[faithfulfrank]

Jim,
I understand. It has been my experience that even "Trex" like materials eventually weather, fade to a lighter shade and sometimes even "feather" and lose that new look. Also, it is very costly and the dark color gets hot. A friend of mine built a huge trex deck, only to find he could not walk on it with bare feet without hosing it down first......

Trex actually recently came out with their own pergolas. The kits are costly.

I just researched the Pergolas from BJ's.....and they are less expensive and look nice. The one thing I noticed from downloading the instructions is that you need to buy treated 4x4's for the inside of the posts, and 2x6's for the inside of the beams...which raises the cost a good amount. The system I posted about before only requires ONE 2x6 to put inside the beam that attaches to the house if you are doing it that way.

Here in Florida I know my wife wants a white pergola.....so I believe that means a vinyl or an aluminum one, unless you want to keep it painted every couple of years.....with a fancy pergola that would be VERY labor intensive.

Frank