We have a deck on the west side of the house that is accessed from the kitchen sliding glass door. Because of the location, the deck area gets really hot in the summer as well as we have to battle the heat and blazing sun coming into the kitchen area. My solution is to replace the existing hand rail on the deck with one that extends upwards and also supports an overhead structure to provide shade. I envision the structure being attached to the house and extending out across the deck about 10 feet above the deck surface. What is the best way to approach this project? I'm pretty handy overall, like any good homeowner I have several proects underway, but with this one I need a little help with the design/planning part. In particular what size posts I should use and suggestions on board sizes for framing the top portion. I'm also curious if there is anything I should know or worry about if I'm connecting this to the wood siding on the house.

There is a Fairfax County, VA Deck plan guidelines I found through a link here under decks, a question about footings. Everything that I have read indicated that posts must or should be 6x6. Simpson ZMax makes a bracket that you can use to attach it to your deck. They also make brackets that will allow you to attach your joists to your house. Notch the top of the post so that you can put a two 2x6 or 2x8 beam, and bolt the beam to the top of the posts. It works much better than strapping and toenailing. When I built docks, we did (laminated) two 2x10s (with a plywood center.) If you have three or more posts, get the beams to meet on top of the center post, not in space. I am actually doing something very similar right now, coming off of the facia instead of the side of the house. Make sure that there are some good nails or screws holding the original wood to the house--put them there yourself, since sometimes the builders use smaller, less visible nails. The way walls are framed out, in a perfect world there should be a 2x4 running the length of the top and the bottom, with the studs on 16" breaks (the length of a 20 oz framing hammer.) Home Depot has four or five books on decks and patios that show different kinds of pergolas, some merely describing the corners or a single wall of the space. If you Google pergola, there are plenty of good pictures by companies that make and sell them. Hope it helps.http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/decks/

You dont need a 6x6 post if you can help it, a 4x4 is fine if you space the support post system every 6 feet. My thoughts of having a pergala just for the shade can be bolted to facia, but i strongly dont reccomend that, ( think water ). I would prefer to have them extend up and over the the facia whereas the gutters can be cleaned out more easily. Wind can push on the pergala and pull it away from the house, "in worst case secnario". You will still need to anchor them from the ground up and make sure you have a solid footing before hand, you cant just bolt or screw them into the floor joists or on top the deck itself, the weight will either make your deck sag or the wind will come up unexspectadly and twist it. your support system is the key to longevity here aswell as saftey,codes and just plain common sense.