Introduction
With its exposed rough-sawn cedar framing and paneled ceiling, this is a beautiful pavilion, perfect for entertaining or just enjoying the outdoors.Materials, time and tools overview
Our DIY materials cost was about $5,000. We hired a contractor to pour the 30 x 32-ft. slab, which cost another $5,000. This is an advanced building project that requires a lot of attention to detail and experience with layout and complex framing.
Three carpenters and occasional helpers spent eight long days on the construction, while the prepainting and staining work took one person two full days. You’ll need a complete tool arsenal:
Here’s the complete materials list for the outdoor pavilion shed.
Here are the project drawings.
Start with a flat slab
You could go with a perfectly level slab; no slope. But the best slab would be level at the shed area, then slope away slightly so rainwater runs away from the building. Whether you do it yourself or hire a contractor, make sure the building area is flat. Ours wasn’t, and that cost us hours of complicated compensating. A 4-in.-thick slab will be fine, but thicken the slab under the four sets of 6×6 posts to a 4 x 4-ft. area 8 in. deep.
Prepaint and stain everything!
It will take many hours to paint all the siding, trim and ceiling panels and stain the cedar parts. But it’s worth doing before starting construction. It’s a much larger job after the construction is complete, and the finished project won’t look nearly as crisp. You’ll still have touch-up work to do, but that will take only a couple of hours.
Project plans
Family Handyman
Family Handyman
Timber framing simplified
Family Handyman
Traditional timber-frame construction requires huge timbers, special tools and rare skills. But we skipped all that. Instead, we got the heavy-timber look for our gable and beams by using three layers of standard framing lumber. This technique requires only basic framing tools and know-how. Better yet, we didn’t have to heave massive parts into position—we just “sandwiched up” lighter materials in place, adding them one at a time.
