One of the most frequently asked questions and concerns from PMH Perfect My Home customers who have recently had a Pergola Tulsa installed at their home, is that it is cracking. This cracking, which when referring to a pergola Tulsa is called checking, is completely normal, because PMH Perfect My Home builds all their pergola Tulsa out of one hundred percent western red cedar, and that is what cedar does.
The checking typically occurs on just one of the pergola Tulsa posts, or it is more significant on just one, so it looks unusual, and it calls for concern from the customer. Luckily, PMH Perfect My Home has an informational sheet about pergola Tulsa checking that they can send to customers when they express concerns over the checking. The most important piece of information that PMH Perfect My Home wants to convey to their customers, is that the cracks in their pergola Tulsa, or the checking, as it is called, is not going to affect the structural integrity of the pergola Tulsa. In fact, the cracking and checking makes it stronger because when it cracks and checks, it releases the internal tension that is built up inside.
What exactly is checking, you ask?
When cedar dries, the exterior surface shrinks faster than the interior surface, and the result is a crack or a check. The reason it is called checking and not cracking (as most people refer to it as) is that it is just an opening of the wood along the wood’s grain.
PMH Perfect My Home specifically buys cedar that comes from the center of the tree, which is naturally stronger than the wood that is on the outer part of the tree. Making it last longer. The checking or the opening of the cedar does not travel to the center of the post, so it will not be in danger of splitting in half.
In the rare instance that you have to check that goes all the way through (if you can stick a butter knife through it, then it needs to be replaced.
PMH Perfect My Home has an eighteen thousand square foot showroom with many different examples of the projects that they design, build and install in people’s backyard, creating an outdoor living space. Most of those projects are made from cedar, and they all have cracks and checks and openings on them. The salesman always asks their customers to come and see the work for themselves so that they can rest assured that it is normal and not unusual. PMH Perfect My Home would never display their handcrafted work if it was defective in any way. What you see in the showroom is what they use to promote their products and the craftsmanship and quality.
PMH Perfect My Home has been in business building outdoor living spaces for over fifteen years and they have built hundreds of thousands of pergolas during the time, and they range from half-pergolas that are tied into the roof to freestanding pergolas. They have earned the reputation of being named the home of the half-pergola because of the design and installation that they have perfected over the years. Most of the pergolas that they install are tied into the roof. It makes them stronger and they are also more affordable than freestanding pergolas.
Besides pergolas, PMH Perfect My Home also builds other items out of cedar such as cedar pavilions, cedar fireplace mantels, cedar privacy walls, cedar fences, cedar railing, cedar decks, and their sister company, Patio Galaxy, a retail outdoor living and barbecue store, also makes handcrafted items out of cedar such as their very popular cedar TV cabinets and their cedar shutters that come both operational and stationary.
If the cracking, checking, and opening bother you too much and you decide not to go with cedar projects, PMH Perfect My Home also specializes in masonry projects such as outdoor fireplaces, outdoor kitchens, swimming pools, fire pits, semi-circle benches, composite decks, patio concrete that can be poured or expanded, retaining walls, pavers, and flagstone.
They also offer backyard packages that include a combination of several of these projects. PMH offers free estimates on all their projects, no matter how big or how small. They will send a seasoned salesman to your home to give you suggestions or recommendations or take your ideas and work up a quote. They will send that quote with a sketch and once you have made your down payment, your materials will be ordered and once your materials arrive, your project manager will visit your space and line up a crew to begin the work.
PMH Perfect My Home is the highest-rated and most reviewed outdoor living company in the state of Oklahoma. They have more than fifty video reviews of happy customers talking about their positive experiences working with PMH Perfect My Home. Communication and cleanliness are tops of their comments about what they liked about working with PMH Perfect My Home.
You can visit their website and their social media pages to see hundreds of photos of their projects and get inspiration for your backyard project. You can also visit their showroom which has eighteen thousand square feet of space that has examples of the projects that they can do. While you are there you can pick up one of their full-color catalogs with detailed information about the projects.