# Patio Deck Cover

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patio-deck-cover/189800>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 20, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patio-deck-cover/189800 "2003-07-20T22:13:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8baadc/32.png) [@Bret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bret)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patio-deck-cover/189800/1 "2003-07-20T22:13:05Z")

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Can anyone tell me the recommended beam size for a 12 foot span of cedar used for the outside perameter of a patio cover? I am considering 4 x 12’s, but I think that might be overkill. It will be a 12 x 24 ft deck cover, with 4 x 4 or 4 x 6 support beams at corners and at 12 feet. It will need to hold up 6, 12 ft cross beams (2 x 8’s?) and several 2 x 2’s spanning the 24 ft… It will have a lightweight plastic cover on top of 2 x 2’s. Thanks