DIY Garden Gazebo from Pallet Wood Part 2 - Trellis Panels and Door

The garden gazebo with its home-made trellis panels and posts is now about to take shape and provide us with an elegant outside dining area, far from the madding poultry. The previous blog article on this project, how to construct the pallet wood posts and frame, can be found here

Construction Continued

The perimeter of the garden gazebo now being complete,  the next stage was to make it chicken proof, starting with:

The Door

This was a rectangular frame of 50mm x 25mm (2” x 1”) wood for the perimeter with two diagonal braces of the same wood to stiffen the structure, to which were nailed laths of about 25mm ( 1”) wide timber. Once checked for fit, the door was coated in linseed oil and then hung in place.

The Trellis

The most time-consuming, but most satisfying part of the project. The trellis comprised a framework to which laths were nailed. The laths were cut to width from pallet planks and I had toyed with several forms of trellis pattern, before finally deciding on a chevron style. The main advantage was that for this design I would never need a lath longer than a pallet plank length. The normal square-patterned trellis would require laths the full height of the panel (normally 1800mm (approx 6’).

The size for each trellis panel was measured. I had decided that the trellis would fit between the vertical posts and be screwed to the top batten and bottom gravel boards that joined the posts. 

The frame of the trellis was made from long pallet planks sawn to 40mm – 50mm width  (1¾” – 2”). A third plank bisected the panel between the top and bottom edges. I made lapped joints at each plank intersection. Normally, the cutting of even such a simple joint can take a little time, but I found that by setting my table saw to a cutting height of half the plank thickness and making numerous cuts at intervals of the saw blade width, the joint could be created easily, accurately and quickly. The faces of the joint resulting from using the saw were not perfectly smooth but, as I was not going to glue the joint, I did not consider this to be a problem. You can find the link to my home-made table saw at the bottom of the page.

The frame was nailed at the joints. I used 50mm (2”) nails.......

........which I bent over on the reverse side.






As usual with a rectangular frame the squareness of it was checked by measuring the diagonals.
 

The fit of  each frame between the appropriate posts was checked before the laths were attached.

To achieve the chevron pattern I made a pair of guides (one a mirror image of the other).  Each guide comprised a short straight plank to which was screwed, at 45º, a pallet plank of 80mm (2¾”)  width. In use the guide was positioned such that the short plank rested against what would be the vertical edge of the frame, the 45º part of the guide would rest on either the frame perimeter or the central plank of the frame.

The first lath to be nailed to the frame was near to the top of the centre plank. I used 40mm (1½” – 15/8”) nails that were just less than the thickness of the lath and frame combined. Leaving the guide in place, the next lath was laid against the opposite edge of the guide and nailed in place. The guide was lifted out and laid against the edge of the recently nailed lath, the position for the adjacent lath being the other edge of the guide. A check could be maintained on the correct angle for each lath by keeping the short plank of the guide against the frame edge.

The surplus length of lath extending over the edge of the frame was removed by sawing flush to the frame edge,  Some of the offcuts were long enough to be used elsewhere on the panel. Once one half of the panel was completed, the same process could be undertaken on the other side, this time using the ‘mirror-image’ guide.

To complete the design, I also incorporated a panel of small square trellis, along the South wall of the gazebo, again using a guide in the same way as with the chevron pattern.

Once completed, each panel  was then put in place between the upright posts a g-clamp holding it to the top batten of the perimeter frame, screw holes were drilled in the top and bottom rails of the panel through which the fixing screws could secure it to the top batten and the gravel board of the framework.

To finish each panel I made and attached a weatherstrip to protect the top edge. The strip was a pallet plank wide enough to cover the combined thickness of  trellis and top batten. The upward facing side of the plank  was chamfered so as to shed rainwater. I used a router with a 45° chamfer bit to produce this but the same result could be easily produced with a hand plane.

Finally, the whole trellis and framework was given a coat of linseed oil to protect it from the vagaries of the weather.

Here’s to fewer intrusions at mealtimes! Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film.

All the best and thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to share this article, comment and/or ask for further information.

Bon appétit!

Cheers, Andy
© Andy Colley 2015

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DIY Garden Gazebo from pallet wood, including the support posts

The fine weather is here and we want to spend as much leisure time in the garden as possible. Much as we love our poultry we do draw the line with sharing our meals with them. It wouldn’t be so bad if they stayed on the ground but no, from six-week old chicks up they have the ability to fly and do, always onto the table or worse onto our plates of food.. This hampers our enjoyment of mealtimes and it is fruitless trying to explain to them that: we don’t steal from their food bowls therefore……….

One of this year's hatch and a potential uninvited dinner guest!

To this end we decided to construct  a gazebo from home-made pallet wood trellis panels in front of one of our greenhouses, the gable-end wall of the greenhouse acting as one wall of the gazebo. The additional usage for this gazebo is that when not in use by us it could form an addition flight and foraging area for our quail, who live in the greenhouse.

Construction and Design Part 1

Posts

I had decided that the trellis panels were to be supported by wooden posts which were attached to galvanised metal stakes driven into the ground. These stakes are not expensive and not only give a secure method of holding the posts but also are a neat way to keep the post-ends from rotting  as it is the stake and not the posts that are in the ground. I have found that the wooden posts cost at least 1½ - 2 times that of the stake and also are treated with chemicals, thus I decided to make my own.

The planks I used came from non-standard sized pallets (approx. 2m long), the best place for these seems to be bathroom supplies and joiners, also if you have them in your area, exhibition stand suppliers, who tend to use extra large 'bespoke' pallets.

These I sawed to width, 2 planks cut to 69mm width and two cut to: two plank thicknesses subtracted from 69mm. 

The four pieces that result were then nailed together, to form a square-section post that fitted into the stake.

Bolt holes were drilled through the 69mm plank faces, using the holes in the stake as the guide. Once drilled, each stake and post were numbered so I knew the holes in the post aligned with the matching holes in the stake.

 
I cut 100mm (4”) squares from pallet wood to act as caps to the top of each post end.

Framework

Before we made the trellis it was necessary to get the framework in place. This was of particular importance in our planning as we wanted to have a herringbone pattern to our trellis and we needed to make sure of all the measurements so the pattern would work to its best advantage.

The stakes were then driven into the ground at the determined positions, ensuring that the posts would be vertical once in place. I used 50mm wide battens to connect to the top of each post  and two planks at the bottom of each post so that there was a 150mm – 200mm (6” – 8”) deep gravel board barrier from ground level running around the perimeter traced out by the posts.

I put an additional post on one side of the perimeter which was to support an entrance door. The door fitting between it and the corner post. A top 50mm (2”) rail joined these two posts.






All this framework was treated with linseed oil tinted with natural pigment, for more details on using natural wood stains see the link below.

Now, if you'd like to sit back and watch the film. As you will see I did the cutting of the long planks before I made my Plankmaker's holdfast, so I'm including below a link to that project too, which makes for much easier sawing.

All the best and thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to share this article, comment and/or ask for further information.

Cheers, Andy

© Andy Colley 2015

RETURN TO GREEN LEVER CONTENTS PAGE FOR MORE ARTICLES 

 

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Pallet Wood Garden Gazebo Part 2 - Trellis and Door

The perimeter of the garden gazebo now being complete,  the next stage was to make it chicken proof, starting with the door...read more

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