A First Roof for New Framing on a Beasley Lot
Roof installation is the job when there is no old roof to tear off: a room addition, a new house, fresh rafters waiting for decking. With no earlier roof to learn from, every layer gets planned in advance, and the hardest part is getting the house dried in ahead of the next Gulf rain.
Veteran BuiltBeasley, Texas
Which office owns the ground first
Before anyone draws a roof line in Beasley, we find out who has authority over the lot. Inside the city limits, the City of Beasley handles the permit for a house or an addition. Outside, there is no city permit, though rules from the county on floodplain, septic tanks, driveways and culverts, plus state rules, may still touch the project. We check the lot, not the street name.
New square footage raises a question a re-roof never does. Hurricane Harvey damaged or destroyed more than 6,800 homes across Fort Bend County in 2017, and floodplain status is decided one address at a time. For an addition or a new house, we want that answer on paper before the framing plan is final, because the roof sits on whatever the slab and walls end up being.
A first roof can go on framing inside town or on land past the limits, out toward Hudson Products’ plant two miles west, or over toward Rosenberg, Kendleton, Pleak, Orchard and Needville. The lot’s side of the line decides which inspections the schedule has to leave room for.
It starts at the sheathing the framer left for an addition or a new house. We confirm each sheet matches the thickness the rafter spacing calls for, has a small gap at its edges, and carries enough nails in the right places. A sheet that swelled in a shower during framing comes out before anything covers it. Synthetic underlayment then goes across the field, with self-adhered membrane down every valley and at each pipe, vent and sidewall.
Next come the drip edge and a starter strip along every eave and rake, then the field shingles, set at the spacing the bundle prints with each nail inside the band the maker marks for it. Hips and the ridge take caps made for bending, from the same product line as the field, so the color matches and the folds do not crack in the heat. Every boot and piece of flashing is fitted fresh to the new framing.
Attic airflow is far easier to get right on new framing than to fix later. Air comes in at the soffits and leaves through a ridge vent, and we size both to the attic floor so they balance. In a Gulf Coast summer an attic that cannot breathe bakes the shingles from underneath, so we keep the soffit vents clear of insulation, and we never put two kinds of exhaust vent on one attic, since they pull against each other.
New framing that is ready for a roof, and framing that is not
A new roof only goes on when the structure under it is ready, so this is how we judge timing and fit.
- A room addition is framed and sheathed, and its roof has to meet the existing roof at a valley or a wall without a seam that leaks.
- A new house has its rafters and decking up, and the builder needs the dry-in done before the electricians and drywall crew move inside.
- A garage or carport framed to carry shingles at a normal pitch needs a roof that matches the house and sheds water away from it.
- You want the attic ventilation designed from scratch, with soffit intake and a ridge vent sized together, rather than inherited from someone else’s guess.
- If rafters or sheathing still have open punch-list items, the roof waits for the framer to finish, since shingles laid over a mistake just bury it.
- If the existing roof beside a new addition is near the end of its life, replacing it first usually makes more sense than matching new to worn.
- A patio cover with a very shallow slope will hold water under shingle laps, and shingles are the wrong material for it.
- If the floodplain answer for the lot is still open, the roof is the last thing to plan, because the slab height and walls come first.
From the framing plan to a dried-in house
- I
Plans and the office
We go over the framing plans or the framed structure, confirm pitch and where the new roof meets any old one, and settle whether the City of Beasley has authority over the lot. Material and color get locked so nothing is waiting on a delivery.
- II
Check the deck
Before a single roll of underlayment comes off the truck, an owner walks the decking: thickness, seam gaps, nailing and any sheets that swelled in the rain. Anything the framer needs to fix goes to the framer in writing, with photos.
- III
Dry it in
Drip edge, underlayment, valley membrane and wall flashing go on together, timed with the builder so the structure is sealed before the next storm line arrives. Once it is dried in, the other trades can work inside without watching the sky.
- IV
Shingles, caps, airflow
Starter, field shingles, hip and ridge caps and the ridge vent go on, and we confirm the soffit intake is open behind any insulation. Then the site gets swept for nails, and you or the builder walk the finished roof with us.
What we need to know first
- Is this a new house, an addition, a garage or something else?
- Who is framing it, and when will the decking be on?
- Do you know if the lot sits inside Beasley’s city limits?
- Has anyone checked the floodplain status for this address yet?
- Does the new roof need to match an existing roof’s shingle and color?
Can a new addition roof match my existing shingles?
Close, rarely perfect. We look for the same product line and color, but the shingles already on the house have weathered, so new ones read a shade different at first. Putting the joint where it shows least helps. If the old roof is worn out, we tell you before you pay to match it.
Who pulls the permit for a new roof in Beasley?
For a lot inside town, the City of Beasley is the authority, and on new construction the builder usually holds the permit for the whole structure. On an addition you are managing, we tell you what the city needs from the roof side. Outside the limits there is no city permit.
What if the decking gets rained on before you arrive?
Wet sheets can swell along the edges, and a swollen edge shows through shingles as a ridge for the life of the roof. We check every sheet on arrival and replace the ones that puffed up. From the morning we start, nothing is left open overnight.
Can you fit into my builder’s schedule?
Yes. On a new house we slot in after the framer and before the trades that need a dry building, and we give the builder a short written list of what must be done before we arrive. On an addition you are running yourself, you deal with us directly from start to finish.
Why does attic ventilation matter so much here?
Summer heat in a closed attic cooks shingles from underneath and pushes cooling bills up. On new framing we can balance intake at the soffits with exhaust at the ridge, sized to the attic floor. A balanced attic runs cooler, and the shingles over it age more slowly.
Will you tell me if shingles are the wrong roof for my plan?
Yes. At an ordinary pitch, shingles are the right call for most houses and additions. A very low slope, a long simple shop roof or a patio cover can need something else, and we will say so before anything is ordered, even if that means a different kind of roof altogether.
A veteran-owned company, young on paper
The Texas Veterans Commission has verified Veteran Built as a service-disabled veteran-owned business. We opened our doors in 2024, so the company is new; the two men who own it spent long careers in the Army, the Air Force and residential construction first, and on a new structure that shows in what gets asked before any underlayment is unrolled.
Every job here gets walked by Leland or Geoff, and on a first roof that walk happens on the bare deck before anything covers it. The owner who checks your framing is the same one who looks over the finished ridge vent, and if something in the plan is wrong for a shingle roof, he says so early.