Cedar posts for pergola

[Mark Bolton]

Mark, I'm unsure if a hollow post will be structurally acceptable to carry the load of snow around here. It will be a 18'x14' structure with 6 posts and will require a permit and inspected by the city.
My thinking was to start with 4x4 cedar and laminate on 4 sides 5/4" cedar boards to "build" it up to a 6x6.

I hear you. I would however ask the building department. Hollow columns are very common in every climate. I would personally be concerned with keeping nice tight joints over time wrapping a boxed heart post. A lot will be dependent on what you have access to with regards to grade, MC, and so on. If they required a solid post for structural support I would go with a 4x4 and simply fabricate the 4/4 box to drop over top with some blocking to center the hollow box and then if the post were to move at all you'd be left with your dead tight box. Just my 0.02. We recently built pergola for a job that incorporated large brackets and we brought in a bunch of dead clean/clear 6x8 material. May take some hunting.

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[mreza Salav]

I guess I didn't mention this: I don't intend to glue the wrap directly to "not so straight/square" inner post. I thought of actually dimensioning (i.e. join/plane) the post and the 2x material and then glue them. Basically build up a bigger but straight/check free (for now!) post. The idea of having a gap between the inner post and outer shell is also something I have done int he past (the following post you see has an inner 2x material that is load bearing but the outer shell was built separately and then slide over the inner structural post:
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