Tomball is the only city in this part of the Houston metro that publishes a completed design-criteria table for its building code, and two numbers in it matter to your roof. The ultimate design wind speed is 110 mph. And the line reading Ice Shield Underlay Required says, simply, No. If a contractor tells you Texas code requires ice-and-water membrane across your Tomball roof, they have not read the table your city actually adopted.
Roof Experts is the residential roofing partner Tomball TX property owners trust. We bring DFW-quality crews and materials to every Tomball project — asphalt shingles, metal, tile, and slate. Free inspections, transparent pricing, workmanship warranties. Need an estimate? Call Roof Experts at (469) 936-7663 or request your free roof inspection online.
Wind speed 110 mph, ground snow load zero, seismic category A, weathering negligible, frost line depth six inches, termite very heavy, decay slight to moderate. Those are the city's own figures, not a regional estimate, and the termite and decay ratings in particular shape how we treat fascia and decking.
Everything off, decking inspected, bad sheathing replaced and counted on the invoice. Tomball has 699 homes built in 1949 or earlier — 12.6%, concentrated in Old Town — and those are decking, ventilation and framing jobs rather than straight overlays.
Tomball does not register contractors. Instead, whoever actually performs the work must file a comprehensive general liability certificate with the city from a Texas-admitted carrier, for the duration of the permit, with thirty days' notice before any cancellation. An uninsured crew cannot get your permit issued — which is a meaningful protection for you.
Self-adhering membrane at valleys and every penetration, synthetic underlayment across the field, all new metal rather than sealant over old metal, and ventilation calculated rather than inherited. We sell ice-and-water at valleys and eaves as an upgrade, never as a code requirement, because Tomball's own table says it is not one.
Tomball prohibits private collection and disposal of solid waste in the city without a written permit from city council, with a carve-out for authorized contractors. We establish the right route for the container before the tear-off rather than after.
The 1980s-and-older core — 2,457 homes, 44% of the city — is on a third covering with old decking underneath. The 806 homes built between 2000 and 2009 are entering their first replacement window right now. We quote the roof in front of us rather than the market average.
Squares, pitch, penetration count, visible deck condition and the ventilation the roof actually has. A written number for the roof in front of us, not a per-square figure from a satellite image.
Shingle line, starter, ridge, underlayment and metal, specified against the city's 110 mph design figure rather than a default. If your subdivision carries recorded restrictions, we check them before ordering.
The liability certificate goes to the city, then the $75 residential roofing permit is pulled, with plan review at half the associated building permit cost. We do not start before issuance — the fee doubles and the municipal court fine list carries $281 for no building permit.
Tear-off and dry-in the same day — an open deck does not sit overnight on the Gulf Coast. Then decking, underlayment, metal, field, ridge, the inspection, and a walk-through with you.
Laminated asphalt covers nearly every roof here. Specified against a published 110 mph design wind speed, the things that matter are the fastening pattern, a full starter course at eave and rake, and edge metal that is actually installed.
The largest hailstone in the Harris County record — 2.75 inches, baseball size — fell just south of Tomball on 19 April 2015, with two-inch hen-egg hail reported in the city the same day. Class 4 is a laboratory impact rating that many carriers discount, and we will explain what it is and is not before you pay a premium for it.
699 Tomball homes date to 1949 or earlier, and those roofs are steep, cut up and seen from the sidewalk. Designer profiles suit them, and standing seam solves the low-slope porch runs and additions that keep failing in asphalt on houses of that age.
Five years on our labor for a full replacement, written and specific about what it covers, handed over at the end of the job rather than promised on a doorstep.
Install a complete manufacturer system — starter, field, ridge and underlayment from one line — and the manufacturer's system warranty applies in your name, with the registration and documentation handed to you.
Open-deck photographs, the sheathing replacement count, the products installed and the permit. When you sell, that file is what an inspector asks for.
Don't see your question? Call us at (469) 936-7663 — we're happy to talk it through.
Yes, and Tomball is refreshingly unambiguous about it — it publishes a dedicated roofing permit category. A residential roofing permit, re-roof only, is $75.00, with plan review at half the cost of the associated building permit. Because the master fee schedule turns over with the fiscal year we confirm the currently effective figure before it goes on your contract, but the requirement itself is not in doubt the way it is in several neighboring jurisdictions.
Not in Tomball. The city's completed design-criteria table at Code Sec. 10-2(e) answers Ice Shield Underlay Required with a plain No. A self-adhering membrane at valleys, eaves and penetrations is a sensible upgrade and we install it there as standard — but it is an upgrade, not a mandate, and anyone selling it to you as code has not read the table your city adopted.
110 mph ultimate design wind speed, published by the city in its own completed table. That is a genuinely useful thing to have: Houston publishes no citywide number and requires a per-address lookup, Humble's figure appears on a permit form rather than in an ordinance, and several nearby jurisdictions publish nothing at all. On your roof the number shows up in the fastening pattern, the starter course at eave and rake, and the edge metal.
Through insurance rather than registration, and the mechanism is a good one. The city requires the person or entity that will actually perform the work to file a comprehensive general liability certificate from a Texas-admitted carrier, for the duration of the permit, with thirty days' advance notice before any cancellation. The obligation falls on the crew doing the work, not on a middleman. Practically: an uninsured storm chaser cannot get your permit issued.
The fee doubles — both the ordinance and the fee schedule say so — and the city's municipal court fine list carries $281.00 for a no-building-permit ordinance violation. The doubling on a $75 permit is trivial; the citation and a stop with your deck open are not. There is no reason to skip a $75 permit, which is worth remembering if a bidder suggests it.
It depends which Tomball. The stock peaks in the 1980s at 1,166 units, and 44.2% of the city was built in 1989 or earlier — those roofs are thirty-seven years old or more, past two full asphalt cycles. But the spread since then is remarkably even: the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s cohorts are each within a percent or two of one another. The group entering its first replacement window right now is the 806 homes built between 2000 and 2009.
The area holds the biggest stone in the eleven-year Harris County record. On 19 April 2015 baseball-size hail, 2.75 inches, was reported near Highway 249 and Boudreaux Road south of Tomball, with hen-egg hail at two inches reported in Tomball itself the same day and further 1.75-inch reports in April 2020. County-wide there are about 4.5 hail days a year, concentrated hard in April and May.
The 2021 International Residential Code for one- and two-family dwellings, adopted with the full 2021 I-Code family and the 2023 National Electrical Code by Ordinance No. 2024-41 on 6 January 2025. That makes Tomball more current than Humble, which is on the 2018 editions, and on a par with Houston. Appeals of the building official's interpretations go to city council rather than a separate board.
Free inspection, honest scope, real warranty. Most service work scheduled within 24–48 hours.
(469) 936-7663