Actual Size Builders, Inc. Trip Renn
8523 Meadow Ridge Lane 919-929-9048
Chapel Hill, NC27516 919-608-4564
When our frequent clients, Susan Sharpe and Nancy Duffner, initiated an extensive landscaping project in the backyard of their lovingly remodeled (ok, by us) Carrboro, NC house, they asked us to handle the woodwork end of things. The plans called for two curved benches and a thirty-two foot, four-section trellis, all made out of ipe. An archway/gate/trellis option was deemed expendable, or at least deferrable, in the interest of the budget.
As the owner of the company, I often jokingly refer to my functions as one, fretting, and two, saying, Yes, we can do that. Fortunately, the high quality of my crew keeps the former to a minimum and, so far at least, has bailed me out of the unlikely projects I have said yes to. This project was no exception.(The landscape architect’s first question to me was, How you gonna do it?)
My initial reaction to the somewhat sketchy plans was that it would be a piece of cake to put a 6” bend in the middle of a 2 x 6 x 12’. However, I didn’t take into account the resistance that ipe would offer to that bend. When we set up a table to clamp our pieces to for assembly, my initial attempt to bend the first 2 x 6 was the beginning of my further education in the obstinacy of that particular species. I clamped one end of the twelve-footer to the block on one end and when I had brought the opposite end about half of the necessary distance to the other end block, it whipped block number one off of the table, and across my little shop. Clearly, I had a challenge ahead.
Again, my crew saved me from my over-optimism. They refined and strengthened my initial clamping table concept, and began laying up the pieces of ipe that comprise the bench: a 2 x 6 front (inner curve) and back (outer curve) and between them, full length 1 x 4’s alternating with 1 x 4 intermittent spacers. My brother-in-law, a fine cabinet maker and furniture builder, has always rolled his eyes at my meager clamp collection, saying, You never have enough clamps. He’s right, of course and my collection was definitely improved by the additional clamps needed for this project.
The next question we faced was, what happens when we remove all these clamps?My reasoning went like this: For the bench to straighten itself out, each piece of the lamination would have to move in relation to the pieces on either side of it. Therefore, if we fasten them securely, so that they can’t move in relation to one another, it won’t move as a whole. When I announced this idea, I was greeted by the sort of dead-pan, non-committal looks I occasionally receive when my crew is thinking, He’s done it to us again.
We opted to go without glue for several reasons: ipe’s density, at least to our minds, makes glue problematic; outdoor benches are a demanding environment for any glue; we felt that mechanical fasteners would do the job as well or better. Many more-talented woodworkers will almost certainly have plenty to say about this decision, if I know the FHB community, and they may be right.
For mechanical fasteners, we relied on ceramic-coated decking screws in various lengths, but most layers were held in place by 2 ½” screws. This means each 1 x 4 is fastened through to the two layers preceding it in the lamination. Naturally, we had to pre-drill with counter-sink bits, and anyone who knows ipe can imagine how many bits we burned upand how many screws we broke in that demanding wood.
When the lamination was fully assembled, we enhanced the holding power of the deck screws by adding a strategic number of 8 and 10” structural-type screws. You’re not supposed to need pre-drilling for those, but again, this is ipe. We had discussed through bolts from front to back and I still like the idea, but ultimately, concealing them would have been difficult. Also, the 2 x 6 cap on either end of the bench seemed to offer a good amount of holding power, since we installed it with structural screws as well.
The design called for trestle-type posts and braces under the bench. We executed these as drawn, and used structural screws again, to hold them to the 2 x 6 bands. The posts are fastened to the braces with 1/2 “ carriage bolts.
The benches are installed on a slate patio, with a concrete slab beneath the slate. We coordinated with the landscaping contractor and installed custom stainless steel angle brackets with bolts epoxied into the concrete, which the masons then laid slate around. The 4 x 4’s bolt to these brackets and are barely, if at all, touching the slate, for the best chance at longevity, and only a portion of the brackets’ upright legs is visible above the slate.
After the challenge of the benches, the trellis part of the project seemed like a walk in the park—until I consulted the landscape architect on its construction and heard him say, Oh, they are supposed to be rabbetted. We have constructed a latticework screen before and rabbetted PT yellow pine so that the vertical and horizontal members were flush and in the same plane, for a really beautiful result, but in this case, it seemed like overkill. The proportions of the lattice-work, the inherent beauty of the wood, and the difficulty (translation: expense) of this process in ipe all argued against that particular refinement. With Susan and Nancy’s blessing, we ran vertical 2 x 3’s in front of horizontal 2 x 3’s, all framed in a 2 x 6 frame, and all supported by 4 x 4 posts. The trellis is capped by 2 strands of stainless steel cable rail. The result seems to justify the decision to forego the rabbeted look.
All of the ipe was finished with Penofin (sp?) and all of our end cuts received a coat of Anchor Seal, as these were the two ipe finishes first recommended to us some 11 years ago, when, coincidentally, we used it for the first time on Susan and Nancy’s porches.
Although I am against it in theory, we planted the posts in concrete, +/- 2’ deep for strength. If we are still around when the posts rot, I know I can rely on my crew to get me out of that ditch too.