

Hanging them took some finesse too, mostly because one of us had to hold the weight of it while the other checked that it was level and temporarily nailed it into place. There is no way brad nails would support the weight of it over time, but they kept each brace in place long sufficient for us to drive a lag bolt into the top and bottom of each one, which secured it for the long haul.

By noon on day three we were at last ready to move on to step 3.

Step 3 was the joists. You know, those two long pieces that would rest on each of the braces. These were again made from 2 x 6″ board and again they required a decorative curved cut (marked below). We did the curve on simply the left side since on the right side they’d butt up against the side of the house.

Once they were cut, we hoisted them into place and marked the exact spot where they rested on the braces.

These marks showed me where we needed to cut notches in the joists so they’d sit tight on the braces. And while we had them down, we also primed and painted them.

While the paint dried I got began on step 4, so it was not until the next morning that we could in fact hoist them into place. As for how we screwed them into place, we in short drilled a long pilot hole through the top of each joist and used a long drill bit to screw right through the top of the joist and into the brace’s beam below.

The last step was the lath, or the small strips that create the rail across the top. Since we were going to paint ours I could not use the pre-cut pressure treated 2 x 2″ pieces that they sell pre-cut for deck railings (they say pressure treated lumber should be allowed to “dry out” for a number of weeks before paint or stain traps the treatment’s moisture in – and we hoped to paint things right away). So we picked up regular 2 x 2″ boards that were 8 feet long and cut them down at home. This ended up being substantially cheaper, but we needed 50 of them (including a few simply-in-case extras) so cutting and sanding them took me a good two hours. It was not exactly lively, but it was pleasant and mindless. Then came priming and painting all. those. pieces.

We had to cover all four sides of them since they’d all be seen, so thank goodness the paint had good coverage and it only took one coat (it is Benjamin Moore Exterior paint leftover from the previous owners). Once everything was dry, we could start putting the lath into place on top of the joists.

This was the point that we both began to get giddy because the pergola was in fact starting to look like a pergola. Oh and we cut a few 3-inch wide “spacers”out of scrap wood to assist us keep our gaps even so we could screw them into place as swiftly as possible (see the two longer unpainted boards in the picture below?).

By the end of day four, step four was 100% done.

And with that, we could step back and enjoy our gussied-up carport. How YOU doin?

We are both crazy glad with how it turned out. We were nervous (well, I was nervous) because it was not the most conventional spot for a pergola – but it truly is a large upgrade. Suddenly that parking space tacked on the end of our house has some character. It has in fact turned two anti-carport people (remember we nearly did not look at this house simply because it had one) into carport lovers. Well, cargola lovers.

Despite being a bit tedious, none of the labor was truly that back-breaking. And the Hands-on price cannot be beat – especially when we heard that custom attached pergola kits are being sold for over 2K! Here is where ours wound up:

• Truck rental (to get materials home): $19
• Lumber: $112
• Post bases: $23
• Nuts, bolts, & screws: $46
• Materials to reroute gutter & light: $14
• Paint & primer: Already owned
• TOTAL: $214

Oh and if you have a carport that already has two columns (or a garage with outside walls to rest the braces on) and you buy the braces instead of building them it would be about 50% easier (and should cut out around 2 days of work). So that is an excellent option for anyone who wants to instantly cut four steps down to two.

I feel like the new pergola gives our house a bit of “quaintness” (if that is a word). We especially like how it frames the view of our street, which is right now blooming like crazy. Either way, it certainly adds some pleasant dimension to our flat ranch.

So yeah, between this and our beefed up porch columns, we are falling in love with the front of our house all over again. And can you simply imagine some flowering vines growing up those posts and across the top of the pergola? Holy charming, batman.

What is on your outdoor agenda these days?