2 Pergolas In Garden – As customers look to create an outdoor extension of their home, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the popularity of pergolas. Pergolas stand out for their ability to create unique, functional and adaptable outdoor spaces. With open sides and wooden roofs, pergolas provide coolness, shade and a strong sense of connection to the surrounding yard. Their open structure creates an attractive yet relatively soft visual impact, allowing them to elegantly plug into any size yard.

Our design team has put together advice on the most desirable hardscaping features, including cost, materials, styles, options and more.

2 Pergolas In Garden

Pergolas are time-tested freestanding outdoor structures, first seen in Egypt around 1400 BC, and widely used by the 17th century Romans during the Italian Renaissance. Today’s pergolas consist of poles that support the roof with an open structure (as opposed to a roof with a closed structure like a gazebo), with no walls below.

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The purpose of the pergola is to block the harsh glare of the sun while letting in gentle light and fresh air. A typical pergola does not completely block sunlight, but some designs have louvers or roofs to provide complete shade.

Pergolas create a pleasant outdoor space that is partly enclosed, partly open. High ceilings create an intimate feeling, while open sides maintain a strong visual connection with the surrounding courtyard, making the space under the roof appear larger than its footprint. You will generally see pergolas placed over outdoor areas intended for long-term use, such as outdoor kitchens, dining rooms or lounge areas.

As a structural object, pergolas are often a focal point in landscape design, and act as a style statement – a modern pergola helps everything in your yard feel more modern. In practice, pergolas also provide the basic structure for the installation of accessories (which we will review below).

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Wooden pergolas are popular for their beautiful appearance and natural features. Wood as a material is easy to work with – it will take paint or stain, can be used as a decoration that flourishes the nature of the traditional style, and is a good choice for DIY or custom construction. All these reasons make wooden pergolas flexible and easy to use in all types of landscape design.

Remember that wooden pergolas are cheaper, but the cost of wood is increased in many ways. Currently, wood is a medium to high priced option for pergolas.

While wooden pergolas allow flexibility in design, they are durable and high maintenance materials. A coat of paint or stain is necessary every year or two to protect the wood from the weather.

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Fiberglass pergolas have a smooth surface and feel softer than wood. Like wood, fiberglass can be any color, but looks best in modern versus traditional landscape designs. One of the advantages of fiberglass over wooden pergolas is that they are very durable and virtually maintenance-free.

Because fiberglass is so durable, it can span longer distances than wood – up to 26 feet in some cases, which is useful for reducing posts as barriers in outdoor areas.

Aluminum pergolas have the same advantages as fiberglass – light, strong, attractive and suitable for modern style, and almost no maintenance.  Aluminum pergolas are resistant to corrosion and are usually powder coated, so the color of the paint does not chip with wear and tear.

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Vinyl pergolas are an affordable option when it comes to materials. They also tend to look low quality because the surface can be perceived as wood, fiberglass or metal. Another disadvantage is that vinyl pergolas are usually limited in color – you will find them in white or soft neutral colors.

While vinyl pergolas are low maintenance, they are not as durable as wood, fiberglass or metal. If durability or design flexibility aren’t important to you, but price is, a vinyl pergola may be the way to go. However, there are other lower cost options to consider.

Keep the anchor in the ground. For most pergolas, this means building a concrete footing underground for each post, although sometimes a lightweight package simply bolts the posts into the deck or concrete slab.

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The mounting posts must be perfectly vertical with a certain distance to fit the prefab beam – if you go off half an inch you will have to re-attach the posts. For this reason, we recommend having a contractor install your pergola, even for multiple pergola kits. Contractor installation costs between $3K and $6K on top of the pergola’s purchase price, but it’s usually worth it.

Sometimes pergolas require a permit, sometimes they don’t. City codes and, when applicable, HOA requirements ultimately determine whether a permit is required.

Permits are usually required when pergolas are large, attached to existing structures, or use concrete feet to secure their position on the ground. Permits are also often required in regions exposed to snowfall, high winds, or seismic activity. Solid roof structures are more or less certain to require a permit.

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Prefabricated pergolas usually come with structural drawings that can be used at the time of delivery for the pergola. This can result in significant savings by cutting the cost and difficulty of hiring an engineer to create permit drawings.

In addition to the material, the type of pergola you buy – prefab vs. Custom built-in will influence its price. In general, prefab pergolas are cheaper than custom construction.

With any choice, do not forget the cost of professional assembly and installation must be considered in addition to the purchase price of the structure or materials. As mentioned above, this is usually between $3K and $6K.

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Custom pergolas vary greatly in material cost depending on time, size, and anything about your design that complicates installation. The basics can be quite cheap, but it is not uncommon to spend $20K for a custom pergola. You can control costs by keeping the design clean and simple. Complex designs or structural challenges quickly accumulate costs through additional labor requirements.

After factoring in delivery and installation, prefab aluminum, fiberglass and wood pergolas will run from $8K to $15K for a standard size pergola. Expanding or adding accessories can add as much as $10K on top of this standard price range.

With a higher purchase price, you usually get a higher quality product that will last longer and look more permanent. You may get a choice of warranty or accessories.

Diy Modern Pergola Tutorial For Under $100 — Liz Morrow

Keep in mind that kits or prefab structures that claim to be DIY may not be easy to install. Many prefab pergolas may initially seem more attractive than custom builds due to their lower cost, but installation requires professional help which will increase the total cost.

We tend to think of pergolas as falling into two big categories: traditional and modern. In short, traditional pergolas have decorative flourishes, modern ones do not.

Traditional pergolas often have ceiling beams protruding from the central pergola frame (these decorative outcroppings are called “rafter tails”). Threads can be round or square, and can be decorated, either side and thick base (such features will increase the overall cost). High-end traditional pergolas can be embedded in a rectangular shape with stone or wood.

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These decorative features are unique to wooden pergola designs, but some vinyl and fiberglass pergolas offer attractive versions of the same decorative features seen here – just be sure to get a quality product.

This traditional pergola is a prefabricated vinyl structure that costs less than $3k. Limestone plantings and low-maintenance plantings are other elements that keep this backyard on a tight budget.

Modern pergolas are sleek and lacking in decorative purpose. All angles are 90 degrees, and the poles are square. Modern fiberglass and aluminum pergolas show a very refined feel like the one pictured above.

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You can skew modern pergolas for a more rustic look by choosing a wooden model and pairing it with modern patio furniture.

One of our favorite uses for pergolas in landscape design is to turn a front or back patio into a porch by adding an overhead pergola. We love this modern fire pit living room. It is very accessible from many entrances, and matches the exterior style of the house perfectly.

Modern pergolas adapt well to a variety of design styles. White modern pergolas especially managed to look harmonious in a design that is not quite traditional (rows of boxwood and hydrangeas).

Wooden Garden Pergola

The patio-to-porch effect of the attached pergola in the front yard is even more impressive. The beauty of this natural wood creates an aesthetic warmth and a more functional outdoor living space.

There are ways to create perfect shade with a pergola. Some pergolas come with adjustable louvers, which allow you to control the level of shade under the roof. Now it is common to add a fabric “pergola canopy” to the pergola ceiling, as seen above.

You can also attach shade cells or retractable screens under the roof to block incoming light, but still allow in the sun as needed, as seen above.

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High quality pergola can be used for hanging seats! Here’s a fun fire pit lounger that captures the carefree atmosphere of a porch swing making it an indispensable outdoor living space for friends and family to enjoy.

Historically, pergolas have been used to provide support

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