Cutting The Steel Legs
Next, I could cut the legs to size. The legs are splayed at a 10 degree angle, so first I set the fence on the saw to 10 degrees before making the first cut.
The legs are made of thick 3 inch square tubing, and I needed about 10 feet of tubing for this build. Each leg is cut to 26 ½ with a 10 degree angle on each end.
Once the legs were cut to size, I beveled four of the edges on one end of the legs using the angle grinder, to give a better area for the welds to penetrate.
How To Use Toja Grid Modular Pergola System
The first step to creating your custom deck alternative, or addition, is to find out the dimensions of the space you are working with for the project. You will also need to analyze whether it is allowable to have the pergola system attached to house or roof, as some of the options allow for that.
After that, you will work with the Toja Grid dealers in your area or order your desired design online. When ordering online, you can create your pergola set up or even a pergola and gazebo combination. You can devise a plan that works best for you, your home, and your vision.
Once you have finalized your design and chosen any of the accessories you desire , you can purchase your kit to be delivered to your home. The shipping time may vary depending on what you are buying, so that needs to be kept in mind.
Upon arrival, you will need to secure the appropriate amount of lumber for assembly and installation. You can find a variety of different wood pieces at both Home Depot and Lowes.
Toja Grid products come with a 14-day return policy and a limited warranty. If you have a need for replacement parts or need to review the return policy, all of the information is available on their company website.
It is worthy to note that while the brackets are waterproof and weatherproof, the accessories are not. The shade sails will keep out a light mist rain, but nothing more. Both the shade sails and hammocks should be removed when not in use to avoid harsh weather.
Differences Between Wood And Metal Pergola Kits
Traditional wood pergolas blend easily with many types of surroundings. The style choice of your pergola depends on your style of home or current landscape design. For example, a shiny metal pergola kit might work very well with a more contemporary home. But did you know, wood pergolas can be customized with end cuts and top slats to offer that same sleek look? If you decide you want to paint or stain your pergola, you have that choice with a wood pergola. So if customizing your pergola style with stain or color is important, youll be limited with metal color choices.
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Linx: A Simplified Pergola System
Produced by the well-established Wild Hog Company , LINX is a straightforward pergola hardware system that can be installed in as little as an hour.
Inspired by the beloved construction toy Lincoln Logs, LINX aims to remove the complications of pergola building to make these useful outdoor structures more accessible.
J& W Lumber is one of the only hardware stores in Southern California to carry this innovative line and were excited to share it with you.
Cost Comparison For Metal Pergolas And Wood Pergolas
Whats in your budget for your pergola kit project? When it comes to pricing of metal pergola kits, there are multiple comparisons to make for pergola kits made from these materials as they are made by different manufacturers.
Some designs, whether theyre kits such as a toja grid pergola or a costco outdoor pergola have pergola specifications that are unique to that company or design. So the price of Amazon pergola kits, Costco pergola kits or other large retailers can differ based on kit contents or other factors. And the quality of their materials and workmanship will be different. Not really an apples to apples comparison.
So a 15×17 pergola at a large online retailer may not be a direct comparison to a 15×17 pergola kit that a smaller manufacturer would cut and drill per order . The prices dont compare since the quality and workmanship doesnt compare. The same holds true trying to compare metal pergola pricing to wood pergola pricing. Apples to pears.
Depending on the manufacturer, metal pergola kits may run a little less expensive than a standard wood pergola kit, but the durability and ability to withstand extreme wind and other weather conditions doesnt compare.
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Qualities Of Western Red Cedar Wood For Pergolas And Outdoor Structures
Why cedar? Western red cedar has a beautiful light amber color and an appealing fragrance. Highly resistant to decay and bugs, Western red cedar is used for outdoor structure projects where exposure to the elements is continually severe. This type of wood takes paints and stains very well, is durable, and compliments any outdoor design.
Cutting Stock To Length
Next, I could cut the ends of the boards square and cut them to final length. I first cut off one end of each board at the miter saw, making sure to cut away any cracked areas. Since these were rough 3x3x6s, they were actually about 76 inches long, so I had about two inches on either end to work with.
After trimming one end, I set up a stop block on my miter saw station using a square and some clamps. My miter saws stop block system doesnt go to 72, but I was able to add this setup to make it work. Its important that all of these boards are the exact same length, so you want to make sure to have some kind of stop block system in place if you can.
Once all of the boards were cut to final length, I could start drilling the holes for the all-thread to run through, which is what connects all of the boards to one another.
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Ideas To Spruce Up Your Linx Pergola
The simplicity of the LINX system is only half the fun. The rest comes from personalizing your pergola to match your design aesthetic. Below are some ideas to get you started. We carry most of the products below on-hand at our Southern California J& W Lumber locations.
- Attach a sunshade. Reduce the harsh effects of the sun by connecting a LINX sunshade overhead or to the side of your pergola. Simply attach sunshade hardware to your posts and snap in your shade.
- Connect a hammock. Create a relaxing nap spot or reading nook by using LINX connectors to attach a 4×8 or 8×8 hammock directly to your pergolas posts.
- Grow climbing vines. Install Wild Hog fencing on the sides, back, and top of your pergola and plant climbing vines in the ground or an elevated planter box.
- Paint or stain your posts. Keep your LINX hardware its original sleek black or re-paint with contrasting colors.
Toja Grid Alternative Anyone Know Where To Buy It
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Use regular construction ties then just cover it with something nicer or just paint it black.
onlineharvest wrote: This, not sure what theyre called, but maybe wood to wood corner ties? Curious though, wouldnt this be a weaker structure than a traditional pergola, where the planks overlap each other and rest on one another, as well as adding stability with cross pieces to avoid warping? I mean, you see warping in 6×6 posts, never mind 4×4. Perhaps this particular type of tie, while more expensive no doubt, is the better choice for this type of connection? Honestly dont know.
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Great Product But Beware The Brutal
Great product but beware the brutal return policy. 14 days only, and there will be a 20% restocking fee after that and you must pay shipping back to Canada which will be $$$. I needed to alter the layout so I tried to start a return on some items less than 24 hours after the 14 days but they insisted on the restock fee. Better have all your ducks in a row before ordering. Seems theres similar products on Amazon where you wont eat a huge cost if you need more time to pull this together properly.Update: Toja waived the restock and shipping fee after this review. I very much appreciated this as I love the system.
Reply from Toja Grid
Hello Michael, thank you for your review. I see that we have waived the shipping costs and restocking fee for your return as a courtesy.
How Is The Customer Service
Toja Grid offers several forms of contact for customers, including an online chat option on their website.
Phone Number: 1-647-292-4743
Online reviews have shown that Toja Grid has very helpful customer service, even going out of their way to help customers return their kit after their zoning application was denied.
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Toja Grid Pergola Kits Reviews
Having a beautiful and relaxing outdoor space is every homeowners dream. It includes comfortable furniture, visually appealing accessories, and even a pergola to encompass it all.
But building your dream yard often takes a lot of funding, as well as searching to find a place that sells or makes precisely what you are looking for in your yard. When you have a vision in your mind of what you want, its hard to settle for anything else!
Thats where Toja Grid comes in. The company provides modular kits that allow you to customize the pieces to your liking. Many homeowners are flocking to the company and others like it. There is especially a lot of excitement over the Toja Grid Pergola kits – but are they worth it?
Alternative Materials To Metal Pergola Kits
When I think of silver or black metal pergola kits, I think of high maintenance, heat attracting, typically contemporary-style outdoor structures. If youre looking for that iconic clean look but one that more easily blends with the outdoors, consider wood as an attractive alternative to metal frame pergola kits. Pressure treated pine and cedar pergola kits offer qualities that are attractive for any outdoor project. Both types of wood take stain or paint which also gives you more flexibility with color choices than metal.
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Routing Sanding And Finishing
Once all of the holes were drilled, I could move on to adding a roundover to all of the edges of the boards. If I were to do this again, Id probably use a smaller roundover or a light chamfer, as adding this heavy of a roundover meant I had a ton of hand sanding work later on. I also got some tearout during this step that I could have avoided with a less intense edge profile.
The tearout was especially bad on the ends of the boards, and I should have added a backer piece to help reduce this, but I didnt since I was rushing a little bit.
Speaking of sanding, next I had a lot of sanding to do. I started with 80 grit sandpaper, using the random orbit sander on the flat surfaces and the ends of all of the boards, but I had to hand sand all of the long edges since the random orbit sander didnt work well on those edges.
After sanding, I could get the finish applied. I used Teak Oil, which is designed to work with these kinds of dense hardwoods, and it was extremely simple to apply. Basically, you put on a heavy coat, let the wood soak it up for 10 minutes, apply another heavy coat, let that soak in for about 20 minutes, and then wipe off the excess.
Its important to wipe off the excess before letting it sit too long, since the finish will get gummy and extremely difficult to wipe off otherwise. I did this, since I was trying to finish all of these boards at once, and I really should have split them up, working on half the boards at a time.
Toja Grid Pergola Kits Customer Reviews
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Beware Custom Sail Ordering
We ordered a Custom Sail from Toja, and ran into a problem, our pergola is roughly 110 x 133, so firstly we bought a 10 x 8 Pre-made Toja Sail at Home Depot, but the actual size was roughly 9 x 7, so way to small, no biggie and we returned it to Home Depot.
We then went to the Toja Grid website and saw you could order Custom sails and we did order a custom sail inputting the 133.5 x 110 for the exact inside dimensions of the pergolas. In one section of the order system, it says input the exact dimensions but much farther down it also says it will not accept decimals.
When the Custom Sail arrived, we were stunned to see that the sail was 48 x 110, and immediately went to check on what we received back as a confirmation. In all the emails there was no confirmation on size.
We contacted Toja Grid Customer Service and with lots of back and forth the blame for the mis-order, we believe was a shared mistake. The Toja Custom Sail input defaults back to 48 if the number put in is not a whole number, I input 133.5 and did not notice that it changed back to 48 as I move on to the second measurement. There is a confirmation screen that lists the input numbers, and I simply did not pay attention to it closely, my fault.
Ultimately, we bought a sail from Amazon for $50, with a full refund and return policy and my advice is avoid the Toja Grid Custom Sail system and shop around for any sail as their sails are very pricy.
Mike
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Perfect Bench For Our Deck
We added the Toja Grid bench to our deck this week. It matches our existing deck perfectly as we were able to use wood that was left over from the project when we installed our deck two years ago. Love that the length is customizable! It looks like we planned the bench from the beginning, youd never know it was an afterthought. Thank you for making such a quality product! Very satisfied.
Reply from Toja Grid
Thanks Neal for the 5 stars and the great review!!
Great product! Exactly as advertised. Easy to work with. Shipped fast. Quality built.
Reply from Toja Grid
Thank you Matthew, for the great review and 5 stars!!
The first set of brackets were pretty good. The last set of wall brackets had a lot of slag on the weld . Really looks pretty bad. Wont buy again.
Reply from Toja Grid
Qualities Of Pressure Treated Pine Wood For Pergolas And Outdoor Structures
Pressure treated pine is durable, beautiful, and very strong. Pressure treated pine can withstand severe weather elements season after season and repels insects and rot very well. This sturdy wood can be stained, water sealed or painted after the pressure treatment dries . A cost-effective material for outdoor structures, pressure treated pine is a sturdy pergola building material that has a natural beauty with or without paint or stain.
Since metal and wood pergola kits both offer excellent qualities, it comes down to your style preference. Only you can determine the most important features that fit your outdoor landscape. Keep in mind that our wood pergolas are durable, flexible, and a classic design that stands the test of time! So if youre interested in a building a simple pergola that has classic lines and solid construction, take another look at our pergolas as you compare your options.
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Pergola Style And Design
Since you can paint the pergola wood, you have flexibility to design your pergola around your space with color choice. Maybe you have landscaping with earth tones and stonework that would blend exceptionally well with a black pergola or a grey pergola. This classic white pergola with a coat of paint provides the same clean look as metal, but with the quality of wood.
Some paints or stains achieve the same look as a metal pergola kit, with the durable long-lasting qualities of wood. Our Big Kahuna pine pergolas like this one have a very contemporary and sophisticated look, with the natural beauty of pine.
Planning Your Pergola Build
When determining what size of a pergola to build for your space, please add the required space to accommodate the brackets that you choose to complete your build. See below for a general guide and example of how to measure accurately.
USING 4×4 BRACKETS:
Add 4 for each bracket that is used in the build. EXAMPLE: Using 10 posts for the build, the outside dimensions are 10 8 width X 10 8 length x 10 4 height.
USING 6×6 BRACKETS:
Add 6 for each bracket that is used in the build. EXAMPLE: Using 10 posts for the build, the outside dimensions are 11 width X 11 length x 10 6 height.
Frequently Asked Questions
I Don’t have enough screws?
The most likely reason is that all screw holes in the bracket sides were filled with screws. ONLY screws per post/beam are required to achieve optimal structural integrity based on engineering reports completed on all of our products.
That means screws per side, see illustration below. The 3rd hole is left empty for attaching the sunshade bracket if used or for other accessories that may be attached. If you still need additional screws please contact the store/dealer where you made your purchase.
Example: TRIFIT screw placement screws)
Proper SUNSHADE Bracket/s Placement on TRIFIT
What type of wood posts should be used?
Note: Lumber dimensions for standard 4×4 wood posts are 3.5×3.5 and 6×6 wood posts are 5.5×5.5
how are the LINX brackets constructed?
What are the dimensions of the built pergola?
Using 4×4 Brackets:
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