The Occidental Gazebo

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN, prepare the hub—the center member against which the tops of the rafters will rest. Obtain a 6 x 6, 16" long, and cut off the corners on the long planes to form an octagonal cylinder.(Carpenters call these planar corners arrises, from the French word for the beard on grain.

If you use a longer piece, you can lathe the top and bottom finial (ornamental) balls as integral parts of the hub, a method that is common but expensive and unnecessary; it's better to leave the ends flat (you can easily fasten on premade finials after construction, for far less money.

The first phase of erection is critical, in that mistakes can literally be set in concrete. Basically, the goal is this: There are eight posts that go up in the sky, spaced equidistantly. They must all face toward the center—that is, their flat sides will not be parallel to each other. The posts must all be the same height: Use a transit to level the bottom post clips on which they sit, and carefully cut each post to the same length (to feet, in this example.

The header joists along the perimeter will notch into each post; or you can use expensive specialty hangers and thus avoid much chiseling.

Located in the exact center of the octagon is the support post for the radial floor joists, which meet there like spokes of a wheel.

To begin: Set up batter boards well outside the perimeter and run strings; they should form an 8-foot center square, with your octagon hiding inside. Measure the diagonal distances of this; they must be equal, or else. Measure and make minute adjustments to the string by moving it along the batter board. Mark the corners of the square with stakes, then connect the far corners with two strings laid diagonally so they cross at the square's center. Mark the center with another stake.

On the perimeter of the square, use eight brightly colored ribbons (two per side), tied loosely to slide along the string, to mark the points of the octagon.

The points can be found as follows: Attach a cable or nonstretchable string to one corner stake; then measure off the exact length to the center stake.Swing the length of cable to either side and mark where it hits the square's perimeter—these represent two points of your octagon. Repeat the process at each corner, then measure to be sure the respective dimensions and angles are constant. Afterwards, mark the octagon points with stakes as well.

Dig nine holes, 16" across and a foot deep, at the points of the octagon and at its center; you'll need 12 cubic feet of concrete, or about 15 bags. Fill each hole, fall to your knees, and place each post clip in the wet concrete one at a time, using the stringline once more to position and orient them and a transit to be sure they're all the same height. This sounds difficult; in reality, it's only time-consuming. But you won't need the stringline at all after this.

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