Pergola Predicament

Continued from: Pergola Vision

The first sign of trouble was more of a nuisance than a real problem.

You may recall for the roof of the pergola; we had purchased random sizes of shudders from a home salvage company.  They were all old but in fairly good shape.  Unfortunately, in hindsight, we did not consider that they were indoor shudders—not ones designed to be exposed to the harsh outdoor elements day after day, year after year.  I don’t recall what year the little slats first started falling out of the shudders but occasionally we would go out and find one or two on the ground that I would just pitch in the trash.

As the shudders got older, more and more slats began to rain down to the point that eventually, whole shudders had lost their slats.  My wife considered it rather unsightly (which it was) but replacing them was complicated by another feature.  In the photo below, you will notice something growing above the worn-out shudders.

At some point, my wife planted a vine that she trained to grow up one of the pergola posts.  Over the years, the canopy of the vine spread across the top of the pergola providing even more shade in the summertime.  The growth continued unabated to the point at which it became an annual activity for me to trim the vine branches that had grown out beyond the support of the pergola arching their way back towards the ground.  This also led to an even bigger problem.

In order to replace the shudders, I would need to cut where the vine branches had grown through the slat free shudders.  Also, we had screwed the shudders in place with just the main joists in place.  With the two additional intermediate joists between each of the main joists (which we had added after the shudders), there was not enough room between the joists to fit my body through, which I needed to be able to do to unscrew the shudders from the top.  The only other alternative would have been to climb on top of the pergola and work my way across unscrewing shudders as I went.  New shudders would then have to be similarly installed from the top.

Each year in the spring, my wife would remind me they needed to be replaced but each year, I would procrastinate and not act and soon the vine foliage would cover the top of the pergola making their replacement next to impossible.

Then an even bigger issue arose that I felt was even more pressing than the aesthetics of the shudder roof.

In 2020 after having rebuilt the wooden deck with pressure treated wood since much of the western red cedar had rotted, I was sitting on the rejuvenated deck and looked back towards the pergola.  I noticed the four posts were leaning towards the pool.  I got up and got out my level and sure enough found they were all out of plumb.

In the photo above, you can see how far out of plumb the post had become (the bottom of the level was up against the bottom of the post).

And when I placed the level on the top of the two main beams screwed into the post closest to the pool, I got further confirmation the pergola was leaning in that direction.

I then took off the pseudo baseboard around the bottom of the post and got further confirmation of the pergola leaning seeing that the right side of the bracket resting on the concrete foundation was compressed while the left side was slightly lifted up.

I sent these pictures to my son and asked his advice.  He speculated what might be going on, including that the foundation had settled.  He mentioned one idea to remedy it would be to add a shim on that side to bring it closer to plumb.

I also asked someone I know who with her husband, has their own construction business, and she concurred with the shim idea.

Three years later, our son came in town by himself for a visit and so I suggested we try to fix it.  He wondered if the vine had added so much weight to the top of the pergola that it had caused the lean.  But four years ago, the vine was not as big as now.

Taking off the baseboard on the back post, the one I had first noticed the lean in 2020, we confirmed that the post was leaning to about the same degree.

I found some metal edging to shim with and so he and my wife pushed the post towards the house while I inserted the shim.  Lining up the level, we could tell very little difference.  It seemed it was going to need a lot bigger shim.  I tried placing a second metal shim beneath the first one and then they both slid in too far and ended up under the hollow part of the brace providing no shim adjustment.

We explored other possible options, some much more expensive, and with no clear path forward, I just left it that way.

I don’t know when the pergola first started leaning but by now it has probably been at least five years and maybe even longer.  My first fear was it would collapse into the pool.  But after this much time, I am less concerned.  I mean, in spite of my brother’s best efforts to straighten it, how many centuries has the Tower of Pisa been leaning?

Fast forward another year and our son is back in town for another visit.

Since he was here, I again asked his advice.  He thought about it and said probably the best solution would be to hire a contractor who would have all the right tools to come out and fix it.  I just have no idea how much that would cost.

So, for now I plan to return to the aesthetic issue with the shudders.  When my son was here and I asked him about this problem also, he wondered out loud that with the full canopy of the vine now providing shade, maybe it was time to ditch the shudders all together.  Could it be that if I procrastinate long enough, all the slats will fall down and there will be little left to remove.  I am sure this solution does not suit my wife but then again, I can’t really do anything until the fall when the vine loses all its leaves.  For now, it is just a waiting game.