Pergola vs pavilion

If you want to know what a solid roof on heavy posts is worth, this is the product that puts a number on it.

100 mph Pro-Tect tested wind rating, 6,700 lb of snow capacity over a 12 x 10 ft roof — roughly 56 lb/ft² — or up to 30 inches of snow, with a manufacturer statement that the structure must be anchored as specified. Nothing else in the solid-roof category publishes that set.

The structure behind it is 100% cedar with 6 in. x 6 in. posts under a 29-gauge galvanized steel peak roof. A 6x6 timber post set into proper anchors is a far larger structural section than the aluminum tube under most backyard roofs, which is why the figures are four digits ahead of the field.

The cost is maintenance. Re-seal every two to three years and this is the structure still standing and still repairable in twenty. Skip it and cedar grays, checks at the through-bolts and rots at the end grain. Pergola maintenance is honest about the schedule.

The louvered pergola exists because the pergola-versus-pavilion question has a third answer, and for a lot of yards it is the right one: a roof that is open when you want light and closed when you want shelter.

72 mph fully secured with expansion screws on a hardened floor — the highest published wind figure in the louvered class, and the only one that names the condition it was measured under.

Powder-coated aluminum with a 1.5 mm wall and 4.33 in. x 4.33 in. crossbeams, under adjustable louvers with integrated drainage. The drainage is the part that makes it a shelter rather than a slatted roof: closed, rain runs out through the beam instead of through the middle of the space.

One year of warranty, which is the class norm and the weakest part of the proposition. Is a louvered pergola worth it works through the premium properly.

A pergola frame with a pavilion roof on it, which is exactly what a lot of buyers are looking for when they type this comparison into Google.

Aluminum frame under solid polycarbonate with drainage holes, and a published roof weight capacity of 10 lb/ft² (50 kg/m²). A roof capacity is not a snow rating and we will not read it as one, but it is a published figure in a class where most listings carry none.

Light still comes through, which is the real argument for polycarbonate over steel in a small yard. A solid steel roof over a 12 ft patio makes the room behind it noticeably darker; a translucent panel does not.

Sizes are 12 x 10 ft, 14.5 x 10 ft and 16.5 x 10 ft, and no wind figure is published. Compare that against the 100 mph on the cedar structure above and you have the honest summary of what a light aluminum frame with a solid roof is and is not.

The structure people usually have in mind when they say pavilion: heavy timber posts, a solid roof, and the proportions of a building rather than a frame.

100% premium cedar with 6 in. x 6 in. posts and heavy corner gussets, under a rust-proof coffee-brown aluminum roof. An aluminum roof deck over timber is a lighter dead load than steel and does not rust, which on a twelve-by-fourteen span is a real engineering choice rather than a finish.

One year on materials and workmanship, five years on the lumber against rot and decay. A rot warranty is the term that matters on timber, and five years is the longest anyone here offers.

It publishes no wind or snow figure at all — and it does publish something more useful than most: post mounting brackets are supplied, anchoring hardware is not, because mounting surfaces vary. That is a manufacturer saying out loud that the foundation is your problem, which is more honest than most listings manage. Gazebo foundation options covers it.