Back yard Patio Up lift

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome I’ve received after joining Lumberjock. It’s really appreciated and look forward to posting, commenting and getting ideas from other folks, and maybe I can contribute a few of my own.

We bought our dream home, January of this year and we love it!! The only problem was, the backyard patio needed a serious up lift. What we wanted was an open airy feeling that would compliment the backyard. For me it was a bit of a challenge because the patio was 16’ deep and 24’ wide.which presented a problem. Under normal building guidelines spanning 24’ using conventional 2”x6” construction would require a center post. Well that just wasn’t going to work, I had to have a 24’ clear span!

35 years in the construction business I learned a few tricks and this is one of them. To get my 24’ clear span I incorporated a steel flat bar. The flat bar is 1/4”x5” sandwiched 2 2”x6s the full 24’ length. There are two primary trusses that have to be built this way. You may ask how they were put together? That was the fun part…not! The steel plate had to have two different sets of holes. The first set was to screw the plate down to the first line of 2”x6”s with 30, 1-1/4” wood deck screws. The second set of holes was to screw the first line of 2”x6”s to the second line of 2”x6” through the steel plate with 3” wood deck screws, all of it glued together of course.
Also if you look at the picture below you can see a 1/4”x31/2” plate is welded on bottom that runs through the center of the 4”x4” post and bolted with 2 3/8” bolts.

The rest of the construction was done with 2 2”x4”s glued and screwed together with 3” wood deck screws. To complete the load bearing trusses, 4 intermediate trusses had 2”x1/8” straps screwed to the bottom for compression resistance. Shown in the picture below.

Here are a couple more pictures.

It took about five and a half weeks to complete the awning, but I think it turned out great! Here are some pictures of the finished project.

Here are some pictures standing at the back door.

We really enjoy setting out in the evenings and on the weekends.

Well that’s it, I hope you enjoyed checking out my latest project and thanks for looking!

-- If I die "please" bury me at Walmart...my wife will visit often!