Decking Advice Required

Hi, there. I have recently purchased a weatherboard house in suburban Geelong, Victoria, which is ripe for installing a deck under an existing pergola. The ground underneath is currently half grassed, half bare earth as it is a high traffic area, leading out from double doors.
As a bit of a renovating 'greenhorn', my questions are really, what should I expect to pay for a tradie to build me a deck that would be 26 metres square, and with a 600mm clearance from the ground? Also, as I am budget-conscious, so is softwood really a poor option? The deck is covered by the pergola after all. I've had a 'kind-of' quote around the $5500.00 mark for hardwood (merbau), but consider this too costly right now, what with interest rate hikes expected and all!
Points, tips, ideas from anyone? All would be appreciated!
Cheers

gday greenhorn

5 and-a-half sounds about right. it would probably be treated pine frame and merbau cladding. the going rate seems to be 3-and-a-half & do it yourself. there is a thread a couple of days ago in which this figure constantly appears when people discuss budgets for ~30 sq.m. there is about 8-10 days from go to wo which allows for a bit of running around, curing times, etcet. most people wind up getting a few tools out of it as well.

so, is a bloke worth 2k for 8 days of work? that is the question. you should be able to save the johnny-tax & bring it down to 5 if you put up cash. so then that's around 250 a day, or 30-odd an hour. you would be hard-pressed hiring a chippie & his tools on hourly rate for any less than 40 an hour, and for short term stuff, probably much more like 50.

so, the only way to save on your quoted figure of 5.5 is:

• to do as much of the labour yourself,
• use unseasoned hardwood to bring your spans up a bit & cut down on the number of required footings (which will have the side-effect of upping your labour component to get everything level, and up the wear & tear on your tools),
• directly bury hardwood posts instead of concrete & stirrups, and
• get the best deal you can on the decking, which will represent about 50% of the total cost of materials at ~$4 / l.m.

r's brynk

ps. welcome aboard :)