Simple Lean To Post and Beam Pavilion

Cutting Dados for Lean-To

These are posts from my garden pavilion project that had a similar tie beam design. Where the tie beam sits in a dado of the post.

I mark the location of the dado on the posts then with my circular saw set to 2 inches deep, I cut a series of thin parallel slices.

Then I break off those wafters with a mallet. Then clean up the dado with a chisel.

I cut my posts and beams to length by marking a line around the 6×6 with a large square. Then I’ll make 4 cuts with my circular saw. Then finish off the cut with a handsaw.

A circular saw cutting a beam or post — I maket a series of thin parallel cuts with circular saw

A man using a chisel on a cedar 6x6 — I use a chisel to clean up the dado cut in the posts

A man using a circular saw to cut a 6x6 post — I make 4 cuts around the ends of the posts to cut them to length

A man using a handsaw to cut a 6x6 — Finish off the cut with a handsaw

I don’t have a beam saw that can cut deeper but, this works fine. These are 6×6 posts for my greenhouse project I built a couple of years back.

For the butt end of the tie beam I have smaller and longer lag bolts that are run in through the low 6×6 beam into the end of the tie beam. This helps to pull this beam into the dado. It’s not a great way to secure this, with a lag bolt going into end grain so, some angle brackets help here.

X-ray

Let’s look at an x-ray view. Here you can see the tie beam sliding in the dado cut in the lower 6×6 beam. This type of animation is pretty cool.

3D Xray animation showing dado details — The tie beam slides into the dado in the lower beam

3D Xray animation showing dado details — The tie beam in the dado in the lower beam

3D Xray animation showing dado details — Xray view showing detail of this joint

A man pointing to lag bolts in a beam — Two small but long lag bolts pull the butt end of the cross tie into the dado

A man indicating parts of a wooden pavilion — Two small but long lag bolts pull the butt end of the cross tie into the dado

Big Lag Bolt

I drilled and ran in a large lag bolt through the top of the beam and into each 6×6 post.

A man holding a long lag bolt — I use long lag bolts for securing the beams to the posts

On the higher beam I used some additional hardware to secure it to the tops of the posts.

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Metal hardware connecting a wooden post to a beam — Extra brackets used to secure the beams to the posts

In my greenhouse project (and others) I have secured beams to posts with a long lag bolt. I countersink space for the head and washer, then with the beam in place, I drill into the top of the post.

A man drilling into a beam with a long drill bit — I used a long half inch bit to drill through the beam and into the top of the post

A man ratcheting a lag bolt in a post and beam project — I used the same technique for securing a beam to a post on several projects

The recessed head of a lab bolt in a beam

Then I’ll run in the lag bolt by hand with a socket wrench or impact driver. Some penetrating oil sprayed on the bolt makes this go a lot easier.

Extra Hardware

I built this pavilion myself so I used some additional hardware and brackets to help me as I put the beams into place. I screwed on these brackets ahead of time so I could quickly secure the beam once I lifted it into place.

Underside of wooden pavilion — Small galvanized brackets were employed to aid working solo on this project

These 6×6 Douglas Fir beams are heavy and I could only safely lift one end at time to get them up into place. I made a ladder (of sorts) by temporarily adding 2x4s across the posts. Then I could alternate a lift end by end up to the next 2×4 getting them higher and higher. Then the final lift onto the top of the posts was easy.

I also screwed some stops to the top of the posts so my lift would not overshoot.

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