Build a wooden bridge yourself in the garden
If you have a ditch with water in your garden, this is practically the ideal situation and everyone will envy you who does not have it. For convenience and also as a design element, a wooden bridge is then discussed. An experienced do-it-yourselfer can build one himself with a manageable effort.
What you need:
- Plank boards made of hard wood
- Square timbers for the railing
- Handrail
- Stainless steel screws for railings and planks
- drilling machine
- Wrench
- saw
- Tape measure
- galvanized angles
- Wood screws, 6 x 30
A wooden bridge in the shape of an arch
In terms of workload, the straight girder bridge is of course the cheapest. But if you don't shy away from the effort, you can also build your own wooden bridge as an arch bridge and thus set a particularly attractive eye-catcher in your garden.
- As a material, you do not need any beams, just 40 mm planks, which must be made of oak or other wood suitable for outdoor use. Make sure that the wood has been impregnated so that it is weatherproof and that it is well-seasoned.
- You make the arch yourself from individual segments of about 70 cm, where the angle is dimensioned so that the bridge describes a circular section. You can draw a true-to-scale model so that the dimensions are correct. The load-bearing capacity is achieved by screwing 3 layers of the planks together one behind the other.
- Set the outer view 60 mm higher than the two inner layers so that there is a support for the floor. You must put all the plank parts together in a staggered manner so that the joints are always in the middle of the next layer. Screw the 3 layers together with 12 mm Wiener screws.
How to build the foundations yourself
- They dig pits for the foundations on both banks. You should be approx. 1 m deep and are filled with gravel 20 cm high. Then install the formwork and insert 3 more arches made of concrete iron, which are wired together. To accommodate the bridge arches, concret 4 galvanized, perforated 4 mm sheets vertically in the inner distance of the arches.
- Calculate the span correctly so that the wooden bridge also fits the foundations exactly. After 5 days you can screw on the two arches. You screw the railing to the outside of the arches and for the footing you use angles that elegantly hold the planks from the underside.
- Finally, using rustproof angles, place the handrail between the posts of the railing. About 4 posts will be enough to emphasize the arch character. Have fun building it yourself and good luck!
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