Gazeboblog - Episode 3 (Stonehenge West)

Today I finished the six pillars for the gazebo. So each pillar is made up of (12) 8"x16"x8" "CMU's" (Concrete Masonry Unit).  They are sitting on 5" thick 2' square footings which were buried 2' under ground. The pillars extend 3' above the ground. In addition to being mortared together, two of the four holes are filled with concrete and rebar. These puppies are stout. 

I also built a form for the pillar caps and did my first test cap. I looked into buying these caps at a masonry company, but they wanted $70 each for them. The caps are 22" square and have a 12" square spot for the log to sit on, and then they slope down slightly to drain off rain. I added a bit of brown color and plan to make them exposed aggregate style (more on this later). We'll see how it goes later tonight when I remove the form.

Gazeboblog Episode 2

Having no more excuses, today I "dug in" and finished digging the remaining two (of six) footing holes for the gazebo. The first hole had a giant root going through the middle that I had to chainsaw out and pull up with the tractor. The second hole had a huge boulder (too heavy to lift out without the tractor. But I got er done. I then poured the footings, which are about 2'x'2' x 6" thick. Two 80# bags of concrete. The tricky part is making sure the top of each footing is level with respect to the other 5 footings. Mine are dead on ... within an inch anyway. Hey, it's just a gazebo!

Then I started in on the concrete blocks. These are 8" x 16" x 8" blocks. Each pier will be 6 blocks high  (48"+mortar), so 12 blocks/pier. This is the first time that I have ever worked with these blocks to build something like this. I'm not very good at it, I decided. But I got three of the piers started (two blocks high each), and they seem to be ok. Once i get all six base piers done, I'll pour concrete down the inside of the blocks and add more rebar. 

We are still investigating the river rock for the outside of the piers. Regular 'cultured stone" can cost upwards of $7 a sq ft, and we need 120 sq ft. We can get some on Craigslist for around $3.50-$4, sqft. The direction I'm currently leaning is to make our own rocks using rubber molds and concrete. This way we can make rocks for the greenhouse and around the foundation walls of the new house. This is the mold brand we are considering: http://www.stonecasterstudio.com/index.html  

Gazeboblog ~ Episode 1

So the gazebo in nearly done .... no wait  ... this is just an example of what we want to build - we just started the project today! Geez!


Yesterday we determined where the center will be, then made an outline of the circumference. Then we marked where each post will go. I then dug the holes for two of the six footings. 

The gazebo will be hexagon shaped and 16' across. A hexagon is of course a polygon with six sides and six vertices, but it is not to be confused with a sexagon, because a sexagon is a gazebo you have sex in ... so with any luck, this will be both a hexagon and a sexagon! But I digress ...

As in the example our gazebo will have six 16" x 16" concrete pillars going up to 3' above the ground. The pillars are going to be made from 8"x16" cinder blocks, sitting on 2' square' footings buried 18"-24" deep. We plan on covering those pillars with river rock. Log posts will sit on those, supporting log beams going around the perimeter of the gazebo. The rafters will also be log.

Our gazebo will not have a floor like most do. It will be natural ground that we'll cover with wood chips.

Next week, I'll start the concrete work using this nifty mini cement mixer I bought. It's capacity is 1.25 cf, which is enough for two 60# bags. I will mix one 80# bag at a time.

A real handy tool to have for this kind of project is a good quality spinning laser level. You can fairly easily determine the correct level for each footing and make them all the same. Unfortunately mine is a cheap one I bought at a Times employee auction. (Frank Blethen I want a refund!) You can barely see the laser more than 5' away in daylight, so this one is mostly for indoors. If I slow the spinner way down, and block the sun, and use a white stick to measure the height, it works ok.