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A gazebo in the country or in the courtyard of the house is a place for tea drinking and gatherings in the summer. In buildings slightly larger, a brazier can be installed. Then you can think about glazing it: barbecue in winter is a rare pleasure, and the barbecue will simultaneously warm the air inside. They usually start with simpler and cheaper models: they build a gazebo with their own hands, most often there is not enough time. Hence the choice. We will talk further about how to do it correctly, about materials, methods, methods of construction.
A little theory: what are gazebos
Nothing complicated: let’s talk about the types of gazebos and the materials from which they are built. First of all, buildings of this type are divided into open (summer) and closed (glazed). This does not mean at all that there are only two of these types: there are also combinations with removable glazing, and there are also awnings made of transparent film, which, if necessary, are stretched over the frame of the gazebo. Another option – some of the walls are closed, some are open. Choose the one that is closer to you.
With or without floor
More gazebos can be divided into those with and without a floor. Gazebos without a floor are placed on a prepared platform made of paving slabs, filled with concrete, lined with paving stones, etc. Although no one bothers to build directly on the grass. Only the framework must be treated accordingly: direct contact with the soil requires enhanced protection measures. If we are talking about a wooden arbor, it is impregnated with rot and fungal infections, if it is made of metal, it is treated with a rust preventative.
Pergolas with a floor suggest the presence of a foundation. Most often do columns. They can be folded from brick or buta, poured from concrete, put foundation blocks. If you have large flat-topped boulders to lean on, use those. But all this – if the building is light – on a frame made of wood or metal. Brick arbors require a strip foundation, albeit a shallow one (20-30 cm below the level of the fertile layer).
If you want to tile the floor in the gazebo for the dacha, you will have to pour the insulated slab with concrete, and put frost-resistant types of tiles on it. Moreover, the insulated slab must be at least 50 cm wider in all directions than the building on it. And these 50 cm are made at a slight slope so that moisture drains. This is actually a blind area, which will not allow the soil to freeze under the gazebo. So the tile will not turn out and it will not crack.
Materials
The frame of garden or country arbors is made of three materials:
- wooden bursa or round timber of small diameter;
- steel pipe (from a profile it is more convenient);
- polymer pipes (PVC).
The only material that does not require protection is polymers. They do not rot, are not affected by fungi. Some species tolerate freezing and thawing without much harm. So they can stay over the winter. That’s just to make the gazebo for giving PVC pipes durable, they need a solid diameter and with a thick wall. And even in this case, you don’t need to rely on the frame: you will have to install such furniture that will not put pressure on the plastic. Well, the brazier will need to be put aside (if provided).
In order for a wooden garden gazebo to remain attractive for a long time, all the wood that will be used in construction must first be coated with a protective impregnation in one or two layers. The cheapest today are the SENEZH and Usadba impregnations, and the reviews about them and their protective properties are very good. These manufacturers also have tinting compositions.
The metal frame for the gazebo is processed twice. The first time the pipe is primed before the start of construction, then the welding site is carefully primed. Moreover, if there is rust, it is either cleaned off or passed through with a rust converter and only after that it is primed. Why such difficulties? So that the appearance is solid for a long time. After the primer dries, everything is covered with paint for metal for outdoor use.
Sheathing gazebos for the garden can be almost any. The most commonly used wood. This is a planed board, blockhouse, lining, round timber of small diameter. If there are used pallets, they are dismantled, the board is sanded and the lower part of the frame is sheathed with it. It turns out very economical. And due to the fact that the wood has dried up for a long time, after treatment with protective compounds, it serves for a long time.
Arbors for summer cottages and gardens are sheathed with the following materials:
- polycarbonate (read about polycarbonate gazebos here);
- profiled sheet (profiled sheet);
- tempered glass;
- cloth;
- transparent PVC films;
- bamboo.
Frameless gazebos
It was about frame arbors. Now about frameless. This is when walls of brick, building blocks (most often aerated concrete) are erected on a strip foundation or on a monolithic insulated slab to a height of about 2 meters. One or two walls can be roof height. Columns are made on the rest, on which the truss system rests. The construction of such a gazebo is not cheap.
Brickwork, if done beautifully, can be left unfinished. If a gazebo was built from foam blocks, its decoration is no different from the decoration of the same house. The surfaces are sheathed with a metal mesh for plastering, then plastered. On aligned walls, you can put any finish: even decorative plaster, even stone. Garden gazebos made of stone, brick and foam blocks are most often glazed: in winter they will be warm.
Roof
The choice of roof structure depends entirely on the shape of the gazebo. If it is rectangular, the choice is wide: one or two-slope, four-slope. Rectangular arbors under a shed roof are the easiest to build. Gable is not much, but more difficult.
If the shape of the gazebo is more complicated: pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal, then you will have to make a hipped roof. It is even more difficult: you have to figure out how to connect all the rafters in the middle.
When using flexible roofing and metal or PVC as a frame, you can make the roof generally rounded. The pipes are bent, material with seals for bolts or self-tapping screws is attached to them. Such garden gazebos are very light in appearance, they can be built (if you know how to handle a welding machine and a pipe bender) in a few hours.
That’s all. Others put very rarely. By the way, if you are interested in gazebos under the same roof as the house, they are called verandas. You can read about them here.
This is the whole theory in a nutshell. There may be some other special cases: there are many materials, as well as the possibilities of their combination. We will publish the most interesting original gazebos from non-standard materials at the end of the article. And now – practice.
How to make a gazebo with your own hands
Most often, we build garden arbors made of wood on our own. The second place in popularity is with metal ones. Everyone else does it infrequently. Brick and from other building materials due to the fact that they are expensive, from PVC pipes – because there is no confidence in the material.
We will analyze an example of building a frame gazebo made of wood. But even if you are going to make it out of metal or PVC, the procedure will be the same. Another principle of connecting frame materials, but otherwise, everything is the same.
When working with wood, it must first be treated with antibacterial and flame retardant (reducing the combustibility of the material) impregnations. Only after the compositions have dried can you work. If this is not done, the wood will darken very quickly and lose its attractiveness.
How to build a metal gazebo read here and in this article we are talking about polycarbonate gazebos.
Drawing
Two similar projects were implemented, of the same type: a quadrangular gazebo under a gable roof, only with different sizes and they were designed differently. A drawing of one of them, see the photo below.
Step-by-step instructions with a photo
It all starts with site preparation. If there is sod, it is removed, and the fertile layer is also removed. If this is not done, the roots, greens and all leftovers will rot. On sandy or sandy loamy soils, screenings, crushed stone or broken construction debris are poured into the pit, everything is tamped down, covered with sand from above. On clay soils, on which water does not drain well, it is better to fill the pit and compact your own soil (clay, but without a fertile layer). Otherwise, water will accumulate and stagnate in the pit, which will lead to an unpleasant odor. Not what you need at all.
The choice of the type of foundation and the lower trim
If there is not much time, the fastest way is to install ready-made concrete blocks on a compacted pillow. More time will have to be spent if you fold brick columns, even more – pour them out of concrete. The distance between the supports should be no more than 1,5-2 meters. More specifically, it depends on the thickness of the timber from which you will make the strapping. Under a bar 100 * 100 mm, the distance is 1,5 meters, under a metal profile pipe 60 * 60 mm can be placed every 2 meters.
When all the supports are installed and level (use pegs, a stretched string and a building level), waterproofing is laid on them. This is roofing material or roofing felt, rolled up in two layers, or bituminous mastic, which is also impregnated twice with the surface. Then the lower trim of the gazebo from the timber is laid. Everything is hammered together with nails of at least 150 mm in length or connected with wood screws. For greater strength, corners are used (if you find reinforced ones – as in the photo – it will be great). Although the gazebo is built initially as a summer arbor, after some time the majority decides to glaze it. That’s when a margin of safety is needed.
Rack installation
Next, racks of timber are installed. They are placed in the corners, in the front part on both sides of the entrance, on the rest – above the pillars of the supports. From above, they are also connected by strapping.
At this stage of the construction of the garden gazebo, it is important to place the racks strictly vertically. It is undesirable to use the building level: it has a large error, especially for household models, which are usually used by developers. Therefore, we take the good old plumb line and put it on it. Check the vertical from two adjoining sides so that the racks do not fall anywhere.
Fix the racks with jibs (see the photo). If they interfere with you in the future, you can make a temporary option, as in the photo on the left. If the sheathing below is opaque, do it thoroughly: cut down the beam at 45 ° (it is more convenient to use a miter box) and nail it with two or three nails obliquely. Check if it has gone astray after each mowing installation. These small triangles give rigidity to the whole structure and it stops staggering.
Top trim and floor boards
Further, after all the racks are installed and fixed, the upper harness is mounted. There shouldn’t be any problems here. To increase the reliability of the connection, use the corners. Racks, by the way, can also be fixed on the sides with corners. Especially if there are no permanent mowings. Otherwise, your design from lateral loads may develop.
After that, the floor boards are laid. It is very desirable to treat them on all sides with antibacterial impregnation for wood in direct contact with the ground. Senezh has two such squads. One of them is called “Senezh”, the other “Senezh-Ultra”. They differ in that “Ultra” does not stain the wood, and “Senezh” gives it a greenish color. If you cover everything with a dark stain, the greens are invisible, such a composition is not suitable for a light one.
After laying the floor, it is better to paint the boards, otherwise, by the time you finish the construction, they will get dirty. Therefore, take the time to apply varnish or oil-based tinting paints – the best option for outdoor wood. Do not confuse with oil paints! These compounds are often called wood oil, because the base is oil, to which protective substances and coloring pigments are added. As a result, the wood takes on a different shade (even pink or green, if you so desire), but the texture becomes clearer, and not painted over.
Medium strapping
The next step is to install the middle strapping, if there is one for the project. A quarter is taken out under the beam in the racks – a small recess, in this case, with a beam of 100 * 100 mm, a quarter is 25 mm.
Further, the frame can be painted with the same composition as the floor.
Read about the manufacture of a pergola (an open gazebo with almost no roof) here.
Making a roof
While the frame of the wooden gazebo dries, you assemble the truss system. It is a triangle (see the photo below).
They are installed on the frame. This project does not include a roof overhang. Therefore, they are simply placed strictly vertically and nailed directly to the beam of the upper trim. Such a roof is easy to install, but the rain will pour heavily inside even with a slight wind.
If you do with overhangs (the roof protrudes beyond the perimeter of the gazebo), then in the beam you will have to cut out “seats” under the rafters. They look like triangles (see photo).
Two options are shown. In fact, there are more of them, but since the roof is small, the first, the simplest, will be enough. In order not to mess around with each triangle, sawing the wood at the top, make a template. Take a piece of board, cut out a hole of the desired shape, try it on, check it, adjust it. Then you just put it in turn to all the rafters, draw around with a finely sharpened pencil and cut it out. What’s the best way to cut? Electric jigsaw, but you can also use a hand saw. Having prepared all the triangles, throw them up and install (with long nails obliquely from the spirit of the sides, you can still fix them with corners). Before fixing, do not forget to check the vertical and horizontal.
After installing the triangles, the crossbars are stuffed: two on both sides of the ridge, and then with a step that depends on the type and type of roofing material. Under soft tiles, for example, in general, a continuous crate is needed. Then the entire truss system is painted. And then the roofing material is mounted (in this case, a metal profile).
Finish
The bottom trim is nailed last. In this project, lining was used, which was then painted with wood oil.
This country gazebo is from the category of “simple, fast, cheap.” Having it as an example, you can make something of your own, more, in your opinion, attractive. Here, for example, what happened according to the same project, but in a different design: sheathing of the veranda from a blockhouse, which is painted in a light color, and the frame is dark.
We will lay out several more complex projects with drawings and dimensions below, and even more interesting photos, but without drawings at the very bottom. Might be useful to someone…
Sketches of gazebos with drawings and dimensions
Available sizes can be scaled up or down proportionally. It is important that you understand that with a significant increase in size, a more powerful frame is required. Do not forget about this, and everything will work out for you: a gazebo made by yourself will be beautiful and reliable.
simple wooden gazebo
Almost the same project, but with different dimensions: the upper point of the roof is raised higher, which makes it visually lighter. The gazebo is also quadrangular, the roof is hipped.
When constructing such a roof, the most problematic are two places (nodes) indicated by circles. How to do them, see the photo below.
Chinese style gazebo (with drawings and dimensions)
Project with all dimensions, foundation layout, roof truss system, etc. Arranged in a photo gallery.
Large gazebo on the foundation
Before you build this gazebo, you need to make a strip foundation. Its parameters depend on the soil, on the material that you are going to use for the frame: metal or wood, and what you are going to glaze it with. In general, the width of the tape is about 20 cm, the depth of occurrence is 20-30 cm deeper than the level of the fertile layer. On heaving soils, it is better to make a pile foundation.
Drawing gazebo-swing
The swing arbor requires special attention: it is fixed very firmly so that the resulting variable loads do not loosen and turn the structure over. To do this, you can extend the legs down, dig a hole under them, fill them with rubble, tamp, and then pour everything with liquid concrete. If you make the frame from a pipe, there are no questions; for a tree, you can use “P”-shaped fasteners with a pin mounted in the lower part. Here it can be bent and poured with concrete.
For even greater reliability, crossbars are attached to the legs, which turn out to be slightly recessed into the ground. They are hammered with U-shaped staples.
You can read about the manufacture of ordinary swings of various types here.