ggreenwald

Hello, I'm planning to build a large 20x20 pergola in my backyard this spring. Having gone through the pain of sealing my year old 600 sqft cedar deck last year, I'm defiitely trying to figure out a way to reduce maintenance. Also, I plan to have climbing vines all over the thing (the purpose is to provide shade after all), so restaining isn't going to be a fun project and it will cut back the usefullness. That said, I had originally planned on using rough-cut cedar components. 2x12 beams, 2x10 joists, and either 2x6 or 1x6 battens. We love the look of the rough-cut wood, and really like the added thickness over dimensional lumber. However, I'm starting to question if this is a wise move. In all honesty, if I could build something that I could stain gray and then naturally turn gray with no maintenance I would probably opt for that. The gray color would look really nice with our house. Yeah, I love the look of stained cedar in a warm brown, but I'm not sure I want to commit to the maintenance. Can cedar weather the conditions like that? I live in the Twin Cities and this will be exposed to the south and west so it will get a lot of sun. Any recommendations based on experience? Is there anyway to successfully allow nature to take its course and still get 10-15+ years from the structure? If there is, will look like trash or can I achieve that nice silver color without warping and splitting? Finally, is there anything I should considering doing differently because of all the rough-cut frame members (i.e. is one stain better than another? I was thinking Readyseal or WoodTux if going brown - not sure for gray)? Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and build the thing out of pressure treated SYP. Then I know I could get away with the gray stain approach. Your thoughts and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Grey

I've considered composite, but in addition to the posts I'd need to do the beams and joists with something stonger. I thought of wrapping some components in composite, but that gets really expensive. Big Mike - nice to see someone local from my area chime in. I appreciate it! I must say, I don't think your option sounds that bad. I think I could handle a cleaning and recoat every four years, plus I'll save on the material cost. I've never been a fan of PTP, but it may be how I need to go. If I did go cedar, can you recommend a stain based on what you've seen up here? Kevin was recommending Olympic Maximum earlier, and it claims 8-20 years protection. I've got Sikkens SRD on my deck now - we'll see how it looks after its first MN winter. Back to the pergola, I'm starting to consider a new approach. Let me know what you guys think about this. Instead of going with my original design plan and the fairly dense 2x6 battens on top, I could forgo the battens all together (except a few for structural support) and then build a custom cover from shade cloth. If I did it this way, no need for the vines and I could remove the shade cloth for staining and in the winter. I'm trying to imagine it, and I'm not sure if it would look half bad. My only concern here is the view looking down on the thing from my main floor living room. The nice thing is I could build it from cedar (or maybe Ipe? No idea how expensive that stuff is) and it wouldn't be too difficult to restain because I'd lose about half of the surface area. Am I crazy or could this be a good way to go? Thanks again everyone for the advice and thanks Beth for the great forum! Grey

I assume Alaskan Cedar isn't the same as the cedar that I can normally get from a lumber yard? As for redwood, for some reason I never see it here in MN but saw it all the time in CO. I'll ask around and see if I can find anyone that can get either in the sizes I need. Suppose I wanted to accelerate the graying process, or at least the gray appearance. Could I stain with a semi transparent or tinted stain to a gray right from the get go? Then I could avoid the inconsistent graying process (and the complaints from my wife). Any thoughts? Back to the Olympic Max, if I do go with regular cedar, I'm interested in something with a long life, but I want something that is easy to apply. That's why I'm interested in Readyseal or WoodTux. Both seem to be forgiving to early rain, heavy applications without filming, not showing runs, etc. Trying to find a day last summer in which there was no chance for rain but with no sun was next to impossible. I'm considering stripping the Sikkens SRD that I put on my deck last year and applying one of those others this year or next. Thanks again everyone.

Thanks for the response. I checked out Olympix Maximum stains and sure enough, they claim that their solid stain product is "Guaranteed to prevent water damage and graying for a minimum of 8 years on decks and 20 years on fences and siding." That seems like quite a claim! Not sure I'm buying it for a deck, but if it worked even for 8-10 years on my pergola then that would be exactly what I'm looking for. I wonder... Would the battens on the top of the pergola really fall into more of the deck category since they are flat and laid horizontally? Does anyone have any experience with the Olympic Max product? How does it perform and how easy is it to appy? Is there something better on the market to consider? I found your comments about the pressure treated pine very interesting. I'd always thought that treated pine was much stronger and stable than cedar. Wouldn't that mean that 99% of decks are built on a structure made of junk? I figured that option was always available to me if I wanted the easy way out. Now I'm not so sure... Grey