A roof. That is the whole difference.
Backyard Pavilions and Patio Roofs Across Georgia
A pavilion is a covered structure on posts, with a solid roof rather than open slats, which is the one thing that lets you sit outside while it is raining. It is built on footings, roofed and finished like a small building, and everything that makes it worth having gets decided before the roof closes. Aqualis Pools also takes on projects across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
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Pavilion or Pergola
One question separates them and it is not a matter of taste. A pavilion has a solid roof and keeps rain off. A pergola has open slats, filters sun, and will not keep a table dry.
So the test is simple: if the point is to sit outside when the weather turns, you want a pavilion, and nothing else in this category does that job. If the point is to take the edge off the afternoon sun over a seating area, a pergola is lighter, cheaper and lets more light through, and a pavilion will make the space darker than you expect.
The cost difference follows the roof. A pavilion is a roofed building on footings, with everything that implies for structure, drainage and permitting. That is why it costs what it costs, and it is also why it lasts.
Where the Water Goes
A solid roof collects everything that falls on it and puts it out along one edge. On a lawn that is a nuisance. Beside a pool it is a design decision, because the water lands on paving that people walk on with wet feet, or into a bed that then has to take it every time it rains.
Which means gutters, downspouts and somewhere for the water to go are part of the structure rather than an accessory to it, and they are decided when the roof is designed. Where the pavilion sits over or beside pool decking or a patio, the falls in that surface and the discharge from the roof are one problem, not two, and they want solving together.
This is the sort of thing that does not appear in a brochure and becomes obvious in the second year.
The Roof, and the Ceiling Underneath It
What the roof is covered in. Shingle to match the house is the usual choice, because a structure with a roof reads as part of the property and a mismatched roof reads as an addition. Metal is the other route: lighter, longer-lasting, noisier in rain, and a deliberate look rather than a neutral one.
What you see from underneath. This is the part people forget when they are looking at photographs from outside. You spend the whole time under a pavilion looking up at its ceiling, so whether that is exposed framing, boarded, or a finished tongue-and-groove surface changes the space more than the roof covering does.
Everything that hangs from it. A roof gives you a solid surface to mount things from: a fan, which matters in a Georgia summer because still air under a roof is not the same as moving air, heaters that extend the season at the other end of the year, and pool lighting overhead rather than at ground level. All of it needs wiring, and all of it is straightforward before the ceiling closes and awkward afterwards.
Decisions Made Before the Footings Are Poured
Attached or freestanding. Against the house it extends the building and shades the back doors, and the existing roof line dictates most of the design. Standing on its own it can go where the view is, or beside the pool, and it carries all of its own structure.
How much light it takes away. A solid roof against the house will make the rooms behind it darker. That is the trade for being able to sit outside in the rain, and it is worth walking into those rooms and thinking about it before the structure is positioned rather than after.
Footings, and what the wind does. A pavilion has a large roof area, and a large roof in a storm is a structure taking a real load. That is what the footings, the post sizes and the fixings are designed for, and it is usually why permitting applies to a roofed structure when it might not to an open frame. Both are questions to settle before the drawing is signed off.
If a kitchen is going under it. A grill under a solid roof raises a real question about clearance and about where the smoke goes, and it has to be answered before the structure is drawn rather than after it is built. A covered outdoor kitchen is one of the best things you can put in a backyard and one of the easiest to get wrong at this stage.
What it stands on. On the ground it is a footing and a hardscaping job. On a raised custom deck the posts normally carry through the deck to their own footings rather than bearing on the deck itself, which is designed in at framing rather than added later.
What a Pavilion Costs
More than a pergola of the same footprint, and the roof is why: structure, covering, ceiling, drainage and usually permitting. Whether it is attached or freestanding changes it, and so does the span, because a wider clear space underneath means more structure above it.
What else moves the number: the roof covering, the ceiling finish, whether fans, lighting and heaters are wired in, how much groundwork the footings need, and whether the surface underneath is being built at the same time.
Where a pavilion forms part of a larger project, pool financing options apply to it in the same way they apply to the pool.
What Our Clients Say
Aqualis Pools is rated 5.0 on Google, from a small number of reviews, and every one can be read on the profile.
A Pavilion Beside the Pool
A poolside pavilion is the version of this that a pool builder is best placed to build, because the roof, the deck falls, the drainage and the electrical supply are one job rather than four contractors arriving in sequence. It is also where the structure earns its cost: somewhere to get out of the sun in the middle of the day, somewhere dry to sit when a storm comes through, and somewhere to keep towels and a fridge that is not the kitchen.
Put a covered kitchen area under it and the pavilion becomes the thing the backyard is arranged around. That combination, a pavilion with an outdoor kitchen beside a pool, is the single most useful thing this page can describe, and it is what the sequencing on our outdoor living page is built around.
Pavilions Across Georgia
We design and build pavilions for homeowners in Lawrenceville, Buford, Loganville, Athens, Auburn and nearby Georgia communities. The full list is on our service areas page, and finished work is in the gallery.
Frequently Asked Questions
A pavilion has a solid roof and keeps rain off. A pergola has open slats, filters sun and will not keep a table dry. If the point is to sit outside when the weather turns, only a pavilion does that. If the point is to soften the afternoon sun and keep the space light, a pergola is lighter and cheaper, and a pavilion will make the area noticeably darker.
Yes, that is what the roof is for, and it is the whole reason to choose one. Worth adding what the live page does not: the water coming off that roof has to go somewhere, so gutters and where they discharge are part of the design rather than an extra.
Footings, always: the posts carry the roof and the loads it takes in a storm, and a roof has a great deal more area for the wind to work on than an open frame does. Permitting depends on size, type and location, and a solid-roofed structure is more likely to need it than a pergola. Both belong in the conversation before the design is signed off, not during the build.
Shingle matched to the house is the common route, because a roofed structure reads as part of the property when the roof matches and as an addition when it does not. Metal is the alternative: longer-lasting, lighter, noisier in rain and a deliberate look. What you see from underneath, the ceiling, changes the space more than either, and it is the decision people forget until they are sitting under it.
It is one of the best uses for one, and it needs settling at the drawing stage because a grill under a solid roof raises a real question about clearance and about where the smoke goes. Getting the gas, water and power into the right position is also far easier while the footings are being dug than afterwards.
Longer than a pergola, because there is a roof, and longer again where the footings need groundwork or where permitting is part of the program.
Start Planning Your Pavilion
Two answers get this priced quickly. Does it need to keep rain off, or only sun? And is it going against the house, or standing beside the pool? The first tells you whether you want a pavilion at all; the second decides the structure and most of the cost.
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