San Antonio is the only Texas market we serve where the city itself registers roofing contractors, runs a background check and publishes the list. Here is what the city actually requires on a re-roof — and what it means for your roof.
San Antonio's roofs get hit from two directions. NOAA's storm database records 262 separate hail reports within ten miles of the city since 1996, spread across 87 distinct hail days — and the stones are not small. The largest on record is 4.50 inches, reported twice: April 12, 2016 and May 3, 2021.
April 12, 2016 is the one people still talk about. NOAA's own event narrative puts the damage at $1.36 billion across roughly 125,000 homes and 136,000 vehicles, citing the Insurance Council of Texas, and describes it as the costliest hailstorm in Texas history. Ten years on, a lot of the roofs that storm paid for are reaching the end of their service life at the same time.
Underneath the weather is an old housing stock. The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey counts 612,901 housing units in San Antonio with a median year built of 1985 — but 260,628 of them, 42.5%, went up before 1980, and 61,917 date to 1949 or earlier. Decking from that era is 1x6 plank as often as plywood, and that changes how a tear-off goes.
What San Antonio does not get is ice. The city's amended Table R301.2 answers “ice barrier underlayment required” with a flat no, keeps the frost line depth at zero and the seismic design category at A, and lists a 108 mph design wind speed. The roof you need here is built for hail, wind and heat — not for freeze-thaw.
Our San Antonio work runs from Sonterra down to the far west side. The job we point people to first is Bank OZK at 1314 E Sonterra Blvd — a tile roof we documented end to end, roughly a hundred photographs of the field, hips, valleys and flashing details before anyone touched it.
On the residential side, our largest San Antonio file is a re-roof on Cable Ranch Road on the far west side, where we came back for a second phase on the same property — more than two hundred photographs across the two projects. We have also re-roofed a rental on Rimline Drive on the northwest side and a single-family home off Spring Lake Drive. We do not publish homeowners' names; the street is as specific as we get.
Every one of those roofs is photographed in CompanyCam, from the pre-tear-off inspection through the final walk, and our San Antonio line is (210) 942-2400.
Full tear-off and re-roof, permit pulled before the first shingle comes off. San Antonio caps a roof at two layers, so if there are already two on your deck the next roof is a tear-off either way.
View Roof Replacement →Leak tracing, flashing, valley and penetration repairs. Catching a failed pipe boot early is what stops a $400 problem becoming a five-figure replacement.
View Roof Repair →Membrane, modified bitumen, metal and tile on San Antonio commercial buildings — spec'd to the city's amended energy code, which does not let a re-roof reduce the insulation R-value.
View Commercial Roofing →Documented inspection with photographs of every slope, in CompanyCam, whether or not there is a claim behind it.
View Free Roof Inspection →Scheduled maintenance that keeps a San Antonio roof to its full service life instead of losing years to neglected flashing and debris.
View Roof Maintenance →On a San Antonio re-roof the $25 permit comes before the tear-off. It is not about the $25 — Chapter 10 § 10-10(d) doubles the fee on work that starts before issuance, and a permitted roof leaves a record a future buyer’s inspector can actually find.
San Antonio registers home improvement contractors, requires a criminal history record check with a sealed FBI report, and keeps the registry public under § 10-116(g). Ask any roofer who knocks on your door for their city registration number and look it up. That one step clears out most of the trucks that appear after a hail storm.
A like-for-like re-roof in a local historic district is an administrative Certificate of Appropriateness — minutes at the Office of Historic Preservation counter. Change the material and it goes to the Historic and Design Review Commission, which meets the first and third Wednesday. Knowing which applies before you sign is the difference between a three-week job and a three-month one.
Don't see your question? Call us at (210) 942-2400 — we're happy to talk it through.
Yes. A residential re-roof needs a building permit, and the fee in the city's Chapter 10 schedule is $25. If the roof's slope is not changing, the city issues it over the counter with no plan review. Change the pitch — or convert to tile — and the application goes to full plan review instead, and the framing inspection will not clear without a sealed engineer's assessment of the structure. Starting the tear-off before the permit is issued doubles the fee under § 10-10(d).
180 days from issuance.
The city's own Re-Roof Permit Application caps a roof at two layers. If there are already two on the deck, the next roof is a tear-off — there is no third layer.
Yes, and this is unusual. Texas issues no state roofing license, but San Antonio does require registration, and roofing falls under the city's Home Improvement Contractor registration: $150 for two years, general liability of $300,000 per occurrence, $600,000 aggregate and $300,000 products, with the City of San Antonio named as Certificate Holder, plus a criminal history record check with a sealed FBI report. The registration card has to be carried by the person doing the work, and the company name and city registration number have to appear on the vehicle in two-inch lettering. Working unregistered is a Class C misdemeanor that can be charged per day. The registry is public under § 10-116(g).
San Antonio's amended Table R301.2 lists a design wind speed of 108 mph. The same table sets the seismic design category at A and the frost line depth at zero, and — the one that saves money here — ice barrier underlayment is not required. Termite risk is listed as moderate to heavy, which matters more for fascia and decking than for the roof covering itself.
Sometimes, by code. San Antonio amended IRC R903.4.3 and IBC 1502.4.2 so that any home or accessory building with a roof edge less than three feet from a property line must have gutters and downspouts. That is a local amendment — it is not in the model code — and on the narrow lots inside Loop 410 it comes up constantly.
A Certificate of Appropriateness has to be in hand before the building permit. The good news is that reroofing with the same type and color of material is on the administrative path under UDC § 35-611, which the city's own guidelines describe as being handled in a few minutes at the Office of Historic Preservation reception counter, with the building permit available right after. Change the material and it goes to the Historic and Design Review Commission, which meets the first and third Wednesday of the month. San Antonio has 32 local historic districts and roughly 1,500 individually designated landmarks, so this comes up across a lot of the city.
The city's Historic Design Guidelines publish an actual checklist: panels 18 to 21 inches wide, seams 1 to 2 inches high depending on the slope, a crimped ridge seam consistent with the historic application, and where a crimped seam is not used, a low-profile ridge cap with no ridge cap vent and no end cap. Color should match the existing historic roof or use standard galvalume — the guidelines say modern manufacturer colors are not recommended. A metal roof that meets the checklist can be approved administratively if you can document that the house historically had metal.
Weekdays 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no work on six named holidays. Even inside those hours there is an 80 dBA cap measured at the property line, and the city escalates: repeat violations can suspend and ultimately revoke the permit.
We do. San Antonio's residential collection excludes construction and demolition debris outright, so a tear-off cannot go to the curb or into the city cart. It leaves on our trucks or in a container we bring.
Not a city re-roof permit — Bexar County's permit guidance does not require one for a re-roof in the unincorporated county or in the ETJ. That does not change what the roof needs; it just means nobody from the city is going to look at it, which is a reason to care who you hire.
Call us at (210) 942-2400, or request your free estimate online — most inspections are scheduled within 24–48 hours.
(210) 942-2400