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Postscript
In
October 2007, we completely renovated this arbor. Over the course of
eight years, the sun and
the rain took its toll: all the 2x4 lath would no longer hold paint;
the big radial beams had cracked open on the sides and began taking
in water when it rained and that led to some significant dry-rot in
isolated places.
Those flat column capitals piled up with dead leaves, soot and bird
nests and began collecting and holding water for long periods and that
led to dry-rot above one of the columns where the rafter beams contacted the
capital.
What we
did to correct this:
1- The
capitals were rebuilt to be pyramidal so nothing accumulated atop the
columns.
2- All the
wooden 2x4s were replaced entirely with PVC plastic 2x4s, so painting
would never again be needed. Also the lower course of 2x4s was
eliminated altogether to gain more lighting beneath.
3- The
arches and the radial rafters (6x18s, 4x8s and 4x6s) were all capped
with thick PVC plastic that have flanges which extended over the sides
somewhat, so all the nightly dew would never again stress the paint.
The smooth surface of the plastic actually sends the water down the
top of the sloped lath and rafters where it cascades off the ends.
4- All the
cracks in the timbers were cleaned out and filled with a flexible
polyurethane caulking, then troweled to be flush with the surface.
5- The
dryrot was cleaned out, shot with heavy-duty galvanized staples and
filled with a fast-setting (3 minutes to hardening) highly adhesive concrete. It
takes a high degree of skill to do this.
6- Then
all the wooden components and columns were primed with a special
adhesive primer and painted with an elastomeric acrylic paint.
Why didn't
we do all this the first time around? Two reasons:
The first
reason was one of just plain ignorance; I discovered these various materials,
where to get them and how to use them over the last ten years.
The
second one was cost; even if I had known about it, doing all this
would have almost doubled the price and without a fore-runner arbor as
proof of concept it wouldn't have gotten built just because of the
price.
In
fact, the local homeowner's association only gave us their conditional
approval, "approved only if it can even be built". This was the very
first time an arbor of this architectural complexity was ever
constructed by anyone. All of the community's building inspectors came
out for the final inspection just to see it and they couldn't believe
their eyes. But I didn't know then what I do today.
Put yourself inside with
these photos:
Now, I
will only build this way:
·
Kiln-dried heavy timbers
·
PVC
plastic capping over all wooden elements
·
Pyramidal capitals over the columns
·
Plastic
2x4 lath for the smaller components
·
Special
paints for the wood and concrete columns.
The bottom
line for MR. DECK is that I lose a fair amount of business to El Cheapo
Depot landscape contractors and undocumented illegals out there
building structures on their own without proper licenses or with
counterfeit ones. People just don't understand why my arbors cost much
more than the
rectangular ones they see in their neighbors' yards.
And none
of the contractors, legit or otherwise, can build arbors like you see here either. They only build the
Mediterranean style arbors that you see on my
stack-of-sticks page.
I've had these
landscapers stop dead in their
tracks when they encounter me building an arbor like this one, stand
and stare, then remark among themselves "Mucho dinero!" not "Muy
bonito". All they see is $$$$$, not the beauty and the craftsmanship.
If $$$$$
is all you care about too, you'll have "no problemo" knowing whom to contact. |
