Landscape Carpentry

[Reverend Blair]

Pressure treated lumber, or types of lumber that are naturally resistant, is what gets used for that purpose here. Stirrups do get used to some extent, but aren't really common practice except in areas where code requires it.

Codes in North America are a mess. In the city I live in there are actually different codes for different parts of the city and so many grey areas and interpretations that inspectors regularly contradict each other. Sometimes there's a reason for it...the weather here is a lot different than the weather in California, and we don't get earthquakes here. Sometimes it's just stupid...you are supposed to use 6 foot piles for wooden decks here, even though the deck and house will still shift at different rates and in different ways. The easiest solution to that shifting is simply to use ground pads to support the deck and adjust for shift by jacking up the deck and using gravel to re-level the pads. The result is that nobody gets permits for decks. Why does this rule exist? Well, it was imported from areas with sandy soil and the concrete industry has a lot of political pull here.

So with any construction it's important to check two things...what local codes are and what local common practice is.

[hadespussercats]

Landscape carpentry is just a fancy term for the crap you build in your yard. Mostly it works out to be fences and decks, but raised flower beds, wood retaining walls, picnic tables, wood gazebos, wheelchair ramps, sheds and rough housing for livestock, and even a free-standing stansion for two milk cows are all things I have some expertise in.

With the gardening/building season coming up, I thought I'd offer to answer questions anybody might have.

Have you even noticed that Roger Cook, the landscaper on This Old House, is missing part of a finger?

Reminds me of Wood Shop teachers holding up their partially digit-less hands and telling the kids to be careful with power tools...

[Reverend Blair]

I work repairing power tools a couple day a week. I'd say half of our over-forty customers are missing some bits. I'm not sure if the younger guys are more careful, or just haven't been around long enough to have reduced their counting options.

The landscaper on This Old House is one of the few TV how-to guys I still pay attention to. Most of them are forced to cut so many corners because of time constraints that they really don't show you much. Landscaping tends to be simpler though, so his segments tend to be way more informative.

[JimC]

I work repairing power tools a couple day a week. I'd say half of our over-forty customers are missing some bits. I'm not sure if the younger guys are more careful, or just haven't been around long enough to have reduced their counting options.

The landscaper on This Old House is one of the few TV how-to guys I still pay attention to. Most of them are forced to cut so many corners because of time constraints that they really don't show you much. Landscaping tends to be simpler though, so his segments tend to be way more informative.

Our very own Woodbutcher is one of the missing digit crew...

I have been working in the shed with my 15 year old son, and safety with power tools is high on my agenda... (all go through quick shut-off power leads, for example...)

I did a big modification on my passionfruit vine support:



The more I tried to tighten the wires, the more the outer posts leaned inwards... (too dumb to think of that at the beginning... ), so I have replaced the top wire with a couple of struts (first loosening all the wires), then the wires tighten perfectly against the compression of the wood...

Will post a pick of the finished product later...

[JimC]

OK, here is the finished product (which is how I should have built it in the first place... )



Now to dig holes, put in compost and fertiliser, and plant 2 passionfruit vines...

[Woodbutcher]

OK, here is the finished product (which is how I should have built it in the first place... )



Now to dig holes, put in compost and fertiliser, and plant 2 passionfruit vines...

Nice work, Jim. If I plant something, dogwood will come up. Or poplar. Or pin cherry. Or raspberries. So I settled on raspberries. I get several gallons each year, I just freeze them in one liter bags and thaw them out as required.

[Woodbutcher]

Bella, your arbour is fastened to your house, is it not? You might be able to cut the post and use a deck block under it. You wouldn't have to dig then.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We had to replace some posts in place once. The CBs cut 5 gallon plastic buckets in half, top to bottom. The rotten part of the posts was cut off. The buckets were placed under the posts and strapped. The Bees then poured concrete into the buckets. Nice solid footing for the posts.