Although it was a "golf day," I did a bit after lunch when I came home.
Just a small but important job.
We've had a pergola I built on the back of the house for thirty years. It was only made of softwood and ten years ago the two main supports were starting to rot, so I replaced them and the main beams. To prevent the posts from rotting, I made plywood "caps," for them. These I noticed last week were rotting despite having had a few coats of Woodsheen, in the intervening years. So I scraped them off this afternoon, gave the tops of the posts a good dose of Cuprinol, although there's no sign of any rot and made and fitted new caps. I Cuprinoled them and will give them a coat of Woodsheen tomorrow.
I'll also renew silicone bead around the "elephant's feet" of the bases. The posts are screwed to a bit of paving stone fixed to the York stone patio and the "feet" are fine concrete mix to protect them from any water. The problem with any post set in concrete, is that as the concrete dries, it shrinks and a very small gap between the post and the concrete occurs. Hence the need for a bead of silicone to stop any water getting in.
If you're going to fix a pergola to the back of a house, a good idea is to have a double beam at the front either side of the support posts. This one's "heavy duty," it easily supports my weight when I need to get up on the flat roof of the lounge extension at any time. It's as solid as a rock, despite being supported at the front by just two posts, the full width of the patio apart.
While I've got the Woodsheen out, I'll give these another coat. The problem with using a jigsaw to make decorative panels, is that the saw disturbs the laminations, so it's easy for water to get in. That happened to these a few years ago, when I replaced the twenty-odd year old originals. Two years later I had to re-make them, so just the panels get repainted every year.
However those on the tea-house have been fine for thirty years, but then they're made of much thicker marine ply, which I managed to find.
You know when you've got your wisteria pruning right, don't you?
