Deck Construction - Allowing for future Pergola construction

Hi All,

I'm brand new to DIY and to this forum, I'm a mortgage broker who has never worked outside of an office so please forgive me if I come off as a little naive. I've done a topic search for my particular question but can't seem to find anything addressing it, so here goes.

I'm planning to build my own Merbau deck in my backyard after being quoted $27,000 and $24,500 by two different companies for a 4m x 4.6m deck and pergola. At this stage, I'm looking to build the deck only and have the pergola constructed in a year or two when the budget allows for it. The reason I am not attempting the Pergola myself as it seems a little bit more complicated when you have to factor in electrical and insulation.

My question is, do I need to allow for the Pergola posts when constructing my deck? Most decks I've seen have the posts for the pergola built in to the deck itself, rather than coming down to the ground around the deck. I'm looking at getting a colorbond pergola so I wanted to know if I can just build the deck as normal and have the posts for the pergola bolted onto the top of the deck when the time comes? Or will whoever builds the pergola need to tear up the deck to be able to install the support posts.

I've attached a plan I drew up for the deck if that helps - Apologies for the poor image quality, it scanned in crooked and the scanner didn't like pencil, so I went over the important bits in felt tip. Would appreciate any assistance.


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