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Nice of you to say so! The 4 posts are treated 4x4. I'm not sure, but I think they're cedar. They aren't sunk into the ground. They sit, bolted into receptacles at the top of 4 long metal spikes that I had to sledgehammer into the ground: (the structure began its life as a red Shinto Arch until it dawned on me that it was out of place, so I cut the top off it & replaced it with the roof).

At the top of the posts, on the left & right sides, I nailed 2 pieces of thick plywood, cut with a shallow V pointing up, to support the roof. I cut the V to the angle recommended for Japanese roofs - I've forgotten what it is, but it's shallower, I think, than most western roofs.

The roof is two pieces of thick - 3/4" marine plywood I think - each about 3' x 6' 6", with roofing felt tacked to the upper sides, and cedar shingles nailed over that and then stained with a dark wood stain/preservative.

There are a few cross pieces nailed or screwed to the posts & to the underside of the roof as well, to give extra rigidity. There are no sophisticated carpentry joints whatsoever, Japanese or otherwise.

The gates are a later addition - plastic lattice (painted as near as I could get to bamboo colour) & framed in some sort of wood that had suitable grooves in it. The gates hide the view of our vegetable beds.

Our local Japanese Gardening expert looked at it and suggested I stain and varnish the underside of the roof. His idea was of course good - but my execution of it wasn't. I couldn't reach everywhere with the brush & an awful lot of the stain just dripped onto the path and on me, so I gave up. I should have done the staining and varnishing before I assempled the gate. I now argue that nobody (well, hardly anybody except Japanese Gardening experts) looks upwards when passing through the gate.......

Herb

The roofs on most Japanese roofed gates seem to be supported by 2 pillars. That seemed to me to require that the 2 pillars be very solidly anchored indeed & I reckoned I didn’t have the skill to achieve that. So my gate has four wooden pillars. They support a roof made of two pieces of strong (3/4 inch) plywood. I’m not sure but I think they were being sold as marine grade.

The pillars are each 7 feet long and about 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" in cross-section.. They aren’t set in the ground - instead they’re set in 4 strong steel spikes. Each about 2 or 2 ½ feet long that were driven into the ground with a sledgehammer. The top of each spike is square and a pillar fits into it. (See pictures P1 and P2). If you use this method, make sure the pillars will be a good tight fit in the tops of the spikes.

The spikes are set at the corners of a rectangle - 3 feet apart measuring from the front of the gate to the back, and 5 feet 4 inches apart measuring from the gate from side to side. You have to take care that the spikes get driven in vertically, (otherwise the pillars won’t be vertical either).

The 2 plywood roof pieces (to my surprise - I was sure I’d used full sized 4ft x 8ft pieces!) - but I’ve just measured them and they’re each 7 feet by 3 feet.

Once the spikes were in the ground, and the pillars were fastened inside the tops of the spikes, I nailed a plywood crosspiece to join the two front pillars, and another one to join the two rear pillars. This helps to stabilize them. (See picture P4.)

Next I joined each pair of side pillars together, again using strong plywood. (See pictures P3 and P6). This time though, the plywood was cut to a shape that not only joined the pillars together, but would also support the 2 pieces of plywood roof - and give it the correct pitch. Japanese gate roofs are usually made with a shallower pitch than roofs on many western structures - between 4/10 and 5/10. So, I made the pitch 4.5/9. To put it another way, that two pieces of the roof meet at an angle of about 135 degrees (see picture P3.)

I also wanted to reinforce the joint between the two roof pieces, so I added a strut (see the picture P5).

Once I’d got the roof panels nailed or screwed to their supports, I covered them with roofing felt. Then I nailed cedar shingles (or are they called shakes?) over them.

Later I nailed some more strips of wood across the sides of the gate. They don’t add any strength, to the gate, I put them there because my wife wanted something for the Clematis & other things to climb up.

Paul

Just one bit of advice - the ground on the north side of a roofed gate like this will get considerable shade from the sun, so keep this in mind if you're thinking of planting something there.

Herb

Good point. The people before me put up an 8 ft high fence on the south property line. Total shade on our side and it severly limits what goes there. My understanding is that he built the mulch beds first and planted sun loving plant material. Then installed the fence. I have had to relocte most of the material to sunnier locations and repace with shade lovers.
By the way. How is it possible to post pictures on your page and in a message?
Paul

To post a picture (other than directly via the forum gallery, which you can only do if you're the first person to start the thread) you need to have the picture stored at some suitable Internet hosting site.

Then (depending on what the host site allows) you can link to the picture by including in your message the picture's URL that people then paste into their browser, or, sometimes you can include the URL in an HTML(?) coded formula that either allows a viewer just to click on it (that's what I did) or else makes the picture appear automatically which I think is what Sue did.

I'd like to give you the HTML formula here, in this message, but I don't know how to. The problem is that when you put it into a message, the computers assume that you're actually sending a URL or a picture, so it shows up as a little box.

Herb

Herb, the pic is not working... i'd love to see what you gate looks like!!

/Henrik

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Don't worry about your English. And a Happy New Year to you too. I'm looking forward to 2005 and even more to February 23.......

Herb

Steve

As long as you two keep posting such great, worthwhile, interesting content, I won't worry about your English :)

:) Evelyn

(But if either of you starts posting stuff like uninformed pleas for help with dying Japanese maples, I may change my policy :) :) :)

Your help is much appreciated.

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