How to Quote a Pergola Job (Without Losing a Day)

What goes into a real pergola quote

The gap between a sloppy quote and a tight one is rarely the base price — it's the options. The variables most installers forget:

• Anchor type (concrete pad, deck mount, wall bracket) and the labour delta of each.
• Louver pitch & motor choice — manual vs DC motor vs smart-home integrated.
• Lighting strip metres and driver count, not just "with LED".
• Side screens: zip-tracked vs roller, fabric grade, wind-load class.
• Heater integration (radiant vs infrared) and its electrical pull on the existing circuit.
• Drainage path — gutters, downpipes, soakaway distance.
• Permit overhead in the customer's municipality.
• Crane / lift hire if the install needs vehicle access blocked.

Miss two of these and you'll either underprice (and eat the margin) or scare the customer off with a vague "starting from" figure.

A 5-minute quote workflow

1. Open the configurator on the customer's site (tablet or phone).
2. Pick model + dimensions + colour + louver/screen options — the configurator prices each variant live.
3. Add accessories (lighting, heaters, drainage).
4. Apply the regional labour rate and permit fee from your saved profile.
5. Generate the PDF and send by email from the visit.

The quote is now binding-quality, fully itemised, and the customer is reading it on their phone before you've packed up the truck.

The two most common mistakes

1. Quoting from memory. Even experienced installers misprice 3-out-of-10 jobs when they free-hand the number. Use the configurator.
2. Leaving the customer to "think about it" with a vague figure. First-visit close rate roughly doubles when the customer sees a real itemised PDF before the rep leaves the property.