What I Have Learned About Building My Own Tiki Bar

I have been the owner of Tiki Bar for over 5 years, but I have learned what I want to do and never do it again. I would like to share my mistakes and my Tiki Bar improvements with you.

First, I would like to talk about a few things that I learned to make my own outdoor bar. Need to say more outside! The weather conditions in your area determine how the bar is built. Here are some ideas to keep in mind when building an external tiki bar:

• Your climate -If you live in an area with warm summers and cold winters, you will encounter the same obstacles I have faced. Always use treated wood for surfaces that come into contact with the ground. If you don't follow this rule, the tiki bar will shrink and crack immediately. Therefore, it is necessary to use treated wood. There is little contraction and lasts much longer. Whenever wood is exposed to the weather, careful attention must be paid to the type of wood used and the proper treatment of the wood after installation.


• insect -Since cedar is not easily damaged by pests, white cedar logs were used to construct the roof structure. Now, I threw it out of the window and spent 3 years with bugs until last year. I noticed that wood flour and small chips were lying at the top of the bar. I thought that thatched roof was falling or falling apart, but to my surprise, there was a carpenter bee! After inspecting my white cedar logs, I found about a 3/8 inch hole bored in some of my logs. I knew I had to deal with this situation immediately, so after some research I called a pest control company. A carpenter bee looks almost the same as a common bumblebee, except that the abdomen has no hair and the male cannot sting. They love natural cedar! Apply either wood preservatives or good quality valper varnish to the logs.


• Bar top -There are various opinions about what to use for the bar top. I skimmed here but I'm sorry! We recommend using marine plywood for the bar top for good reason. I used oak plywood, the second best I thought. The oak plywood was fine for the first few years and was coated with about 10 marine varnishes. This is fine, except that it is very difficult to seal the plywood edges. When the water started to penetrate the wood, there was only a problem! To solve my problem, I applied a glass tile to the top of the tiki bar using waterproof adhesive and grout. Marine plywood is very expensive, but worth the money.


• Palm Thatch -The roof life at Tiki Bar is definitely determined by the weather. You can change that palm at least every two years. The only way to solve this problem is to purchase a high-quality commercial synthesis. The popularity of outdoor restaurants with Tiki thatched roofs necessitated this synthetic thatch. That bar again with a sealed thatched roof, extending the life of another two years.


• Protect the bar -One of the things I want to mention here is to fix the bar. I'm lucky that my bar sits on a concrete apron around the pool area. To prevent the bar from being blown off by strong winds, we used a drop on the concrete anchor.

Before starting to build a tiki bar, the importance of proper planning cannot be emphasized. This saves time and money with advice from expert builders who build an outdoor paradise for life. Visit Build Tiki Bar to see the voice of the person who made your own bar.