Never a day with nothing to do ..!!

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Hi all,

You know when you get an itch …. you’ve just got to scratch it.

Well i had one this weekend.

OH has been asking for a seat in the garden ever since we moved in last year.

Well, i had a bit of spare cash so i purchased some wood with a rough idea in my mind of how it was going to look.

The wood turned up on Thursday and guess what … the hottest day of the year on Saturday, so i started work ….

We worked out that the angled corner near the nut tree would be a good location so i measured off the rough size and started digging my holes.

Spade width square and 18" deep …. oh joy …. clay soil after 6".

Now I’m no carpenter but i do know that levels have to be right so i found my longest spirit level and just kept digging until both back holes were the same depth.

Bubble in the middle …. posts in the holes …. time to get them solid.

At this point i had to also ensure that the posts were at the correct distance apart to accept the back trellis.

Easy enough …. place the back trellis between the posts BEFORE adding the quick setting concrete mix.

The way this stuff works is that you part fill the hole with water – about half full – place the pole in the hole and then fill with the concrete mix.

It takes roughly about one bag per hole at 18" deep.

One other thing to help with keeping posts upright if you are working on your own … as i was … is to screw a small strip of wood across the post at hole/ground level.

This just helps to steady the post as you add the mixture.

Now you have about 5 to 10 minutes to get the uprights level and square before the concrete mix goes off.

Two spirit levels on the post and one across the top do the job nicely.

So far so good……

Now for the two front posts …. same procedure by placing the side trellis between the front and the back post you can get the distance and the angle right before setting the concrete.

OK, so basic uprights now in place and solid enough to work with.

I now made my life easier by adding some strips of 1/2″ × 1″ batten down the length of each post.

This helped with placing the trellis in the same place on each post and gave me something to screw into to secure it.

Next job was to secure two 3″ × 3″ to the front and back posts in order to have something for the bench slats to sit on.

I don’t fully trust screws so i purchased some bolts, washers and butterfly nuts for this job and simply drilled through 6" of wood with a large drill bit and bingo job done.

However, as i had already screwed the back trellis in place i had to cut into it in order to fix the back post part.

Easy enough job with a small pruning saw.

Next job – cut and screw the seat timbers in place.

Easy enough, but remembering that there are back slats to fix …. but what to?

After a bit of head scratching i decided that i would use two of the bench slats cut off’s and angle the ends to give me a neat slant for the back fixing.

Now i just had to add the rest of the back slats.

Well, as you can see from this photo – i got it wrong.

I had assumed that the two upright back supports for the back rest were the same length as i had pre measured.

Obviously, during the angle cutting process i must have veered off slightly.

I had started fitting the slats from the top, so by the time i reached the bottom there was a wider gap at the left than there was at the right.

Never mind …. sort it out later.

Now, i had to add the roof.

I didn’t want a sharp angled roof so i had decided to use 2 x curved fence top trellis sections.

Didn’t quite know how it was going to pan out but did it anyway.

I measured of the distance and ensured that the overlap at each end was the same and fixed them in place. One at the front and one at the back.

At this point OH emerged and wanted to try it out.

Now for the roof.

I had ordered 25 × 3′ wide fencing slats to cover the roof with in an overlap fashion.

I worked one at a time from each end and eventually had to meet in the middle for the last one.

I used screws for the fixings as i didn’t want to take the chance of high winds lifting the roof off.

Only time will tell.

This is now the finished seat arbour. Please note that the back slats have been adjusted at this point.

Much neater i think

All there is left to do now is finish off the base around the arbour and this i think will be some weed membrane and wood chip enclosed by some low log roll at the back and sides.

I have some Penny Farthing stepping stones that i think will slot nicely under foot at the bench front.

We will probably allow something like Clematis Montana to grow over it but i will sort that next year.

I will put up the pictures when it it is finished …..

Roll on summer……..

Oh, by the way …. i started digging the first hole just before midday and the roof was on by 5.30 the same day.

phew … slept like a log..!!!!

• 4 Oct, 2011
• 12 likes

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