Build your own Three Gable Timber Frame style Pavilion. Plans available for download in PDF Format.
See the How to Video.
My good friend Connor and his wife Sara asked me to help them build a pavilion in their back yard. They wanted a timber frame three gable structure so I modelled up a design in Sketchup and drew up some plans.
Build the Timber Frame Style Pavilion
Table of Contents
The Sketchup Model
The posts will sit on formed concrete piers. There’s two beams running North to South. And two beams running East to West. Corner braces add rigidity to the frame at the intersection of the beams and posts.
King posts sit mid span on the beams and support the upper ridge beams. Valley rafters run from the peak to the corners and support the jack rafters.
Common rafters finish the gable ends and the West facing roof slope.
Strapping is laid over these rafters and over the jack rafters on the Northeast and Southeast corners.
The roof is finished with plywood then metal sheet.
I have a full set of plans available for download.
Building the Three Gable Timber Frame style Pavilion
Forms for the Footings and Piers
We cut into Connor’s deck and built batter boards to lay out the footings and concrete piers to support the structure. I used string drawn over the ledger boards to locate the center of each post.
The strings are kept taught with bricks. They can easily be adjusted or pulled out of the way if needed.
The string lines are squared so the posts are 10′ x 10′ on center.
I leveled the tops of all the forms so they would be on the same plane. I used a laser level to help with this.
The pavilion is made from Douglas Fir rough sawn from a local mill.
The posts sit on adjustable galvanized saddles attached to an anchor bolt embedded in the concrete.
The plywood forms are coated on the inside with vegetable oil then concrete poured in.
They are covered with plastic and left to cure for several days.
The screws are then removed and the forms stripped.
