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Pergolas & Patio Covers
In Los Angeles, shade is what makes a deck usable from June to October. A pergola is often worth more to you than another two hundred square feet of deck.
Pergola, patio cover, or something in between
A pergola is an open structure. Rafters with gaps, dappled shade, a frame for a vine. A patio cover is solid, and it turns the space underneath into somewhere you can leave furniture and eat lunch in August.
Between them sits the option most people actually want: a substantially covered structure with a solid section over the seating and an open section elsewhere, or a louvered roof that opens and closes. We build all of it.
The engineering isn't trivial
A pergola looks like a simple thing and isn't. It carries its own considerable weight, wind uplift, and on a solid cover, whatever roofing goes on top. Attached structures push that load into the house at a ledger, with the same flashing and water-resistive barrier problems as a deck ledger. A patio cover ledger surface-screwed to stucco with no flashing will find its way into the wall.
Freestanding structures skip the house connection but need real footings, because the whole lateral load goes into the posts and the ground. Bolting posts to an existing slab usually isn't enough on its own.
Permits and coverage
Attached patio covers and most pergolas of any size need a permit in the City of Los Angeles. Hillside lots add a wrinkle. Structures more than six feet above natural grade count toward the lot coverage cap under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, and a covered structure eats more of that coverage than an open deck does.
We handle the drawings and the permit process. If you're near a coverage limit, we'll tell you before we design something you can't build.
Fire zones
If you're in a fire hazard severity zone, a patio cover attached to the house counts as a projection, and projections are regulated. Solid roofing on a covered structure falls under roof assembly requirements. Los Angeles now applies the Class A roof assembly requirement in High zones as well as Very High, so check yours if you've been working from an older assumption.
Material
Cedar and redwood for open pergolas, where the material is visible and the loads are moderate. Douglas fir for larger structural members. Hardwood where it has to match a hardwood deck below it. Steel where the span makes wood impractical, or where somebody wants a thinner profile than timber can give.
We build the things that go with them too. Integrated lighting, fans, privacy screens, and the electrical rough-in done before the ceiling closes instead of surface-mounted afterward.
Call (818) 345-2866.