Covered Patio Cost: Roof Type, Size and the Structure Under It

Covered patio cost pages tend to give a single range for a job that is really three: a frame, a roof and the labor to put them up. They also leave out the part that changes most from one house to the next, which is how the roof is held down and tied to the wall. This guide prices the materials as a list of lumber, hardware, concrete and roofing for two standard covers, shows what shingles and metal change, and says plainly what the list leaves out.

We are not a contractor and we do not quote labor. A figure is ours when it comes from our designer. We have not opened an installed price range for patio covers that we can cite, so there is none in this guide, and we will not borrow a deck or pergola range for a roof.

What Sets Covered Patio Cost: Roof Type and Attachment

Four things move the bill: the size, the roof, the way it attaches to the house, and the posts and footings that hold it down.

Size

A cover is priced by its footprint, but the cost is not linear in it. A wider cover needs a deeper beam, and past a certain span it needs a third post. In our two sizes the materials run from $10.16 to $13.82 per sq ft, and the smaller cover costs more per sq ft than the larger.

Roof type

Asphalt shingles go on sheathing, with underlayment, drip edge and starter strips. Metal panels go on purlins, with sealant and closure strips. Aluminum and polycarbonate covers sold as kits are a third thing, and kit prices and reviews belong to our sister site. Our designer models shingles and metal only.

Attached or freestanding

An attached cover borrows the house wall. A freestanding one needs posts on both sides, braces or deep footings. Neither is automatically cheaper, because the attached one adds ledger fasteners and flashing. Our attached patio cover guide explains the ledger test.

What a solid roof forces underneath

A solid roof catches wind from below, so the footings are sized to hold it down, not to carry its weight. That is the line that surprises people, and it gets its own section below.

Covered Patio Cost per Square Foot, by Roof Type

Here are the materials, priced. These lists come from our designer for an attached cover on a band joist, 10 ft up the wall, sloped 2:12, with 6x6 posts on post bases, a built-up beam and 2x6 rafters at 16 in. Prices are Home Depot, Hamilton Mill store, shelf prices read between September 30 and November 4, 2026. Your store will differ.

Each total is added from the unrounded prices, so a row can differ from the sum of its rounded columns by a dollar.

What the table leaves out

These are floors, at the designer’s starting snow load of 20 psf and wind of 115 mph. The metal rows leave out the knee braces a metal cover needs, or the larger piers that would replace them, so the metal total is lower than a built metal cover would cost. All rows leave out tax, delivery, tools, the permit and labor. Hardware includes the slope-adjustable rafter hangers and the ledger fasteners, and Roofing materials includes sheathing, underlayment, drip edge, headwall flashing, nails or panel screws, sealant and closure strips. Every price was read at the one store. Three lines rest on an assumption: the hangers are Simpson LRU hangers, and only the 2x10 size was read, so the 2x6 hangers here are priced from it; the metal panel price comes from the 12 ft panel; and the headwall flashing is a plain 10 ft Z flashing.

What the roofing needs

Here are the quantities, so you can check them against your own yard. The 16x12 shingle cover needs nine sheets of 15/32 in sheathing, eight bundles of shingles, a starter bundle, a roll of underlayment, five lengths of drip edge and two of headwall flashing, plus two 5 lb boxes of roofing nails and one of 8d nails. The metal version needs about 84 lineal ft of 36 in panel (seven 12 ft panels), a bag of screws with sealing washers, two 50 ft rolls of lap sealant and 12 foam closure strips. The 12x10 needs six sheets and six bundles, or 60 lineal ft of panel.

Why a per square foot price misleads

A cover is a few members and two or three footings, so the cost does not scale with the area the way a deck does. The 12x10 shingle cover costs $13.82 per sq ft and the 16x12 $11.40, because the end posts, the bases, the caps and the ledger hardware are close to the same on both. When a page quotes one rate per square foot, ask what it includes, and use it only as a rough check against a list for your size.

Why the metal frame is not much cheaper

The metal cover has extra lumber: 2x4 purlins laid flat across the rafters at 24 in. It also needs deeper piers, because a lighter roof holds less of the wind down and the pier has to make up the difference. The lighter roof does let our designer use two posts on the 16x12 where the shingle cover needs three, so the metal frame is $1,297 against $1,310 for shingles, only about $13 less. The metal roofing itself is cheaper, $654 against $879, so the metal total comes out $238 lower, but the metal rows still lack the bracing described next.

The Structure Under the Roof: Posts, Footings and Bracing

Most cost pages price the roof and wave at the foundation. The footings are more than a quarter of our frame.

The footing line

On the 16x12 shingle cover, the concrete is $375, which is 29% of the $1,310 frame and 17% of the full materials list. It is 58 bags of 80 lb concrete for three footings. The uplift on each post is about 1,020 lb, and our designer does not count friction from the soil, so it uses a straight round pier about 24 in across and 42 in deep and lets the weight hold the roof down. That is our conservative choice. A footing is at least 12 in deep or below the frost line, whichever is deeper, and your local soil and frost depth may change it.

Bracing: shingles versus metal

A shingle roof on nailed sheathing can work as a diaphragm that carries the wind on the beam back to the house wall. Our designer checks it as one, with chords, end ties at the ledger and a collector, and asks for no knee braces only when that check passes and the cover is no deeper from the wall than it is wide. A deeper cover gets knee braces added for you. A metal roof does not count as a diaphragm. A metal cover needs knee braces or posts set in concrete, and our designer fails a metal plan that has neither until you add one. Braces mean more 2x6 lumber and bolts, and they cut headroom at the posts.

Headroom costs money too

The beam on the outer side is lower than the ledger. Our designer wants the underside of the beam at least 6 ft 8 in above the patio, and adds a comfort note under 7 ft. On a low one-story wall that can force a flatter slope or a shorter projection, or a higher ledger, and sometimes a cover that does not fit. Read the attached patio cover guide before you price a size.

Tying Into the House: Ledger, Flashing and Gutters

The wall is where cost is least predictable, because we cannot see it.

Ledger on a band joist or on studs

On a band joist, our designer checks each 1/2 in lag screw against the roof’s down, up, along and outward loads using NDS 2018 Chapter 12, and sets the spacing from that (20 in on the default 16x12). On a one-story wall with no band at that height, it sets two structural screws in every stud and prints the load per stud. For the 16x12 cover that is 30 screws and about 251 lb per stud. The screw maker’s rated value and your building department decide whether the wall may carry it. Structural screws cost more than lag screws, so a studs ledger can move the hardware line.

Flashing

The flashing laps under the house wrap and siding and over the roofing, about 4 in up the wall and 4 in onto the roof as our minimum. The siding comes off where the ledger sits, and putting it back is labor that no materials list shows.

Gutters and the roof above

We found no rule on how a gutter or the edge of a roof is handled where the ledger lands, so we will not make one up. If the house roof drains onto the patio, snow can slide off it and drift against the wall. Our designer adds both to the loads from the house roof you describe (eave or gable, pitch, depth and height above the ledger), and on the default 16x12 the sliding snow is what governs. Ask your building department whether it wants a different load, because that can change the beam and footings.

Permit and Drawings for a Covered Patio

A solid roof over a patio is the kind of structure many offices want to see drawn. Whether yours does depends on your city or county. Our pergola permit and patio cover permit guide sets out what changes the answer, and our plan prints “local approval not checked” because rules, setbacks and HOA approval differ. We never say a permit is not needed. Budget for the permit fee and for drawings.

DIY vs Contractor

Building it yourself saves the labor, and that is the part we have no sourced number for.

What DIY costs

The materials list, the lines the list leaves out, the tools you do not own and your time. The ledger and the footings are the two tasks that cannot be redone, so allow time for them.

What to ask a contractor

Ask for an itemized quote that splits the frame, the roofing, the flashing, the permit and the labor. Hold the materials against the list above for your size, and the roofing line against your yard’s price for the quantities listed. A single price for “a covered patio” cannot be compared with anything.

Where the budget goes wrong

Three lines do most of the damage. The first is a wall that cannot take a ledger, which turns an attached cover into a freestanding one with more posts. The second is headroom, since a cover whose beam falls under 6 ft 8 in needs a higher ledger, a flatter slope or a shorter projection. The third is the footings, which a quote may price as an afterthought.

What to price next

If you plan to build, read how to build a patio cover for the order of work. For an open roof instead of a solid one, see pergola cost, which has installed ranges from the cost sites named and dated.