Glazed Oak Pergola Design

Richard Brown works as a carpenter in the Herefordshire area.

He had a client who was looking to have a large glazed oak pergola installed on the back of their detached brick-built home, in a small market town at the foot of the Malvern Hills.

The garden benefitted from fabulous views across the countryside, and they wanted to make the most of these when sitting outside. Having a glazed oak pergola with a glazed roof seemed like the perfect solution.

Richard had dealt with Oak By Design a few years previously when he needed an oak porch supplying, so he knew where to come for the oak pergola.

The oak pergola was to be nearly 7 metres wide by 3 metres deep, with a relatively low-pitched roof that would sit against the house wall. Access to the pergola would then be via French doors from the living room.

As Richard and his clients weren’t sure what timber sizes to use, Joanne supplied a couple of scaled diagrams for them to decide. She provided drawings in both 140mm x 140mm and 190mm x 190mm.

The clients decided to go for the chunkier oak option, with 190mm x 190mm main timbers and 140mm x 140mm oak rafters. A quotation was provided, which was accepted by Richard's clients in March, ready for the pergola to be in use for the summer.

Initially, the clients wanted to have the front oak posts supplied longer than would be seen, so they could be dropped into the ground, but they changed their minds and decided on having the posts fit into a metal shoe that Richard was going to have made.

All the oak was sealed with 2 coats of Osmo Polyx UV oil – 429 (Natural)

The oak pergola was ready at the beginning of July, and delivery was arranged with a local courier to take the fabulous pergola to the site.

Richard sent the following information on how the build had gone:

“I was contacted by a customer who wanted a glazed oak oak pergola on the back of their house—the width of the back of their house—and to cover most of the patio. The total measurement was 7m long across the back of the house and 3m out from the house. The customer wanted big thick posts about 190mm x 190mm and 140mm x 140mm rafters for the glass to sit on.

They also requested a glass roof, which I sourced separately, but required strips of oak to be supplied, which they did with no problem. The glass was self-cleaning, 16mm WE spacer/argon gas/4mm toughened/low 1.2u value.

Following the drawings supplied by Oak By Design, I marked out where the three front posts would be sited and lifted the existing patio slabs. We then dug down and poured concrete in to make a base for the posts.

I had three steel shoes manufactured that would screw on the ends of the posts and down onto the concrete. This left a 5mm gap between the posts and patio, as the customer did not want the posts to sit on top of slabs. At the end of the build, we re-laid the slabs.

The build was very straight-forward. When putting the glass on, we added soft wood strips down the middle of the rafters, leaving 200mm. I machined some oak timbers to put at the bottom to disguise the soft wood where it was visible.

We then used the appropriate seal tape and crown tape before screwing down the extra strips of oak to make it tight and seal correctly.

I have used Oak by Design many times now. I find them very helpful when I am quoting for jobs and for any queries I have along the way.

The quality of their wood is the best around, and their measurements are spot on. Delivery is as agreed and always on time.”

The photos below show the pergola during the installation and the use of a compact lift, which makes lifting the large timbers much easier!