Pergola removal across the Golden Isles.

A pergola is mostly open air held up by four to six posts, and that shape is what makes it its own job rather than a shed or a carport. There’s no roof deck to strip and no walls to knock down — the weight is in the beams, the rafters, and the lattice or slats up top, all of it bolted at the corners and sunk at the base. Coastal-Georgia pergolas take the salt air hard: cedar and pine gray and soften at the post bases, the fasteners rust in place, and shade cloth or vinyl slats go brittle and start dropping pieces onto the patio. When it’s past saving, we take it apart and haul it off in the same visit.

The base is the part that decides the job. A free-standing pergola set on a paver or concrete patio is usually anchored with post brackets bolted to the surface — those unbolt. One with posts sunk in concrete footings below grade is more work, because the timber comes off at grade and the footing is a separate conversation. And a lot of Golden Isles pergolas aren’t free-standing at all: they’re attached to the house wall or ledger-bolted to a deck. We take those down too, detaching cleanly at the wall or deck without tearing up the siding or the decking that stays.

Here’s the line, stated plainly: this is non-structural demolition. A pergola holds up shade, not a roof or a floor, so it sits squarely in what we do. If yours has been built into the home’s roofline, carries a solid covered-roof structure, or is an engineered or permitted structure, that crosses into a licensed contractor’s scope — and where a freestanding-structure teardown does need a permit, we handle that through our light-demolition permit process rather than skipping it. Wired-in string lights, fans, or heaters get disconnected by you or an electrician before we start.