Pergola bid calculator

How much to charge to build a pergola

A published “$45 a square foot” special prices the footprint. A residential pergola is not a footprint. It is posts that do not scale with square feet, a shade layer that may be nothing or a louvered roof, 8- or 10- or 12-foot sticks, and often a ledger on the house. Matching the coupon on a 12×16 louvered cover is how a sold job becomes a two-day loss after the first shade bay.

The number a square-foot special cannot see

Take a 10×10 freestanding open cedar frame at 8-foot post spacing. That is four posts, six rafters, and no shade — 100 square feet. The coupon says $4,500. Raise the same shop to a 12×16 attached cover. The footprint is 192 square feet, so the coupon says $8,640. The posts did not scale that way: three posts and a ledger, or six if it is freestanding, plus nine rafters, plus whatever sits on top of them.

Put slats or a louvered roof on that 12×16. Shade now covers 192 square feet the open 10×10 never had. 10-foot posts are not “the same job plus two feet.” A fan circuit is not in the square-foot number at all.

How to price it

1. Measure width along the house and depth out from the wall.
2. Count posts: floor(span ÷ spacing) + 1 along each side, minimum two. Drop the house-side row on an attached job and price the ledger instead.
3. Add rafters at your centers, one beam per remaining post row, and shade on the whole footprint when the job is not an open frame.
4. Price height (8 / 10 / 12), knee braces, a fan circuit, existing-structure demo, and the permit allowance.
5. Load the wage, add materials and mobilization, mark overhead on direct cost, then divide by one minus the target margin. The walk-away price is total cost.

The pergola bid calculator does that arithmetic in the browser from your own hours and invoices. Starting post spacing, shade rates, and material rates are ballpark figures to replace, not a catalog or a code table.

What this is not

This is not a building-code opinion, a permit, a construction specification, or an engineering stamp. Confirm the jurisdiction and a qualified professional before sending a price. The output is arithmetic on the numbers you typed.

No warranty. This free article and calculator are not construction, legal, tax, financial, or engineering advice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors accept no liability for loss or damage from their use.

Common questions

How much to charge to build a pergola?

Start from the footprint, count the posts the square-foot special cannot see, then add shade, height, an attached ledger, extras, and the permit. A published $45 per square foot special only sees width times depth.

Why do posts and shade change the price?

A 10-by-10 open cedar frame is four 8-foot posts and no shade. A 12-by-16 attached cover is a different post count, a ledger, and a shade layer on 192 square feet. Matching the 10-by-10 coupon is how a louvered job loses money.

Is this a building-code calculation?

No. Post spacing, spans, and shade rates here are common starting points on residential bids. They are not a building-code opinion, a permit, or an engineering stamp.