List
How To Build Beautiful Outdoor Structures
Spruce up any backyard with pergolas, arbors, trellises, and more.
If your home has a backyard, building an outdoor structure could be a creative and affordable way to add character to your home and expand your living space when the weather is nice. Plus pergolas, greenhouses, gazebos and more can often be built in a couple weekends with readily available materials, making them perfect projects if you don’t have a lot of time or a big budget.
Fortunately, the Fine Homebuilding archive is full of articles that can help you to design and build anything from a simple archway for your garden path to a spacious shade structure for your patio or deck, and we’ve compiled our favorites right here.
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How-To
1
Video: Create a Simple Curve for a Pergola -
Design
2
Traditional Pergolas -
How-To
3
Build a Gateway Pergola -
4
What’s the Difference: Trellis, Arbor, and Pergola -
5
Free Plans for a Cedar Pergola -
How-To
6
Hinged Trellis -
Design
7
Designing a Grilling Station -
How-To
8
Gazebo-Layout Template -
Design
9
Greenhouses and Potting Sheds -
Design
10
A Recycled Greenhouse -
How-To
11
Building a Pergola -
12
Building a Privacy Screen -
Design
13
Building Benches and Planters -
How-To
14
Custom Details Make a Better Deck
View Comments
My copy of the IBC for use in Georgia for deck building firmly states that "Support of beams w/fasteners only is prohibited. Bearing is required."
Thus, at least in Georgia (One might think the US given the adoption of the IBC by the various states) this author's technique of using the galvanized bolts only to support his lumber as a beam would not be allowed.
What am I missing?