The Smell of Palm Fronds and the Sound of a Drill
There is a week every fall when driveways across South Florida fill with lumber, somebody’s uncle is halfway up a ladder, and a kid is handing screws over one at a time. Sukkot is coming, and the sukkah has to go up.
We have watched that week slowly disappear. Fewer ladders, more aluminum frames and canvas walls coming out of the garage already assembled. So this year our team did something about it. Three sizes, one page, free to download.
First, For Anyone Who Has Never Sat in One
Sukkot is a seven day Jewish festival that begins five days after Yom Kippur. In 2026 it runs from sundown on Friday, September 25 through Friday, October 2. It is a harvest festival, and it is also a remembrance of the forty year journey through the desert, when shelter was temporary and protection came from somewhere other than the walls.
A sukkah is that shelter, rebuilt every year. Families eat in it all week, and many sleep in it. The idea is to step out of the solid house and sit under something fragile on purpose. You see the sky through the roof. Dinner runs long because nobody wants to go back inside.
Bringing Back the One We Grew Up With
Ask anyone who grew up with Sukkot to describe their sukkah and you get the same answer. A drill on a Sunday. The smell of fresh branches. A grandfather measuring twice. Walls that went up slightly crooked and nobody minding. That sukkah was built by hand, every year, by the family that sat in it.
That is the one we want back. That is the whole reason this exists.
The ready-made sukkah only arrived in the last decade or so. We understand why. A box feels certain and a pile of lumber does not. But the hesitation was never about the lumber. It was about not having a plan, and drawing plans is the one thing we are genuinely good at.
So we drew the sukkah we all remember and we are giving it away. A holiday about welcoming guests seemed like the wrong week to charge admission.
Three Sizes, One Simple Idea
Everything is built from one piece: a 4 foot wall frame made of 2x4s.
- 8 by 8. Three frames. Room for your family. About 18 pieces of 2×4 and an afternoon.
- 8 by 16. Two more frames. Now invite the neighbors.
- 16 by 16. One more frame and longer roof beams. This one hosts everybody.
What to buy, how many, and five illustrated steps all sit on one sheet. At the end of the week it stacks flat in the garage until next year.
Built So You Can Stop Worrying
- Every joint has a number. You will never wonder whether four screws is enough. The sheet tells you.
- The roof is sized for a real covering. Pile the schach on generously and nothing sags.
- A licensed engineer checked it. Drawn to the Florida Building Code and wood design standards, then reviewed by our PE.
- It knows its own limits. The plans say plainly when to take it down, which is when a named storm is on the way.
- The lights are covered too. NOHMIS provides full-service Architecture, Structural & MEP Engineering, so the guide also covers outdoor rated cords, the right outlets, and candles kept clear of dry branches.
None of this shows. Standing inside, it is just warm wood, green branches, and the sky. But you will feel it the first time you lean against a wall and nothing moves.
What We Hope You Take Outside With You
A sukkah is supposed to be fragile. That is the lesson. But fragile on purpose and shaky by accident are two different things, and you deserve the first without any of the second.
So take a Sunday. Buy the lumber. Let your kids hand you the screws and lose count. Sit down to dinner under it and stay out there longer than you meant to. Do that a few years running and one fall, in a driveway of their own, they will build it without you and without our plans, because by then they simply remember how.
That is the sukkah we grew up with. That is the one worth passing on.
Our title block lists construction start as right after Yom Kippur, completion as before the first night of Sukkot, and under ultimate authority, Hashem. We meant all of it. And if something looks off while you build, remember the last line on the drawing: “it should probably hold” is not an approved engineering method.
Go Build It
The NOHMIS Sukkah Design & Assembly Guide is free to download. It was drawn by Yuval Maimon, John Ivan Santos, and Jackie Crockett, with engineering check by Joseph Simhon, PE.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE SUKKAH DESIGN & ASSEMBLY GUIDE
Chag Sameach from all of us in Pompano Beach.
More about our work: structural engineering, architectural design, MEP engineering, inspections, and seawalls and docks, at www.nohmis.com.
Contact:
NOHMIS Design, Engineering & Inspections
2195 N. Powerline Rd, Suite 2
Pompano Beach, FL 33069
+1 954-591-8361
Services@NOHMIS.com
www.nohmis.com
Please note: We should say plainly what our own plans say: these drawings are not a substitute for rabbinic guidance. On any question of schach material, wall configuration, or work on Shabbat and Yom Tov, ask your rabbi. Engineering is the part we can help with.
The NOHMIS Sukkah Design & Assembly Guide has been prepared as a general guide for the safe construction and use of a sukkah. It is not a site specific engineering document and has not been digitally signed or sealed. Verify field conditions, follow the plans and notes, and use good judgment during construction. The sukkah should not be occupied during high winds or severe weather, and should be disassembled ahead of a named tropical storm or hurricane.