Austin designs to 105 mph, not Dallas’s 115. Most re-roofs here need no permit — unless you are in the wildland-urban interface, which covers more than half the city.
Austin is the city where roofing advice written for Dallas is most likely to be wrong, and the errors are specific enough to be worth listing.
The design wind speed is 105 mph, not 115. Every city in the Dallas-Fort Worth region publishes 115 mph as its three-second-gust design criterion. Austin publishes 105. That ten-mile-an-hour difference is the number that drives shingle wind rating and fastening pattern, and a specification imported from the Metroplex is over-engineered for Austin in that one respect and possibly under-thought in others. Austin’s frost line is also 12 inches against the Metroplex’s 6. Ice barrier underlayment is not required in either place.
Most Austin re-roofs do not need a permit at all. Austin’s exemption list includes, in the city’s own words, “asphalt shingles that replace existing asphalt shingles, unless [in the Wildland Urban] Interface area and 50 percent or more of the roofing is being replaced.” Roof decking not exceeding 128 square feet is likewise exempt. So a straight shingle-for-shingle replacement outside the wildland-urban interface generally proceeds without a permit — the opposite of Arlington, where a permit is mandatory on every re-roof with no threshold at all.
But more than half of Austin is in that interface. And inside it the rules get specific in ways that catch people out. Wood shake roof coverings are prohibited outright, including fire-retardant-treated shake. A Class A rated roof covering is required in all zones. And woven roof valleys must be installed over a minimum 26-gauge galvanized sheet metal flashing that is left visible at the eave so an inspector can confirm it is there. That last detail is the kind of thing that fails an inspection after the fact if the crew did not know about it going in.
The cool-roof question comes up constantly here, so let us be precise about it. Austin’s amended commercial energy code requires that roof surfaces with a slope greater than 2 in 12 “incorporate a roof material having a minimum reflectance of 0.35 or a minimum initial SRI of 29.” That reaches steep-slope roofs, which is unusual — most cool-roof rules stop at low slope. It applies to commercial buildings. On the residential side, Austin requires radiant barriers under Section R402.3, with five exceptions, one of which exempts a re-roof that does not touch the framing. So for a typical house re-roof, the radiant barrier requirement generally does not trigger. For a commercial building, the reflectance rule very much does.
Austin’s housing is also genuinely young, and we are not going to pretend otherwise to sell you something. The median Austin home was built in 1994, only 56.7% of the stock predates 2000, and 26.3% has gone up since 2010. Just 48.5% is single-family detached. The “most roofs here are on their third covering” line that is true in Corsicana or White Settlement is simply false in Austin.
On weather, the honest reading matters more here than anywhere. Austin has logged 70 distinct hail days within ten miles since 2000, peaking in May rather than April. But Austin also has the worst reporting inflation of any city we have studied: reports per hail day went from 3.10 in the 2000s to 5.40 since 2019, while the actual number of distinct hail days fell from 30 to 15 over the same comparison. Hail is not getting more frequent in Austin. Phone reporting got better. Anyone selling on a rising-storm-count premise here is reading the wrong column.
What hail here does do is documented plainly enough — a two-inch report notes that it “dented cars and caused minor damage to some roof shingles in the north Austin area.” Flash flooding is Austin’s dominant hazard by volume, with 225 events on record against Waco’s 85, but flooding is not a roofing problem and we are not going to dress it up as one.
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View Roof Maintenance →Austin’s adopted design wind speed is 105 mph as a three-second gust, against 115 mph across Dallas-Fort Worth. Its frost line is 12 inches rather than 6. Ice barrier underlayment is not required. These are small differences individually and they are exactly the differences a contractor who mostly works elsewhere never looks up. We use Austin’s criteria on Austin roofs.
More than half of Austin sits in a WUI zone, and inside it the roofing rules change: wood shake is prohibited even when fire-retardant-treated, a Class A rated covering is required, and woven valleys need a minimum 26-gauge galvanized flashing left visible at the eave for inspection. Being in the WUI is also what turns an exempt shingle-for-shingle replacement into permitted work once you pass 50% of the roof. We establish which side of that line you are on before quoting.
Austin’s commercial energy code reaches steep-slope roofs, requiring a minimum 0.35 reflectance or initial SRI of 29 above 2-in-12 — unusual, since most cool-roof rules stop at low slope. On the residential side the radiant barrier requirement carries an exception for a re-roof that does not disturb framing. We will tell you which of those actually applies to your building rather than quoting the strictest one at you.
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Often not. Austin’s permit exemption list includes asphalt shingles replacing existing asphalt shingles, with the exception that a permit is required in the Wildland Urban Interface area when 50 percent or more of the roofing is being replaced. Roof decking work not exceeding 128 square feet is also exempt. That is genuinely different from most Texas cities — Arlington, for instance, requires a permit on every re-roof with no threshold. We determine whether your property sits in the WUI, because that is what decides the answer.
It covers more of Austin than most people expect — better than half the city, concentrated in the hill country west and south and along the greenbelts. Rather than guess from a map, we check your specific address against the city’s WUI zones as part of the estimate. It matters for three things: whether you need a permit, what covering class is required, and whether certain materials are off the table entirely.
Not in the wildland-urban interface, and that is most of the city. Austin’s WUI code prohibits wood roof coverings there outright — including fire-retardant-treated shake, which is the exception many other jurisdictions allow. All WUI zones require a Class A rated roof covering. If you are restoring a house that currently has shake, this is the conversation to have before you fall in love with matching it.
105 mph as a three-second gust, which is ten miles an hour below the 115 mph figure used across Dallas-Fort Worth. It is the single most commonly imported error we see on Austin roofing pages. Austin also lists a 12-inch frost line against the Metroplex’s six inches, a ground snow load of 5 pounds per square foot, and ice barrier underlayment as not required.
On commercial buildings, in effect yes, and unusually it reaches steep slopes: Austin’s amended energy code requires roof surfaces with an incline greater than 2 in 12 to use a material with a minimum reflectance of 0.35 or a minimum initial solar reflectance index of 29. Most cool-roof rules only touch low-slope roofs. On the residential side, Austin requires radiant barriers under R402.3 but provides five exceptions, one of which covers a re-roof that does not involve the framing — so a typical house replacement usually does not trigger it. We will confirm which applies to your building.
Yes, and Austin is notably more permissive here than its neighbors. Section 15-6-11(D) of the city code expressly allows a licensed private hauler to collect construction waste from a residential property. Compare Waco, whose code refuses to issue a solid waste permit for collection from any residential unit, or Lubbock, which bars private haulers at single-family homes. If you have been told the city must take it, that is true somewhere else, not here.
Austin allows construction noise from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., which is the longest evening window of any city we work in and reflects how much building the city does. In practice a roofing crew is off the roof long before that. We work daylight hours and tell your neighbors the day before, because a ten-thirty finish is legal and would still not be a good idea.
No, and the data says so clearly enough that we would rather show you than argue. Austin has 70 distinct hail days on record within ten miles since 2000, peaking in May. But reports per hail day rose from 3.10 in the 2000s to 5.40 since 2019, while the number of actual hail days fell from 30 to 15 across the same comparison. More people reporting, fewer storms. Austin has the most pronounced version of this pattern of any city we have looked at, which makes it the easiest place for a storm-chasing pitch to sound convincing and be wrong.
Possibly, and Austin is the city where we most often say “not yet.” Only 56.7% of Austin’s housing predates 2000 and better than a quarter of it has gone up since 2010, so a great many Austin roofs really are still on their first covering and have life left. We will get on it, photograph what is there, and tell you honestly if you have several years in hand. We would rather be the company you call in 2029 than the one that sold you a roof in 2026 you did not need.
We could not verify Austin’s registration fee, insurance minimum or bond requirement from the city’s published pages, so we are not going to state one. What we will say is that Texas does not license roofing contractors at the state level, which means no one anywhere in this state holds a state roofing licence regardless of what a door-knocker tells you. Ask for the certificate of insurance itself and check the limits and the dates.
Call us at (512) 900-1054, or request your free estimate online — most inspections are scheduled within 24–48 hours.
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