Wooden pergola

A wooden pergola will offer you mutliple options and possibilities to build a beautiful pergola in your garden for a reasonable price.
Our pergolas are available in different standard models, different sizes and every pergola can be equipped with different types and colors of retractable canopys or fixed shade sails.

Constructing a pergola with a pergola construction kit
Building a pergola is something you can easily do yourself of course! Our pergola construction kit contains everything you need in order to build your own pergola with a retractable canopy. This is a ready to go pergola, all you will have to do is assemble the different parts. For more information you can read our advices and tips in our blogpost:

How to build a pergola
With the Vinuovo ready-to-go Pergola kit, all the parts have already been sawn at the right size, so you will not have to do this by yourself. Most DIY-ers do not have the right machine in order to saw thick posts straight, especially when it comes to pergola hardwood ! Furthermore, you will probably have trouble finding good, straight and especially long posts for a wooden pergola at your local DIY store.
Of course, you can also order all parts separately on the following pages :

Pergola canopy
Pergola brackets
Fence posts - wood, steel, WPC
Pergola with shade sail

We can deliver your pergola with retractable canopy. The retractable canopy is available in 2 different versions:

Pergole harmonica shade canopy - this canopy is made of HDPE, High Density Poly Ethylene. The Coolfit fabric passes water, heat and light, to provide a very pleasant shade without getting gloomy. Although it has tiny holes in it, it protects you from more than 95% of the sun's UV rays and we can confirm from our experience that you will get a nice and even suntan if you just sit under it long enough ;-) !
This harmonica canopy, which you can slide open and shut, provides a very pleasant shade and gives you the impression that you are sitting under the canopy of a tree. It does thus not get too gloomy under your pergola with canopy! This is even more appreciated when you have a lean to pergola against your house, in front of a large glass sliding door for example. Because the pergola canopy lets some light through, your house will not warm up to fast and it will not get to dark inside either.
Pergola waterproof retractable canopy - this special pergola canopy has been treated with Teflon in order to make it waterproof. Perfect when you are having an outside meal and it starts to rain! You should hang this pergola fabric at a slight angle in your pergola, so that rainwater can run off to one of the sides. This cloth is not resistant to heavy rain or thunderstorms, so remember to retract the cloth before you leave!

How do you assemble a hardwood pergola?
Assembling a hardwood pergola is not difficult. However, there are a few things that you have to keep in mind and you will need good tools. Help of a few, strong friends when putting it up will come in handy as well!
In our blog post "How to build a pergola yourself ?" we describe different ways of building your own pergola.
Here below, we will concentrate on how to build the Vinuovo pergola ready-to-go construction kit.
Please pay attention, Angelim Vermelho hardwood is very dense and heavy wood! Each single post weighs about 10kg per meter, so a post of 5 meters weighs about 50kg! Be sure to have some strong help when assembling your pergola; to put up a freestanding wooden pergola, you should be at least a group of five people, and to put up a lean to pergola against a house at least 3 people. When you prepare the assembly well, you will only need help for about half an hour, the rest of the process can be done by just one person. Below,we indicate the step-by-step plan for building your own pergola:

First of all, you will need to decide "how sturdy" you want to make your pergola. Personally, I prefer "as sturdy as possible", so I recommend drilling extra holes in the attachment surfaces of the pergola corner and wall supports. Each corner support has 6 surfaces, 2 for each wooden post that fit in an angle around the post. Only 1 of the 2 surfaces per post has 2 pre-drilled screw holes. We advise you to drill 2 holes of Ø10mm in each surface. Be careful where you drill these holes, the screws that go in must not cross each other!
The Vinuovo Pergola construction kit contains enough TKS-RVS screws for these supplementary holes!
Then lay the long beam on the ground with the 2 posts next to it. (Note that the posts will have to be placed NEXT to the beam, not under it!)
Place the corner brackets on the posts and make sure the posts are perfectly aligned.
Predrill the Ø6mm screw holes in the wood with a special drill for hardwood (an ordinary wood drill breaks too quickly). Every 2 centimetres you drill deeper (or when you feel resistance), take the drill out of the hole to remove the sawdust from the drill. If you do not do this, your drill will break and you will never get it out again!
Then make sure that the posts are exactly at right angles (90° angle) to the long beam. Place the 2 braces in the corners and drill the holes in the wood. Ø8mm in the brace, Ø6mm in the post. Screw the braces with the Ø8x120mm TKS-RVS screws.
Drill a Ø8mm hole through the upright in the corner of the posts, along the length of the beam. Then drill a Ø6mm hole, 180mm deep into the beam. Screw the corner with a Ø8x180mm TKS-RVS screw. This corner connection will never come loose again!
TIP: Spray some WD40 in this deep screw hole so that the screw turns smoothly in the wood!
If you have ordered a lean to pergola, the first part is ready and you can proceed to the next step. If you have a free-standing pergola, repeat this step so that you have 2 "arches".
Did you choose a lean to pergola type B? Now measure on the wall where the wall supports should be placed. If you are using a standard construction kit, the inside bottom edge of the support must be attached at a height of 241 cm. The 2 inner sides of the vertical part of the wall support must be as far apart as the long beam of your pergola (300-370-400-500cm)
Hold the bracket against the wall and mark the screw holes.
Note ! The bolts/screws for the wall mounting are NOT included! Which one you need depends on your wall. But for almost all walls we recommend the following: Buy 1 cartridge "chemical anchor".
Per wall bracket; 2 studs Ø8mm (m8), 100mm long, each stud with 1 nut (M8) and 1 washer (m8). Normally 4 pieces per wall pergola.
If you have a hollow wall, you can also buy 4 screens of 100 mm long, Ø12 mm. They will know what you are looking for at the DIY store.
Drill Ø10mm holes in your wall, 100mm deep. (or Ø12mm if you are using screens in a hollow wall !)
When you have drilled the holes for both supports, place the screens near a hollow wall.
Spray the chemical anchor in the hole with a caulking gun. Not too much in an ordinary hole, press in as much as possible when using screens!
Excess chemical anchor can be removed directly with a piece of kitchen roll.

Let everything harden for half an hour and you are ready to put up your wooden pergola!
Now the big work begins! It won't take long, but you really need some help here - one person per post ! First measure on the ground where the base of each post should be.
Make sure that everything you need for the assembly is ready :

a drill with a Ø8mm hardwood bit
an impact screwdriver with a TX40 bit
a sturdy staircase to climb on with a pole of max 50kg!
Stainless steel TKS screws Ø8x40mm (included in the kit!)

With assistance, put up the posts with the longest beam (2 posts with a beam of 5 metres weigh 100 kg!) and place the posts at the measured position.
(So 4 helpers for a free-standing pergola and 2 helpers for a lean to pergola).
The posts with the long beam are held in place by the helpers,
You place your staircase in the middle of the free space and place a beam in the corner/wall supports. (Now it is important that everyone keeps their stand exactly straight, otherwise the beam will fall down!
Then slide the staircase to the corners, drill the screw holes in the wood and screw them in immediately.
This way, you go along each side until the pergola is standing and the helpers can let go of the posts!
Congratulations !, the hardest work is done, your pergola is standing up !
Now drill/screw the braces in the remaining corners.
And you drill/screw the Ø8x180mm TKS-RVS screws into the corners that you have not yet done.
Take a well-deserved break and then we will assemble the harmonic canopy pergola!