Patio Covers, Pergolas and Cedar Pavilions in DFW

The cedar structure is $119 per square foot with a $20,000 project minimum, which covers a post-and-beam frame on engineered piers with a standing seam metal roof, exposed rafters, corbels and a full stain finish. New concrete under it is $19 per square foot with a $6,000 minimum. The engineered plan set, structural detailing and permit fees are $2,200. A dedicated exterior circuit to two weather-rated outlets is $1,450.

The roof. A pergola is open slats, so it breaks up sunlight and keeps rain off nothing. A patio cover carries a solid roof over the full footprint, standing seam metal or shingles matched to the house, sloped for drainage, so the space underneath is usable in weather. We build both and they are priced separately above, because they are not the same product and quoting one at the other's price is how people end up disappointed in something that was built correctly.

The last one we built was $15,900. That was a freestanding two-layer open-top structure in Western Red Cedar, on nine 6x6 posts set on decorative steel bases. It used 2x10 beams with profiled end cuts, a rafter layer and 2x2 top purlins, and knee braces at every post-to-header connection. The price included demo of the pergola it replaced. Permitting and municipal coordination was $500 on top, and staining the whole structure was another $600. Nine posts is a large pergola, so a smaller one is less.

For a roofed structure, almost always. A roof is a load path and a reviewer wants to see where it goes, which means a stamped plan set showing post anchorage and roof framing. That is why design and engineering is its own phase here rather than buried somewhere. It is $2,200 and it includes the permit application and the city fees.

If the concrete is sound, level, and thick enough to take a pier, yes, and it takes the flatwork phase out of the project entirely. We core or excavate to check rather than guess, because a post anchored to a thin slab is the failure that shows up in the first real wind.

Engineering and permit review is usually three to five weeks and runs before anything happens on site. Concrete is a day to pour and a week to cure enough to build on. The structure itself is one to two weeks depending on size and roof complexity. Plan on six to ten weeks from signature, most of it waiting on review rather than waiting on us.

Standing seam metal or architectural shingles, sloped for drainage across the full footprint. Metal is what the published rate above prices: it is the panel that lasts longest on a structure this exposed, and it does not shed granules onto the furniture underneath. Shingles matched to the house roof tie the cover into the house, and that is often the right call on a cover attached to it; we quote a shingle roof from the walk rather than at the metal rate. We roof the covers we build. We are not a roofing company, and we do not replace house roofs.

Yes, and it is easiest while the cover is being built, before the ceiling closes. The exterior electrical band above, $1,450, is the dedicated GFCI circuit trenched from the panel to two weather-rated outlets. Recessed lights and a ceiling fan wired into the cover, and low-voltage landscape or path lighting around the patio, are added to that circuit and quoted from the walk.

A carport attached to the house is the same cedar post-and-beam structure as a patio cover, set over the drive instead of the patio, and we build those. It is quoted from the walk rather than at the patio cover rate, because the clearance a vehicle needs and the slab under it change the job. A freestanding metal carport kit is a different product, and not one we sell or install.

Yes, in the form most people mean. A freestanding cedar pavilion with a solid roof is what most people picture when they say gazebo, and it is the structure this page prices: a cedar post-and-beam frame on engineered piers with a standing seam roof, at $119 per square foot with a $20,000 project minimum, plus the design, engineering and permit phase. An octagonal kit gazebo from a big-box store is a different product. It is sized from a catalog rather than engineered for your site, and it usually anchors to the slab surface rather than to a pier. Some of those are fine for what they are. They are not what our rate describes.