The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

My sister's old garden bench was rotted out and 2 legs broke off, so she asked me to build a new one.

I measured the old bench and entered into Sketchup.  I first did a copy of the original bench

I like to build stuff with a more rugged and sturdy design, so I changed the main 3/4" thick parts over to 2x4 stock......

My sister has all white garden ornaments, so I will paint this white.

I could go with pressure treated or cedar, both should last quite a while in the painted condition.  With the virus, many lumberyards are out of pressure-treated stock.  My sister likes to put her ornaments away for the winter months in Illinois, so lightweight cedar is probably a better choice than pressure treated........so I went with Cedar from Menards in Bloomington, Illinois.

I assembled the main structural components first, then painted them.  for the seat and back pieces, I will paint before I screw them to the frame.......because the edges touch and it would be hard to get paint in the edges.

I will use 3/8" by 3.5 inch long stove bolts to attach the major structural components together.

I used 2.5 inch long deck screws to attach the seat and back rails to the 2x4 supports.  This is a little overkill, I could have bought some 2 inch long screws, but I stock a ton of the 2.5 inch screws, so I used them.

I uploaded the finished design to the Sketchup Warehouse where anyone can access it and download it. You can use this link to get the design.

This was a fun little project.  Some of the cedar boards for the back were bowed, so I added a middle 2x4 piece in the middle of the back, to screw the seat back boards to.....take out the initial warp, and prevent future warping.

The finished bench is still relatively light weight in terms of moving it, so my sister should be able to put it away each winter.