Building Pergola : questions about wood

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I don’t know what SnS is thinking but I would say the biggest advantage to freestanding is you don’t have to violate the seal of the house siding system.

From the msg;"If your lumber is S4S", not SnS.

Explained, it's "surfaced 4 sides".
 
I would likely be attaching the ledger into brick.

Bricks, because of their composition, are a very weak element to attach to, unless you are penetrating and actually attaching the the structure.
 
I don’t have a lot of experience hanging a ledger off brick work. old brick work is structural and with proper anchors I would think could support a great deal of weight. New brick work is mostly for looks and the wood structure is behind it holding the house up. I’m sure you can attach your ledger to it and be ok, but if it was to be load bearing I think you would have to study it carefully. :)

It's standard 4"x4"x8" brick, not the thin façade brick they use sometimes.
 
Just some thoughts, not recommendations.
Cedar is a nice looking wood, does not do all that well underground, and fades fairly fast to a grey color unless treated early and often.
Treated lumber is most often really wet and when drying may warp, cup, twist and crack and is best stained after it is dry.
Only wood treated for underground use should touch the dirt.
Any would will do better if it is sealed with a peel and stick just at ground level.
A pergola will need bracing of some kind as you don't have benefit of sheeting holding things square.
A pergola built with 12' 6x6 post with 4 ft in concrete and corner braces will still move a little in the wind.
Attaching to the house will give it much stability.
I think you are fine anchoring to a brick structure but if it is brick over wood you must drill thru and bolt to structure.
Any time you bolt a ledger on a house you would like to have flashing above the ledger and behind the siding behind the house. As that will not happen, add some kind of spacer so water can run between ledger and brick.
In a perfect world it would be nice if a the all the timber open to weather had a roof cut on top so water would not pool on top.
 
It's standard 4"x4"x8" brick, not the thin façade brick they use sometimes.

I understood that but the brickwork is still just a finishing element. In an old brick building the walls were over a foot thick and made of solid bricks with bricks turning back into the wall for strength. Now they tack a little metal tab ever few rows to the house and then mud it into the bricks for support. As mentioned above the bricks are more designed for weathering abilities and look and less as a structural element of the home. :)
 
Structural brick, when referring to an unreinforced masonry structure are several courses thick, unlike the brick exterior finish on building which is a single course, were the structure supporting the b rick fail, the brick would crumble like a house of cards.

Were you to drill into a brick the residue is a fine powder, not dissimilar from the same process in concrete, however, when you insert the anchor and tighten the lag bolt causing the anchor to expand creating the "grip", the brick will split, the concrete will not.
 
It's standard 4"x4"x8" brick, not the thin façade brick they use sometimes.

The other consideration with this brick, is there is a gap between the brick and substructure to allow water to run down behind so over tightening could damage the brick.
 
While I'm not necessarily interested in starting a lengthy discussion, would you mind giving what are considered the main advantages of a freestanding as opposed to attached to the house.

As Bud mentioned, there is the issue of weather protection for the house, and also I remember talk about difference in seasonal movement between the the freestanding portion and the attached portion. You can search the site for other threads about pergolas; and perhaps some threads on deck construction may be helpful.

I may be looking in the wrong place, but the only dimensions I can find for cedar are 1x sizes. I know I can just go in and talk to them, but I prefer to do as much research remotely as possible. ;)

To be honest, i would prefer a lumber yard to a big box store in a project like this. I just got curious about what can be ordered at HD, so I looked and found material available. I did not go as far as to check specifics.
 
I understood that but the brickwork is still just a finishing element. In an old brick building the walls were over a foot thick and made of solid bricks with bricks turning back into the wall for strength. Now they tack a little metal tab ever few rows to the house and then mud it into the bricks for support. As mentioned above the bricks are more designed for weathering abilities and look and less as a structural element of the home. :)

So not only would I need to drill all the way through the brick but hope that I found a stud on the back side to mount the ledger to? :(

If that's true then free standing may be the way to go.

FWIW, I did some calculations and using PT Pine wood the hole thing (w/o posts) would weight around 1000 lbs.
 
As far as the weight that sounds correct. Weights add up pretty fast my 10x16 deck where I built my pergola over I’m sure weighs a couple ton and then I have a 6000 pound hot tub sitting on it plus the pergola and I made it all free standing and it rests on 12 4x4 posts.

Around here the building code is even different when it is attached to your house as opposed to just an inch away as I did the deck.

From an aesthetic point of view I like the look of a free standing pergola better than attached with ledger but that’s my tastes is all.

When you don’t attach it to the structure you do loose stability of the building.
 
So not only would I need to drill all the way through the brick but hope that I found a stud on the back side to mount the ledger to?

From a specific reference, use a studfinder and transfer the measurements to the outside.

Corbels act as a stabilizing element.
 
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