A Pergola and a New Cedar Deck in Golden

The homeowner in Golden did not call about a pergola. She called about a feeling. She wanted a backyard people did not want to leave.

The trouble was the patio. It was small, aging, and nowhere near big enough for a crowd. So before we talked timber, we talked deck.

The deck came first

We framed and built a new cedar deck, wide enough for a table, a few chairs and room to move around a grill. Once it was down, we laid out the pergola that would sit on it.

Built to be looked up at

People notice a pergola from the back door. They notice the rafters later, from a chair, looking straight up. That is where the joinery shows. Every rafter tail on this build was cut and fitted by hand, and from underneath you can see how it all goes together.

There are no bolts or brackets in the joinery. It is Douglas Fir, mortised and tenoned, and pinned with drawbored oak pegs.

Why a peg instead of a bolt

In a drawbored joint, the peg hole through the tenon is drilled a hair out of line with the hole in the mortise. When the oak peg is driven through, it drags the tenon deeper into the mortise and locks it there. No metal to loosen or rust.

What came out the other end was a deck worth standing on and a pergola worth sitting under.