While our house was being built in Skokie, I spent some time designing and building a stand-alone wooden sukkah. Although I had built a simple one years earlier in Toronto, I wanted this one to be better and hopefully last for many years. Another goal was that I should be able to put it together by myself every year, since the kids were still too young to help.
Although I had a good idea what I wanted to do, I did get some good construction ideas from watching the carpenters working on the house — such as using liquid nails in addition to screws to attach the walls to the studs.
My design used cross-beams that fit together with cut slots, so I could assemble and disassemble it easily. Those cross beams were also slotted to fit over the walls, so they would hold the walls in place while I bolted the panels to each other.
I included a single Plexiglas window, and a hinged door with a latch. Chicago can be cold that time of year, so being able to close it in somewhat was important. For schach I used individual bamboo poles, which looked nice but were a pain to lay out and bundle for storage. In later years they had bamboo “mats” available, which I switched to in the last couple of years before we moved to Florida.
I must say, I was proud of the result, and as a testament to the quality we used it every year for 12 years — and when we moved a “gemach” was happy to take it.
Note the slotted cross-beam assembly… Not only easy to assemble, but the cross pieces would server to hold newly-installed panels in place until I could bolt them together.
The door was fully functional and latching…
When putting the sukkah up by myself, I would start with the door panel because it could stand up by itself when the door was in the open position. I was then able to bring the next panel in line and connect them using two lag bolts with wing nuts (as all the panels were connected to each other)
Many people would make such a sukkah with the smooth side of the panel on the inside and the side with the framing on the outside… I chose the opposite for two reasons: 1) I liked the look of the finished side on the outside, and 2) It made assembly and disassembly much easier since I could insert the bolts from the inside, and also use 1×2’s to prop to the panels before I was ready to bolt them together.
The framed plexiglass window…
In later years I added what I jokingly called “space beams” — those 1×2 inch pieces that appear curved in the corners of the sukkah. They were just loose, but propped under the top panel support and then wedged tightly against the cement. This added support against the winds which were sometimes significant.
In the early years when the kids were young I had to do everything myself, but later my kids were of great assistance. Here Moshe is seen putting up the bamboo poles…
After the bamboo was up, 6-8 bundles of cedar branches were spread thickly over the top…
In the last couple of years I replaced the individual bamboo poles with newly-available bamboo mats, making the process much easier… Note also the lighting: I chose to use three floodlights pointing downwards and reflecting off the white tables. This orientation also made the lights safe in the rain since the sockets pointed downwards.
We used two six-foot tables, covered with a tablecloth and a thick clear vinyl. Then, to make clean-ups easier, we’d put a thin disposable plastic over the top and replace it after meals. During the day, the window not only provided light, but allowed us to keep an eye on the kids playing on the swing set.
Since the patio had a slope to it (away from the house), I always propped an old metal pipe against the back side to keep it more level.
