A bit like the Porch job, this project was to replace a tired old pergola before the climbers started growing again in the Spring. I’d allowed a day to dismantle the existing structure, but one push and it was down!

At 8m long, this was a case of making all the components and assembling everything on site. The delivery wagon created a bit of a blockage on the lane, but working on the drive proved to be a great advert for FlatCap and a very sociable way to meet some villagers I hadn’t spoken to before. It turns out lots of people are really interested in woodworking!

Junior FlatCap did a brilliant job of cutting and shaping all the notches and ends of the horizontal beams whilst I worked on mortise and tenon joints for the uprights and bracing pieces. To prevent the new uprights rotting the way the originals had, we set concrete staddle stones along the edge of the path and drilled into the base of the uprights to sit them on the protruding pins.

One day on site and everything slotted together like a dream.