I Built A Luxury Pergola That's Actually Useful

In the past, I've built several pergolas. And from that, I learned that they're a complete waste of time. They don't provide any shade, they don't provide any shelter from the rain, and they're a huge amount of upkeep having to restain it every couple of years. Well, today we'll be building a low-maintenance pergola that you actually won't regret building. Let's get into it. This is my outdoor grill area. Well, technically it's just kind of where I keep my grill. And the plan here is to build an entire giant outdoor built-in grill station, an outdoor kitchen if you will. And the perfect solution for this empty area above is an outdoor pergola. Now, it's not going to be a traditional ginormous pergola that will take an entire weekend to sand and restain every couple of years. Instead, it's going to be narrow because we need it to be acting as an accent statement piece. And with that statement piece, we're going to have lighting, it's going to be narrow, it's going to be in the shadiest part of our backyard, and it's actually going to be an application that's worth building a pergola for. All right, this is some beefy material. This is Douglas fir, and it's not your average Douglas fir. This is Douglas fir that you got to go talk to a guy in a creepy alley for. Let me tell you why it's special. This is grade one resawn, so you have all these saw marks on there, no wane, premium lumber that you can't just walk into Home Depot and get. You have to go to special milling place to go pick these up, and that also comes with a steep sticker price. And for the boards that you see here, I paid $1,140, and that's just the lumber. That's not including any hardware or anything else. Let's take it apart, and the first thing we're going to do is be smart about this build, and we should stain before we build. It'll save a lot of time. All right, so here's what I'm thinking. We're going to have these giant 6 by 6 beams on the sides and we're going to go with rough sawn lumber. It's going to look so sick. Then we're going to have a giant beam coming across and with slats coming through them. Now, the cool thing here is they sell a lot of awesome hardware that we'll be able to have like metal brackets all the way around and then we're going to have multiple layers on top. This is going to be more of this like intricate design on top of it and then what we'll be able to do is dangle some lights from the top. What that will allow for us to have sufficient lighting when we're grilling and then on top of it we're going to have greenery once we build our entire kitchen that will have vines grown up the sides of the post and making this area look so freaking cool. So, because we're going to be bedazzling this pergola with a bunch of cool hardware that's powder coated like this, we don't want to get any of the stain on here and have these weird cracks that you could see of like raw wood and then stained wood. It's a whole mess. So, what I'm going to do is all my lumber I'm going to pre-stain it. That's how smart and ahead of the game I'm going to be. Once it's dry, then we're going to start cutting, slicing, and dicing, putting it together, and then touching up all the spots that had the cut marks on it. But just like stain, it's never going to turn out the way those samples show you at the store. So, we're going to see what kind of concoction we can come up here with. All right, I got solid stain. Uh this is like 99% I think uh UV protection. Crazy solid stuff. Um this is stuff that a lot of builders use in my area. I'm going to mix this up. There's a part of me that thinks this is going to be very yellow, but I I have an idea how we could possibly fix that and that's going to involve mixing kind of special mixing our own stain, I guess. >> Kind of ballsy doing all the mixing on the lumber you're using. >> It is kind of ballsy, but I want to stay comfortable for a second. That's actually a good call. I'm glad you told me that cuz uh if it doesn't look good, this is rough sawn lumber and it absorbs stain like a sponge. So, there's no getting it out. >> Yeah. >> The color is cedar and it's giving off cedar and I know this kind of mellow out, but I want a little bit of brown tones in there. It's actually not bad. Not that bad. All right, that's officially half a can. Like Pablo Picasso over here trying to get the perfect Ooh, that's looking a little spicy there. I like that. I'm probably just going to end up dumping this whole thing, watch. Oh, that might be the perfect color. I know it might not look a whole lot. This is the first coat of nothing. This is a little bit mixed. This is a lot of brown tones. That's exactly what I want, but just give it a You know when you're pouring your friend a cocktail, you're like, "It's Friday." Yeah. And then they're drunk on your lawn. And that's why your best friend Greg can't come over anymore. Freaking yeah, dude. Freaking yeah, dude. Oh, that's the perfect color. The perfect color does exist. Right there. What a great way to start a Friday, huh? You know what I'm just reminded of? That scene from Elf where Buddy the Elf runs in, he goes, "The perfect cup of coffee." He goes, "You did it. Congratulations." >> Congratulations. World's best cup of coffee. >> You've made the world's best cup of coffee. This is the world's perfect stain. That's I feel like Buddy the Elf right now. All right, bombs away, folks. It's one way to dry your lumber. Good thing they're 16-footers. Everything's dry and looking absolutely gorgeous. We're going to start getting ready to build this thing. We're going to start with the header, put that on. That way we could start mounting all of our posts connecting to it, and we'll have a good base to work with. Let's see what we're working with in terms of our canvas. I got This is plenty of room, but also I've gutters here. We're looking at 14 ft. So, we'll probably stick with 14, maybe take a few inches off the sides, that way it doesn't look cramped. Um and then we'll go from there. I also did my little math. I got 18 inches from there. So, by the time we stack our header and our beams and all that stuff, we'll stay away definitely from that fascia that's on top. We should be looking good. Let's start cutting. I think I did my math wrong. I knew I had 18 inches of by the time I stack everything, but I also included this beam. So, we're going to need to raise this another probably close to 6 inches. But, the good thing is the holes there, they're not going to be exposed. They're going to be covered by the bottom of this uh back ledger. So, I'm not too worried about it. So, we definitely had to move it and we had to move it a few times and now we have way too many holes that we know what to do with and that's problematic. Ooh, we got a solid beam up or the back ledger. Now we're going to start building our posts here. Ideally, I kind of did the math of how far away I want the posts to be. It's really kind of the the depth of my cabinets and my countertops that will be, but really the dictating factor is this grill. So by the time you open the grill, leave maybe an inch in the back to the front, we're looking at 36 in. So we're going to take our 6 by 6 posts, we're going to anchor on the ground both here and there. Solidify it and then we'll be able to run stretchers on it. Cuz these are just going to hang off of this, but then the front beam is going to be lower. 3 and 1/2 up here. So what we need to do is raise this 7 in. That way 2 by 4 That way 2 by 4 goes here and it's up there. We have to lift it again. This is so frustrating and here's why is I was thinking in my head that I'm going to have the next 2 by 8 sitting on top of this. But these are going to be on hangers. And then the beam up here needs to sit lower, so I don't want it to be like crammed over your head. Now the problem is the stucco is going to have all these holes left for me drilling into it. I'll patch them up. I have the same color that we can dab it up after it's done, but it just sucks drilling and redrilling and all that. All right, so the hardware situation here is going to be pretty nasty. I got even my anchors down below. They're all going to match. We're going to drop this down here. We're going to take these a What are they called? Redhead anchors. I've used them so many times. They're awesome. Drop it in here, put the little plate there, screw that on, hammer it in place, and then start tightening and this sucker shouldn't go nowhere. So, what I did here, because I have pavers there, anchors don't really do much, but because of the size of this pergola, I just need this thing from moving temporarily. It's small, right? So, the anchors won't do anything here because of the pavers. So, I put uh the exterior grade. It's meant for rocks and stuff. It's like a like a liquid nail, right? So, it's just there temporarily to hold it from shaking, so nobody kicks the leg out of this pergola on this side to fall down. But, because I'm going to have cabinets down here, when I install them, I'll be able to secure this leg to that cabinet and it will definitely will not move. I'm not looking for structural integrity here. I'm looking for strictly things to have the legs standing upright. That's it. Kyle, be a gent, pass me that level, please. Thanks, man. I said, "Nobody breathe on this thing. I need this thing to stay up until I secure the next couple of bolts or lags." And you got these little What are they called? Like little pucks. Oh, hex head washers. And it does a couple of things. It keeps it aligned within the hole, but it also creates this cool decorative look. I don't know beyond that if there's anything extra special that they they All I know is they're spendy but worth it. So, I got my temporary brace on there. Now, here's the thing. These Simpson Strong-Tie brackets will make the making of the beam up front so much easier. So, this is going to sit there and we're going to put 2 by 8 completely across, which is great cuz I could secure this and then as a solo man operation slide it on top. And then we do the same thing on the back side. A lot of cool hardware. Really, really cool stuff. Oh, and don't worry about them the posts being too long. We're going to chop them off once the header's on. What's my pet peeve, you ask? It's not framing a house by myself. It's not building anything by myself except for building pergolas by myself. I absolutely hate it. There's so much work and it's all big, tall stuff. It's difficult for one guy to do on his own. But we make it work. Clamps help. So, most pergola boards, they look bland and boring. And really, by tearing them up is what makes it kind of look multi-dimensional and pretty cool. But also, having some kind of style to it, right? So, I actually saw this at my local building supply store. They have pergola stuff on display. And I took a picture and I'm stealing that idea and I'm not afraid to admit that. >> Off to do some shady do da do da Off to do some shady do do da day That actually went a lot smoother than expected. I also ran out of the washers, so I'm going to temporarily put these in and then tomorrow or maybe after work today I'll go get some more, but in the meantime don't laugh. Now that I got my front and back uh beam if you will up, we can chop down this post that is going up there. It's nice cuz I can follow this as my little guide. Nice and chopped clean and evenly spaced. Got a brand new saw blade, hopefully it's long enough. Should have got a more aggressive blade, but hey, we got it done. Now that we have a solid work area, here's going to be our I don't know what they call these, stretchers, uh crossbeams, who knows. But the idea is they're going to hang like this. So, we're going to use these powder-coated hangers. These are good for both 2 by 6s and 2 by 8s. They match the aesthetic all over the place. And then while they're hanging off of this ledger, they're sitting on top of this, and we're going to secure them with these beautiful L brackets. I got my tip and no battery, of course. Uh let's go get a new battery and secure these things in place. All right. Oh, by the way, I've never show never showed you guys my new work trailer. Uh this is a huge upgrade and a big deal is uh headroom. So, that's why we got it. It's a little bit smaller, too, so it's less invasive and uh problematic. Yeah, of course, they're all dead. Of course, they're dead. I One of the things I hate about doing projects like with using my work trailers I always have to run extension cords everywhere to charge everything, but I have a perfect solution to not have like tripping hazards and cables running all over the place. Check this out. This is my new Jackery Explorer 5000 plus electric generator unit. Folks, we're talking an absolute beast of a machine. It's 7200 W. That's 240 V of power that's produced by this thing that literally I can power anything that's in this work trailer. I'm talking about my air compressor. I'm talking about charging my batteries. I'm talking about plugging in my table saw, plugging in anything I absolutely need. This thing will do it, and it comes with a ginormous solar panels that we can constantly keep charging and not even worry. This thing is compact enough that I could slide it into my work trailer, and also we let out here. It's got all my outlets to plug in, like I said, chargers or whatever. Nice easy LCD screen. Super fast charging. I'm talking about if you just bring this alone into your garage, plug it in, it goes 0 to 100 super fast. I got my solar panels here. There's plenty of USB-Cs, USBs. I have my 240 in the back here. This thing is an absolute monster, but you know what? I don't just use it for my work trailer and all stuff. I use it to also for like power outages. Let me show you. Now, we all know power goes out, fridge turns off, you're racing against the clock to make sure your food is safe. Well, I can just easily plug this right into my Jackery Explorer 5000, turn on the power to my outlets, and we have lights. We have refrigeration. We're back in business. We're not terrifying that we're the meat is spoiling in the fridge. We're good to go. Another thing happens, power goes out, everybody's hungry, right? You don't know if it's going to be a few hours or it's going to be a few days without power. Bring this unit into the house. It's got wheels. It's got a convenient handle. Throw any appliances that you need these outlets, plug it in. You're ready to make your kids anything they need, whether you have a little grill, a little skillet, toasters, appliances, whatever. It all plugs in. And the best part about it is there's no fumes. There's no noise. You don't have to worry about safety issues like you would with a gas generator. Bring this into your home. Bring this into your garage. Bring it camping. Bring it into your workshop. It will take care of all of your needs. And when you have something like this Jackery electric generator, you don't have to worry about things like that cuz you got everything you need with you. You can work off the grid. You can work on the grid. You can go camping. You can take care of your family when the power goes out. Check out the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus. It's a one-stop shop. You're going to love it. I love it. Stay productive and protect your family. Click the link in the description below and check out the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus for yourself. Now that our battery's recharged, let's get back to work. >> All right, I think we got them all cut here. I would love to have one more board, but it's not in the cards. Oh, by the way, we just hit a million subscribers by the way. Do you guys know that? We just hit a million subscribers and it's all thanks to you guys. Thank you so much for watching all of my videos. It's crazy to think about. We've been doing this for 9 years now and we just hit that milli and boy does that feel good. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's send this to the moon. 2 million subscribers, here we go. Let me know the crazy projects you want me to build and we'll make sure we'll build them on this channel. Now, if you have them, let's go throw these up. All right, I want to make sure they're spaced absolutely perfect. In fact, I'm going to have a a spacer piece that I'm going to make sure it's spaced out perfectly. So, the area is 134 and here's how you do it. You take the area that you're working with at the length and then all your pieces, figure out how thick everything is together. So, this is 15 and 1/2 in. So, 134 - 15 and 1/2 = 1 118 and 1/2. And then we're going to go divide that by let's say 11 pieces that I have. And that is 10? Do I have 11 pieces? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Nope, we got to divide that by 10. 118.5 / 10 = 11 and 7/8. 11 7/8 is our spacer piece. So, remember when I said that this is going to be a low maintenance pergola? It is. I'm keeping my word. Number one, when we filmed the beginning of the video, it was morning time. It was like 10:00 in the morning, and everything was was shaded. Well, right now, it is 3:20, and it's still shaded. Not to mention about half of this thing is underneath the soffit. So, any kind of maintenance that we'll have to do is like on this little section. So, so far, we're not lying. It's going to be a low maintenance one. It's the next morning. We got a little bit of rain, but nothing too crazy to cry home about. Now, with this pergola, everything's like phenomenal. I did quickly just move these brackets to the front as opposed to the sides. And really, for that reason is if I'm paying an arm and a leg for this hardware, I better see it. So, I put it up front, and I think it looks perfect. The more of that bracket combination of wood, the better. The next thing we're going to do is add one more layer to the top, but instead of going 2 by 8 2 by 8, we're going to go 2 by 8 2 by 8 2 by 4. You see what I did there? I don't know. Call me Pablo Picasso. Who knows? I'm just vibing right now. Let's throw those up. So, I don't know. I'm trying to match the same idea of a template. Obviously, different type of material, but it just kind of looks a little goofy. I'm not What do you guys think? I mean, is that too What do you think, Kyle? Is that a little too slim? Does it need a little bit of girth or something? Or do you think it's fine? >> I don't know, man. >> Love it. Great input. We're going to go with that. Jesus, I need more out of you, dude. Well, the only way to find out if this is the course to go, let's do the old put it up there and take a look at it. Thoughts, opinions, concerns, Kyle? >> I don't know. Kind of looks out of place. >> It does look out of It does kind of look like out of place. What if we just did an angle cut on it, and that's it? This is the part of projects I don't like. The aesthetic uncertainty. The side profile looks awesome. I love the side profile. It's just there's something about It looks like a forced cut, but maybe that's just me overlooking it. Um I think what I'm going to do is I'm just going to angle it. I'm going to skip the notch on the bottom. I think I'm trying to do too much with it. Like my kids say, "Bro, you're doing too much, bro." I'm your father. Don't call me a bro. >> Well, let's explore how we feel about it. Kyle, thoughts? >> I think it looks better. >> I think so, too. Doesn't it? I think there's less going on right here, like there is right there. I think it's a good happy in between. I do love the layering part. I wouldn't change that for the world. I say I say we run with it. Yeah, this thing's really going to grow on me. I believe it. And if you guys think there's a different alternative to that, I'd love to hear it. Let me know, cuz I can always change it, right? So, if you want to save a few hundred dollars on your pergola, you don't have to get this hardware…