I live near the Katy, Tx area. Recently my wife and I had a Pergola installed in our back yard about a month ago. It’s a 10 x 12 pergola. We have two concerns.
1. We are starting to see splits/cracks in all four posts. (The posts are pressure treated wood, and the holes are filled with cement. We had a company install this for us.)
2. The pergola doesn’t seem even. We noticed this when we measured the poles for curtains. The two front poles seem to be 4 to 5 inches shorter in distance from each other than the two back poles. Shouldn’t the distances between the two front poles and backs be even.
Are these concerns we should have? If so what action do we need to take, in order to get this rectified?
Jerry
Tom’s Answer:
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Tom: I don’t know anything about the design, so I can’t really comment. I can comment on the first issue, the cracking of pressure treated. That’s what happens. Pressure-treated lumber today just…it will not rot, but it weathers terribly, especially when you get into the posts, because the posts come from the interior of the tree where the grain’s really tight, and it will fluctuate quite a bit. It will crack. That’s when we do posts and things for homes. You can use the pressure treated as the structure, but then we wrap it in Hardie, so you don’t have to see the weathering of it. There’s tricks to it. The only other way you can stop it is to paint it.
As far as design and why the posts are off on the dimensions, I don’t know.
Charlie: It’s too late for him, but that’s why Trex is selling those, now.
Tom: Oh, Trex is awesome. I won’t use pressure treated for walking or hand rails or anything you see. Use pressure-treated for the structure. It’s all hidden, then you cover it with a product like Trex and it’s gorgeous. You don’t have any of those issues.