Pergola Builder..

Hi All,

After recommendations for someone to quote a pergola build..

Melbourne

Cheers

Just finished building our verandah and pergola with Totally Outdoors. They did a fantastic job.

I will be in the same boat later this year.. I might look to get quotes from Stratco and Install a Veranda... I have had it dealing with tradies and hope a bigger company will be less stressful!

Mini hijack- We've had 5 smaller tradies and/or businesses come out and quote and then never get back to us with final figures. I'd rec a bigger company based on that alone.

Dont hold your chickens, I tried that.. and stratco flatout refused to engineer me the design, I am now reverting back to trades who use stratco products..



Got 5 quotes happening this week.. lets see what happens.

Just a little advice regarding pergola builders......Make sure they are registered practitioners and get a permit.
As a draftsman, I get numerous calls this time of year from people who have pergolas (verandahs) built over the xmas/new years period, dont get permits, neighbours complain to council and council issue illegal building notice!!!!
There are a lot of opportunist tradies who do cheap pergolas this time of year and will tell you all kinds of rubbish, like you don't need a permit, just to get a bit of holiday cash out of you.
Please check with your local council regarding permits first before getting quote.

I just had one done with Install-A-Veranda and love it. However, it was an extremely simple design - attach to house on one side, two posts on the other side and flashing to seal off between third side and rest of house. I got the cooldek option.

That said, since it was a simple rectangle, nothing whatsoever to cause difficulties, any stratco installer should have been able to do an equal job. Yes, permits were issued - I have them filed away - so no question mark about them doing that correctly.

I am sort of over it now.. I am discussing directly with Carpenters now.. The verandah providers have been next to useless. We dont have a complex design, however they are over simplyfying it even further and limiting our future purpose for the area.

They fail to understand the concept that the verandah is simply that, a cover, and that we want to work that into the rest of the backyard, not have it stand out like dogs balls.

Least with the Carpenter, they want to see our end game, and understand fully what we want.

If anyone is building a house and thinking of putting a pergola on after, consider getting your builder to quote an alfresco under main roof.

We just got a 12 x 3.4m alfresco added to the back of the house we are building for around 15k.

When you consider that it would probably cost more than this just to put the pergola up post-build (not including flooring etc), it can save you a fair bit of money, time and drama. it is all under the main roof and ready for when you move in. It will also be a part of your roof line and be much more aesthetically pleasing.

I just had a guy call me and want to charge $200 to give a quote..

Wow! I hope you told them to f off...

Not in those words, however yes.

i put a ad up on service central, got 4 calls from chippies within a hr. All of them with building licenses, all of them at least 1500 cheaper then the real guys.

Interesting

This is like pulling teeth! They can all build it, but dont want to know about plans and permits.. sigh.

We have just selected our builder/carpenter, its taken 11 quotes, only 5 were registered.

To save everyone the hassle, ask if they are registered prior to them coming out.

I've got an area - paved - about 3 metres wide and about 6 metres long. Any ideas besides a pergola - I'd like light but not rain. It will come off the eaves - short and long side - so can use them for support I guess.

One option is a good style shade umbrella type wind out thing ? Maybe 2 ?

I want it to look good.

Further to Gthrope, some advice in this article:http://bit.ly/SsSw75 - bottom line, get advice & use someone reputable...