Pergola Day One & Two

I started the pergola on Sunday afternoon. In an effort to keep the project to a minimal cost I decided to dig the post holes myself and in the end I think it actually turned out to be a good decision (shocker, I know! ). The soil here is very sandy since I am near the lake and it made for rather easy digging. The holes needed to be 42 inches deep and also needed to be inspected prior to being filled. Check out the run down of the two days:

Here is the before photo of the patio showing were the posts were to be placed. (Day 1)

Once the placement was determined I dug the holes to the required depth (Day 1)

And then I had the holes inspected this morning. Right after the inspector left I headed to the hardware store to pick up 4 4x4x12 Pressure Treated Posts, about 20 bags of Quickcrete (in several trips) and 3 bags of crushed stone. (Day 2)

I placed the crushed stone in the bottoms of each of the holes and then carefully placed the 4x4s. Next, I backfilled the holes with concrete; constantly checking for level and plumb. Hours and hours later, I had something that looked like this: (Day 2)

All four posts are set and are plumb and level. It took almost all day to get this far, but this was definitely the hardest part. I think that attaching the trellis to the top should go pretty quickly and in the spring I’ll stain it a deep tobacco color to match the future fence.