How a La Porte job runs, step by step: free quote, written scope, written quote, sign-off - and the cheaper option named when there is one.
Free inspection, the 150 mph specification in writing, and the certificate agreed up front.
Tell us the address, and if you know it, which side of Highway 146 you are on. That is not trivia: east of it an additional state windstorm certification step applies, and it is much better established at the start than discovered after the permit.
Outside: the slope, the perimeter, and how the existing covering was fastened, because on this coast that is the finding that matters most. Inside: the deck, the layer count, and anything the roof space says about water that has already been getting in.
The specification stated rather than implied -- the shingle rating, the nailing pattern, the perimeter detail -- and the certification route named, with who is signing it. Decking as a rate per sheet. Read it somewhere other than your doorstep.
The permit taken out, the work done to the specification in the scope, and the certification letter to the city inside its 30 days. You get a before-and-after set of photographs, including the fastening, whatever you decide to do next.
Published Harris County ranges, with your written quote after the visit.
$10,500-14,000 on 2,000-2,500 sq ft.
Three-tab $4.50-7.50 per sq ft.
Standing seam at the upper end.
Epdm $5-9, tpo $6-12 per sq ft.
Neither takes more than a moment to ask, and the answers tell you most of what you need to know.
The city requires asphalt shingles to be fixed with NAILS -- not staples -- and nailed in accordance with the manufacturer's printed instructions. A high wind rating on the bundle assumes that pattern. Somebody working to this coast's requirements answers this instantly; somebody who does inland work hesitates.
A permit is required and a completed certification letter has to reach the city within 30 days of it issuing, from a Texas licensed engineer or an ICC Certified Coastal Construction and Floodplain Inspector. Agree that before work starts. A roof that will not certify is a problem discovered a month too late.
The city does not register roofing contractors, and Texas issues no roofing license. That is not a scandal, it is just how it works here, and it means the usual reassurances are worth nothing. The certificate describes your actual roof, which is a better document than a credential describing a firm.
Properties east of it fall under an additional state windstorm certification step that properties west of it do not. The road runs through this service area roughly parallel to the shore, so it is a real question -- and the city will confirm it rather than you guessing from a map.
Worth knowing before you start ringing round, particularly after a blow.
Wind on this shore does not arrive politely spread across the year. It comes through in systems, and when one does, entire subdivisions lose edges in the same afternoon. That is when every crew between here and Houston is busy, and it is also when the most people knock on doors offering to start tomorrow.
Neither pressure changes what the roof has to be. The shingles still have to meet the rating, the fixings still have to be nails to the right pattern, and the certification still has to reach the city inside its 30 days. A roof put on quickly to an inland specification will be the one that lifts next time -- and since nobody vets contractors here, the only thing standing between you and that is what is written in your scope.
A free written quote, no obligation.