Pergola questions answered in plain English

A timber pergola kit is €428 to €733. An aluminium louvred kit is €1,886 to €2,998 for 3 × 3 m to 4 × 3 m, and a motorised roof €3,395 to €7,420. Made to measure and fitted, aluminium starts from €2,500. See the price guide.

It depends on the base and the roof. A kit going onto a sound, level patio is the quickest job. A made-to-measure aluminium pergola is made to order after the company measures up, so ask for the lead time and the fitting days in writing with the price.

No. SEAI grants are for energy upgrades, and there's no council grant for garden structures. What you can control is the spec: a timber kit costs a fraction of a motorised roof.

Not much. On a sound patio the posts bolt down, with no digging. New posts need a pad or footing at each one. Ask the company to take away the packaging and offcuts, and put that in the written price.

Get it in writing, and separately for the frame, the coating and any motor. Kits in our guide carry 5 years; dealer-fitted aluminium systems can carry 10 years on the structure and longer on the coating.

One pergola company that covers your county, and only one. They measure up, price it in writing, build it and deal with you directly.

Usually not. Behind the house, no more than 30 m² for all garden structures together, 25 m² of garden left, and no higher than 3 m (4 m with a tiled or slated pitched roof). See planning permission.

Yes, if your existing patio flags are laid on a sand or weak mortar bed. A 4 m x 3 m louvred aluminium or glass-roofed pergola catches significant wind uplift and weighs 250 kg to 450 kg. Installers lift the corner patio slabs, core or dig 350x350x500 mm concrete pad footings, bolt the post base plates directly to the concrete, and relay the cut paving neatly around each post.

When the interlocking aluminium blades are fully closed, rainwater runs along channels moulded into each blade, drops into the concealed perimeter gutter inside the frame beam, and drains out through the hollow corner posts. In normal to heavy Irish rain the patio underneath stays dry; in storm-force sideways rain, adding a drop-down side screen or sliding glass on the prevailing wind side stops blow-in.

Yes, using stand-off thermal distance fixings (stainless threaded rods with insulated compression sleeves) that bridge cleanly through the 100 mm to 150 mm external insulation board into the solid concrete blockwork behind without crushing the render. Alternatively, builders install a 4-post freestanding frame set 50 mm off the wall with a flexible EPDM flashing trim.

A heavy-gauge extruded aluminium pergola (120 mm to 150 mm posts, 2.0 mm+ wall thickness) or a 150x150 mm C24 timber frame bolted to concrete footings handles 100 to 120 km/h gusts without issue. Lightweight 80 mm box-retail gazebos often buckle in winter gales. In exposed coastal gardens in Galway, Clare, Kerry, Donegal, Cork or Wexford, specify concrete footings and heavier post sections.

Under Revenue's two-thirds rule for building fixtures, a permanently fixed supply-and-install pergola qualifies for the 13.5% reduced VAT rate provided the trade cost of the materials is less than two-thirds of the total contract price excluding VAT. High-value motorised bioclimatic kits where the hardware exceeds two-thirds of the price, or supply-only DIY kits, are charged at 23% VAT.

Yes. Both 10 mm frameless sliding glass panels (running on a low-profile bottom track) and motorised zip-track wind blinds can be retrofitted into the side openings of a square-post timber or aluminium pergola later on, provided the corner posts are plumb and the concrete footing along the span is level.