40 for 40 Gazebo finish. What do you see?

 I liked to ask my Building Trades  students this question, while holding up a piece of 2x4 “What do you see?” Instantly hands shot up and with confidence the answer given,  A 2x4! 

To which I responded, wrong. That’s what it is. I asked what do you see? Puzzled looks swept over the class. 

With that example in mind here is what I saw when Arnie showed up at my door at 7am in the morning last fall and wanted to know if I wanted some logs from a couple of pine trees that he was cutting down for a neighbor of mine.

Well not right away. It took a look at my latest issue of the Timber Framers guild magazine where I saw a picture of structures that were featured at the 2025 annual conference.

With the layout of the post holes location done and dug it was on to the next step.

This was a fun part of the process as I took the preassembled post and brace units and laid them out by the holes. I took this picture from the top of the treehouse that would overlook the gazebo when finished.

This would require the disassembly of the roof rafters to get to the rim joist to complete the top of the posts. An important point here is that would be to measure and record the exact height of the #1 rafter from the top of the rim joist. This would be key to the reassembly process.

Even though the rafters were numbered I carefully laid them out for reassembly.

Getting the posts stood up and tied together with the rim joist was trickier than I expected. I thought the scaffolding would do all the work and all I would have to do was set the rim on the mortises cut in rim pieces. I was a struggle but worked.

With the rim set and the posts plumb I set in place the first two rafters. Using my Charlie stick shown as the black disc supported on the 4x6 and double 2x4 bridging, with fingers crossed, I secured them in place. Because if this placement was wrong I would be in big trouble when it came to the last rafters holes lining up. 

To my pleasant surprise I went very well with a little help from my mini tractor.

This is the money shot for me.

I will have many hours of viewing time from above and below in the future.

What do you see?

Reassembly of 40 for 40 Gazebo

 

It has been a few months. The snow is gone and the frost is out of the ground. So it’s time to take the parts for the gazebo out of storage and put them up.

The first step is to locate the holes for the six posts. This was tricky but using the radius of the 12 foot diameter of the gazebo I located the center of each hole.

Taking the photos from the treehouse with the spiral stairs gives a nice perspective.

Getting the right depth so that the finished gazebo would be level required that the holes were different depths to compensate for the slope of the land.

After the hole depths were rough dug I placed a cement cookie into the holes that the legs of post could set on and I dialed in the levelness.

I used a laser level placed in the center of the hexagon and double checked it across the sides.

I set up and placed some scaffolding to provide support for the posts while I began setting them up. It also gave me a platform to work off from. 

This was going to be trickier than I thought. The center scaffolding would be used later when I put up the rafters. I planned for the outside scaffolding to be rolled around as I set the rim joists to tie a pair of post together. Unfortunately the wheels of the scaffolding lined up with the holes. I had to use a ladder in stead.

I forgot to mention that I needed to take apart the rafters that I put together last fall so that I could get at the rim joists. All parts were numbered and chisel marked. All I had to do was keep everything straight.

Well it was a struggle but I got the first four up and this stabilized things.

Success. So far so good.

Here you can see the treehouse in the back ground that allows for the overhead views. This will be very nice to look at when the rafters are put up.

With the rafters all laid out the reassembly of the roof can begin.