Gazebos: A Bit of Nostalgia

The gazebo—the word is redolent with antique charm—is an open post-and- beam structure usually of five, six or eight sides topped with a peaked roof. The Victorians, whose name for this airy summer house is mock-Latin for “1 shall gaze,” decorated their gazebos with everything from ornately carved scroll and wrought-iron ornaments to rustic twigs and branches with the bark left on.

The gazebo is still popular as a summer garden shelter, combining 19th Century charm with the openness and simplicity of more conventional post-and-beam structures. Once erected, the structure can be either left open or covered with woven reed or bamboo (), with plastic or aluminum screening or with lattice (), and it can be decorated with whatever curlicues the owner fancies.

A gazebo like the one at right, consisting of a six-sided wooden platform set on masonry blocks, avoids the necessity of casting a slab or setting posts in a perfect hexagon. If the site is uneven, embed the blocks in the earth to level their tops. The six supporting posts are attached to the platform, which is strong enough to bear their weight and that of the beam-and- rafter unit that forms the roof. Install handrails in all but the entryway section to give rigidity to the structure, and set a masonry block at the front of this open section to serve as a step.

First determine the length of the plat form’s sides. Measure the radius of how ever large a circle the platform will occupy. The sides of a hexagon whose points touch the circumference of that circle will be the same as the radius; for a pentagon, multiply the radius by 1.25; for an octagon, by 0.75.

Cut the perimeter boards to the proper length and miter their ends to an angle of 30 deg for a hexagon, 36° for a pentagon or 22½ deg for an octagon. Cut the spacers (the boards that separate the rafters) in the same way. Use a framing square to mark face cuts for the crossbeams and rafters. To assemble the roof, you will need to build a nailing platform. Finally, you may want to rent two scaffolds to use in lifting the roof into place.

Anatomy of a hexagonal gazebo. Six 4-by-4 posts toenailed to a wooden deck form the uprights of this post-and-beam structure. The gazebo deck, which simply rests on masonry blocks, consists of perimeter boards, floor joists and decking, all of 2-by-6s. Six horizontal crossbeams, a set of five handrails and a set of six plywood arches give the structure lateral rigidity. The roof rafters of the gazebo are nailed at their bases to the crossbeams and attached at their peaks to 2-by-4 spacers.

1. Making the base. After cutting both ends of six 2-by-6s with a circular saw set at a 30 degree angle, apply a liberal amount of exterior-grade carpenter’s glue to the board ends and assemble the base. Nail two corrugated frame fasteners into the joints . Reinforce the inside joints of the assembled base with 3” metal truss plates that have been bent to fit the inside angle of the joints. Assemble the horizontal crossbeams for the roof of the gazebo by the same techniques, and cut the five lengths of 2-by-4 handrail.

2. Putting in floor joists. Nail 2-by-6 joists, aligned on 16” centers, to the gazebo base.

Cut the joist ends at an angle, if necessary, to match the angle of the perimeter boards. Lay decking boards at right angles to the joists, and trim the deck edges with a circular saw (Step 3). Place six masonry blocks on the ground or on a bed of gravel, to serve as supports for the gazebo base. Use a water level to even the height of the blocks. Then position the completed base on blocks.

3. Putting up the posts. After cutting 4-by-4 posts to the desired height, toenail the first post to the deck with four 16-penny nails. Plumb and brace the post and erect and secure the remaining ones, bracing each post to the adjacent one with temporary stiffeners (overleaf).

Then position the base of the first rafter board over a joint of the crossbeam roof base, toenail the rafter in place with a 10-penny nail and se cure the connection with 2” angle brackets.

4. Preparing the rafters. After cutting the rafter ends to match the desired pitch of the gazebo roof, cut six spacer boards to the desired length and toenail one to the peak end of each rafter while it rests on the ground.

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5. Assembling the roof frame. Attach a second rafter with its spacer as you did the first, then toe nail the free end of the first spacer to the open end of the second rafter. To facilitate nailing, slip a temporary platform —built with 2-by-4s to the exact height of the spacers above the cross- beams—underneath the spacers, and brace the edge of the rafter with your leg. Add the remaining rafters and spacers the same way.

6. Placing the roof. Have two helpers hand the roof up to you and a third helper standing at the ends of two scaffolds, placed a opposite sides of the gazebo. Carefully walk the roof into place; position it with the outer edges of the cross-beams resting on the corners of the posts.

7. Fastening the roof. Drive a 16-penny nail through the ends of all the crossbeams and into the top of each post. Then nail a 3” metal angle pate to both sides of each post with eight-penny nails.

Attach handrails to the posts with angle brackets. Fasten 1-by-1 nailing blocks to the underside of the crossbeams and install plywood arches, cut at a 30-degree angle to fit between posts.

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