Wooden posts for veranda

Hi

I'm going to be bulding a veranda and deck onto my house soon. The veranda will be an extension built off the existing house with the roofline extended out over a 5m x 8m low Merbau deck. To match in with the existing house the veranda roof will be a hip roof with concrete tiles. There will be 4 piers required to support the roof structure.

Now I originally thought to just put up some 350x350mm brick piers, but I think the veranda would look better with some heavy wooden posts supporting the roof.
I realise that I will need to get engineering calculations done to calculate the loads, but before I get to that stage i'd like to get some idea about whats possible. So, this is my first port of call for some research and ideas.

What type of wood should I be looking at for the posts?
What size posts should I be considering to make this look nice? 150x150mm? 200x200mm?
How much do posts like this cost?
And if anyone has done this and have some photos to show I'd love to see them.

Thanks
Mike


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