Roofers in the Museum District, Houston TX

Century-old houses, protected buildings, and roofs where what you are allowed to do comes first.

The Museum District and the streets around it hold some of the oldest surviving residential housing in Houston, from 1910s and 1920s bungalows and four-squares through to mid-century apartment conversions and modern infill. It sits inside Houston city limits.

The complication here is not the roofing. It is that parts of this area fall within or beside designated historic districts and protected structures, and what you are permitted to put back on your roof may be restricted. That question comes before the material question.

What is different about a roof here

Check the designation first

Where a property sits in a City of Houston historic district, re-roofing in kind, meaning the same material with no change to shape or pitch, generally does not require a Certificate of Appropriateness. Changing the material, or the colour where it is visible from the street, generally does. Doing work that needed one without it can bring a stop-work order and an order to restore.

This is worth confirming with the City of Houston Planning and Development Department for your specific address before you order anything. It is a phone call, and it is much cheaper than the alternative.

Century-old structures

Original decking on houses of this age is board rather than sheet, and it is often perfectly sound. Rafters are frequently true dimension timber, which is stronger than modern equivalents. What does need checking is where a century of repairs, additions and re-roofs have layered on top of each other, because that history is where the leaks live.

Steep pitches and complicated forms

Older architecture here carries steeper roofs, dormers, turrets, porch roofs at different pitches and multiple wall intersections. Steep work is slower and needs different staging, and that is a legitimate labour cost.

Porch roofs

The deep front porches typical of these houses are almost always at a much shallower pitch than the main roof, and they are the single most common leak on a house of this type. If yours is shingled and shallow, it is the wrong material and repairs will keep failing. It needs a low-slope system.

Tight lots and street access

Small lots, on-street parking, and neighbours close by. Staging needs planning and the neighbouring property needs protecting.

Who issues the permit here

Your roof permit is filed with the City of Houston, not with Harris County. That matters because Houston is its own incorporated city with its own building department, its own fee schedule and its own inspection, and a contractor who assumes county rules gets it wrong.

We pull it under our own name wherever one is required, and it is passed through at its actual cost with the receipt attached. A contractor asking you to pull your own permit is asking you to carry the liability for their work.

What we do here

Roofing is most of it, and the exterior work exists because the same rain that gets through a failed roof detail rots the boards next to it.

All twenty one services.

What it costs

Every job is priced Cost Plus. You see the supplier invoice for the materials, the crew hours at our published rate, the permit and disposal at what they actually cost, and one service fee of 20 to 30 percent set by job complexity and locked before anything starts. No second number, no change order conversation afterwards. The full breakdown.

Our workmanship warranty is ten years, written into the contract. What that covers, and what it does not.

Common Questions

Do I need city approval to re-roof a historic house?

If your property is within a City of Houston historic district, re-roofing in kind generally does not require a Certificate of Appropriateness, while changing material or street-visible colour generally does. Confirm your specific address with the Planning and Development Department before ordering.

My porch roof leaks constantly. Why?

Deep porches on houses of this era are usually much shallower than the main roof, and shingles below about a 2:12 pitch do not keep water out. It needs a low-slope membrane or metal rather than another repair.

Is the original wood decking a problem?

Usually not. Board decking on a house of this age is frequently sound and there is no reason to remove it wholesale. We replace what is soft or split.

Can you match the original roof appearance?

In composition shingle we can get close on colour and profile. Where the original was slate, clay tile or standing seam and the district requires it back in kind, we will tell you honestly whether that is inside our competence.

Nearby Areas We Serve

• The Heights
• Montrose
• River Oaks
• Tanglewood
• Briargrove
• Rice Military
• All service areas