Jones Custom Fences
Pergolas and Shade Structures
Timber posts, beams and rafter tails cut and set on site, with a fitted canopy when stripes of shade aren't enough.
Posts, beams, and rafter tails set for real shade
A pergola over a patio does something a bare patio can't: it puts shade exactly where people are sitting instead of wherever the sun happens to leave it. We set the posts first, plumb and square to the patio edge, then run the beams across at a height that clears a standing adult with room to spare. Rafter tails get cut on site rather than off a stock pattern, so the spacing reads right against the actual size of the structure instead of a generic number pulled from a plan. If you want real shade rather than a moving pattern of light and dark on the floor, a fitted fabric canopy stretches across the rafters and stays there. Slats alone just throw stripes that shift with the sun through the afternoon.
Anchoring, orientation, and why the shade lands where you expect
A pergola going over ground that's already a slab gets anchored into that slab with hardware sized to the load, which keeps the footprint tight to the patio you already have. Set into open ground instead, the posts go on footings poured to depth, the same discipline we use setting a fence post, because ground that can work a post loose does it under a pergola just as easily. Orientation is what decides when the shade actually falls across the table rather than the grass beside it. A structure aimed without thinking about which way the sun moves through the day ends up shading the lawn at four o'clock and leaving the seating in full sun. We walk the site at the time you'll actually be using it before we set a single post.
Jones Fences, Free estimates on any style fence. Call (478) 550-3824.
Why proportion matters more here than on a fence
A boundary fence sits at the edge of the yard and most people see it in passing. A pergola sits in the middle of the evening, over the chairs and the table, so every beam and every rafter is something you look up at while you're sitting under it. Too few beams and it reads thin and temporary. Too many crowded too close and it reads heavy and shuts the light out entirely. We size the beam depth and the rafter spacing to the footprint of the patio itself, not to a fixed formula, because a ten foot square wants a different rhythm than a run twice that length. The measure of a good pergola isn't how it photographs from the yard, it's how it feels to sit under one on a July evening.
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Building the whole outdoor space, not just the shade
A pergola usually isn't the only thing going in. If the patio underneath it needs work, or you want a deck built out instead of a slab, that's the same crew and the same visit. If the yard also needs a privacy line to close off the space you're about to start using every evening, see our wood privacy fencing. Browse the full list of services or get a free estimate on your own patio. Eric comes out and looks at the ground and the sun before he quotes it, because both of those decide how the structure has to be built.