Building a Trellis

On one of our vacation days at Old Farm, Bill and I built trellises for the back side of the house near large white clematis vines I recently planted. Bill ripped 5/4" X 6" cedar boards to make sticks a bit more than 1" square, which he nailed together with 1 3/4" stainless steel nails at each overlap, from behind. I designed the trellises to fit from molding to molding in their space and line up with the 8' X 10' trellis above each on the roof. The squares are 10" to line up with the 5" over-hang cedar shake siding.

It is important to check that the joints are square while assembling and installing each trellis to prevent racking/twisting. It helped having the boys around when we installed these on a very hot day, while there was shade on the roof.

Bill used four; 4" cedar stick pieces and long screws with silicon to attach each trellis. On the wall, the pieces were cut on an angle to fit the shingle siding.

It took one day to build these, most of another to hang them, and they cost about $90 each in materials.

Christian's light weight on the roof really helped while Alex helped with the key placements.

Backing up some, you can see how they helped add interest for us...during a very parched, hot vacation.

 Update: More Trellises...

I have felt inspired to build more trellises for Old Farm which would be near the restored front door and have southern exposure. We built sturdy; architectural looking trellises like those on the back of the house, which line up with the shingles and each other. This was a beautiful Fall day to be up on the roof (Christian) and on the Cape.

Five sticks are ripped from 5/4" X 6" clear cedar boards using a thin 3/32" cut table saw blade and nailed together with 1 3/4" stainless steel nails.

Most of the sun falls to the right side of the front door and roof above it, so I plan to plant a favorite climbing rose "Rosa Eden" here next Spring.

This group of trellises cost about $350 in materials, took a day to build and part of an afternoon to install with cedar blocks, silicon and screws. Next will be two large skylights in the roof to the right of the trellis.

Below are several inspirational images from visits to Nantucket.