Long-Lasting Garden Structures: 7 Tips You Need To Build Better
Did the last wooden garden structure you built just rot away? Learn how to build long-lasting garden structures that will stand up to the elements outdoors.
Note: While this post is written with do-it-yourselfers in mind, you should also keep these tips in mind if you have someone else building garden structures for you. You can insist your structures are built a certain way and be leery of any contractor that wants to take shortcuts – they will be long gone when your fence falls over or your deck rots to the ground prematurely.
Building with wood is a great way to add structures to your garden relatively quickly and inexpensively. Wood is versatile as it lends itself well to various different finishes (stain, paint, naturally weathering) and is easy to work with using regular cutting and drilling tools.
But wood is an organic material that can rot away when exposed to the elements.
Severe weather such as winter rainstorms, windstorms and snowstorms hammers at the wood. In summer the sun beats down and dries out the wood, only for it to get wet again once the rainy season starts.
You want these structures to last.
You don’t want them to rot away after a few years.
After all you probably spent hours if not days painstakingly measuring, cutting and fastening lumber together for that one-of-a-kind structure that fits so well into your garden and supports what you are growing.
So how do you build long-lasting garden structures that survive in these challenging outdoor environments?
Here are some valuable tips that will help extend the life of any wooden garden project.
Tip #1: Use the best lumber
You should always pick the best lumber to use in your garden.
Rather than go into details here check out my complete post on this topic.
Tip #2: Use quality hardware
Not only should you use appropriate lumber that can produce long-lasting garden structures, but you should also use the right fasteners.
The right fasteners make the construction stronger, look better and last longer.
- Use screws and not nails:
- Outdoor projects may need to be taken apart occasionally such as to replace a part that did rot away or was damaged in some other way.
- Screws have a better resistance to joints pulling apart.
- You have less issues with marring the surface of the wood from errant hammer strikes.
- It’s debatable if construction goes faster with screws or nails. It really depends on what tools you use for each.
- Screws are more expensive in most cases, so factor that into the cost of your project.
- Use the appropriate screws for the wood you are using. There are special screws for pressure treated wood that won’t corrode from the ACQ preservative most PT wood uses.
- Where needed, use galvanized or zinc-coated lag screws and bolts. A good example is attaching beams to the side of posts.
Tip #3: Cover up end grain
Wood is composed of fibers that are oriented lengthwise in bundles. Think of a bundle of straws:
If you pour water in at the top it fills the straws with water. The same will happen with a piece of wood that is vertical when it rains. Even worse is when the bottom of the piece of wood is blocked from draining, but more on that below. It’s a recipe for rot and wood deterioration.
So it is critical that you cover the wood ends, which are called end grain, to protect them from water penetration.
Design your structures so that end grain is covered by other pieces of lumber. For instance if you are building with horizontal and vertical structural members, do it this way:
not this way:
Add a decorative cap on top of any posts. You can make them yourself from scrap offcuts of the same wood used to construct the beds. Or caps can be bought already pre-sized and often with a decorative chamfer.
Here is a natural cedar version:
Or if you want a fancier, longer-lasting option here is a durable, attractive option: