What I tell clients when they ask what a pergola costs

I'm a landscape designer. I model in SketchUp, render options in SUAPP AI, and answer cost questions all day. The one I get most often: what will a pergola cost?

I used to answer with a single number. It always came back to bite me. So now I answer with a range and explain what moves it. Here is the version I give.

Start with a range

I keep a July 2026 US cost guide open while I sketch options. Treat these as a starting point, not a quote:

• DIY kit (aluminium or vinyl): $2,500-$5,000

• Contractor-built wood: $6,000-$18,000

• Motorised louvred: $8,000-$25,000

• Custom cedar or hardwood: $15,000-$35,000+

What moves the number

• Footprint and span. A 16×16 attached pergola is the usual starting point. Every extra foot, and every longer clear span, pushes the build up a price tier.

• Attached or freestanding. Attached usually means footings tied to the house and a permit; freestanding structures under roughly 200 sq ft often skip the permit, depending on the city.

• Material. Pressure-treated pine is about half the cost of cedar for the same footprint, and around a third of custom hardwood.

• Kit or custom. Kits fix the size; custom fixes the design.

• Louvred roof. The premium is real: $8,000-$25,000 installed versus $4,000-$12,000 for a comparable standard structure.

The number clients forget

Install price is what they compare. Lifetime cost is what they should. Pine runs 10-15 years with $100-$300 a year in restaining. Cedar runs 15-25 years at $50-$150. Aluminium runs 20-25 years and needs almost nothing. A wood pergola that costs $8,000 to install but needs $500 a year over 15 years has a real cost of $15,500 — more than the $12,000 aluminium structure that needs nothing.

Don't promise resale

The same guide is refreshingly blunt: a pergola improves buyer appeal more reliably than it raises appraised value. It cites NAR survey data at roughly 50-80% of cost returned at sale. A $10,000 pergola might add $5,000-$8,000 in a favourable market — positive, but not break-even on a short hold. Climate, whether the structure matches the house, and whether it is attached all matter more than the material.

How I present it

Two schemes, not one: the sensible option and the one the space wants. I model both in SketchUp, render both in AIR from the same camera, and put the cost next to each. Same view, so the only thing that changes is the design.

Clients decide with their eyes. A render ends arguments a spreadsheet cannot. Once they pick, I check the permit threshold before the design is locked — redrawing is cheaper than removing.

Your turn

How do you put cost in front of clients — itemised, or one number? And has a permit issue ever killed a project after the design was done?