Log Dog Timberworks

Timber frame pergolas & pavilions

Solid 7×7 and 8×8 Douglas Fir, cut and fitted by hand and pinned with oak. We build pergolas over decks, pavilions over hot tubs, and the occasional gazebo, greenhouse or shed.

Options
  • Pitched or sloped roofs
  • Curved braces and embellishments
  • Foundations and mounting
  • Oil treatment or natural aging
  • Custom sizing
  • Permit handling
The difference

You can buy a kit from a big-box store. Those are bolted together, built from smaller lumber, or made with built-up posts designed to look like solid timber. Standing next to the real thing, it is not close.

Ours are solid timber, joined the way frames have been joined for thousands of years. A tenon is cut on one timber, a mortise is cut in the other, and an oak peg is driven through both.

The peg holes are drilled slightly out of line on purpose. That is drawboring. As the peg goes in, it drags the tenon deeper into the mortise and locks the joint tight with no metal involved.

Sizes and designs

We have several designs ready to go and can adjust one to fit your space and style. If you would rather start from nothing, we design it from scratch. Here is how that works.

For most Denver suburbs, structures under 200 square feet (roughly 14×14) do not need a permit. If yours does, we handle it. Rules differ by city.

Photos

Recent work

Timber frame pergola with knee braces standing on a new cedar deck, with a wood fence and bare trees behind
01Knee-braced pergola on a new cedar deck in Golden.
Looking straight up through the rafters of a hand-cut timber frame pergola toward a blue sky
02The view from underneath. Every rafter tail is cut and fitted by hand.
Close view of a drawbored oak peg set in a mortise and tenon joint on a Douglas Fir timber
03A drawbored oak peg in a mortise and tenon joint.
A large timber framing chisel lying across a Douglas Fir beam beside a freshly cut mortise
04A big chisel does the work a bolt never could.
Timber frame pavilion at night during installation, with green lanterns hanging from the posts
05A pavilion mid-install, after dark.
Underside of a finished pavilion roof showing tongue-and-groove decking over hand-cut timber framing
06Underside of the roof: tongue-and-groove decking over the frame.
Finished timber frame pavilion beside a stone-veneer house, with a hot tub under the roof
07The Erie pavilion from the front.
Timber frame pavilion with a hot tub under the roof and covered patio furniture beside it
08The hot tub fits easily under the frame.
Finished timber frame pavilion with a green garland along the beams and a hot tub beneath the roof
09Finished and decorated for the season.
A V8 juice can standing on a timber block beside an 8x8 Douglas Fir post to show scale
10For scale: a V8 can next to an 8x8 post.
Project notes
Questions

Before you ask

What are your pergolas made of?

Solid Douglas Fir timbers, typically 7×7 or 8×8, joined with mortise and tenon and pinned with drawbored oak pegs. No built-up posts and no bolted-together kits.

Do I need a permit for a pergola in the Denver area?

In most Denver suburbs, a structure under about 200 square feet (roughly 14×14) does not need a permit. Larger structures may. Rules differ by city. If yours needs a permit, we handle it.

Can you build over a hot tub or a deck?

Yes. The Erie pavilion covers a hot tub with room left for chairs, and the Golden pergola sits on a cedar deck we built first. The structure is sized to what is under it.

Can you design something custom?

Yes. Every build is modeled in 3D before we cut, so a custom design goes through the same process as a standard one. We also have several designs ready to go that we can adjust to fit your space.

Do you build gazebos, greenhouses and sheds?

Yes. Pergolas and pavilions are most of what we do, but the same timber frame approach works for gazebos, greenhouses and sheds.

Tell us what the space is for.

Start with a short note