Wallis, once Bovine Bend, on Highway 36 near Sealy
When the settlement got its post office in 1873, it was called Bovine Bend. Renamed Wallis Station for J. E. Wallis, director of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, it dropped Station from its name in 1911, and today 1,292 people live in Wallis along State Highway 36 and the BNSF Railway between Rosenberg and Sealy.
Working in Wallis
The first Anglo-American settlers made their homes between the Brazos and San Bernard rivers around Wallis in 1830, and Czech immigrants began moving into the area around 1890. The opening scene of the movie Urban Cowboy was filmed at a farm just outside town on FM 1952. Wallis covers 1.5 square miles, is served by the Brazos Independent School District, and has State Highway 60 and FM 1093 among its roads. Simonton, Orchard, East Bernard, South Frydek and Sealy are its neighbors, and it sits in the far southeastern corner of Austin County.
Wallis is an incorporated city, so a re-roof, a remodel or a new building inside its limits answers to the City of Wallis’s permit office. We find out what it requires for your address before scheduling. Out past the city line, the rules that can touch a job are county and state ones: floodplain first on land near either river, then septic systems and driveway culverts. Every answer, with the date we got it, goes into the written scope, so nobody has to remember a phone call.
On flat ground between the Brazos and the San Bernard, a heavy rain is slow to leave, and that is why drainage leads our plan for any new slab. On a house, it means gutters and downspouts that move roof water well away from the foundation and a yard that slopes the right way. On the roof, it is spring hail, summer straight-line wind and Gulf storms between June and November, plus the attic heat that ages shingles from below. We look at all of it on one visit and photograph each slope, each valley and each wall flashing.
Highway 36 and the BNSF line run right through town, so getting material here is simple. We still plan each Wallis job to land in as few days as possible: material on site the morning the crew arrives, the tear-off sized to what can be dried in before evening, and the yard swept for nails with a rolling magnet before the crew leaves. If a storm is coming, the start date moves and you hear why. A roof torn off ahead of a thunderstorm is a mistake we would rather not make on your house.
The jobs that come up here
R-Panel metal roofing is the working roof for a barn, shop or equipment shed on property around Wallis, quick to install and easy to repair one panel at a time. Barndominium steel framing puts up a frame that clears wide spans for a shop bay or open living area, and barndominium floor plans settles the layout before the steel is ordered, including where the porch goes to catch shade. Plan the plumbing and electrical runs on paper at the same stage, because moving them after the slab is poured means cutting concrete. If a lean-to might come later, we design the frame to take it now, which keeps the addition simple.
Roof replacement is the job for a house roof worn out across its slopes, and architectural shingle installation is the call for a new addition or garage that needs a roof to match the house. Bathroom renovation handles the bath that needs new tile, fixtures and a vented fan in the same layout, and veteran ADA remodeling the one that needs a step-free shower, grab bars and a wider door. If the bathroom and the roof both need work, the roof goes first. We will tell you when a smaller job does the trick, and if the roof has years left, the scope says that first.
- Architectural shingle installation Architectural shingles are two layers of asphalt laminated into one heavier, thicker shingle, cut so the roof shows shadow lines instead of flat rows.
- Barndominium floor plans Every square foot in a barndominium gets paid for twice: once to build it and again every month to cool it.
- Barndominium steel framing Red iron is the structural steel skeleton of a barndominium: heavy columns and rafters bolted into rigid frames that carry the roof, the walls and the wind.
Plenty of roofs we look at need a repair or nothing at all. If that is yours, you will hear it from us first.
Wallis sits between the Brazos and the San Bernard. Does that affect a new building?
It means checking the floodplain status of your lot before design, since that can set the slab height. Inside the city, the City of Wallis’s permit office has its own requirements as well, and we check both up front so the design starts from the real limits.
Do you put R-Panel on barns around Wallis?
Yes. It is the common pick for a barn or equipment shed because it goes on fast and repairs stay small. We use fasteners with sealing washers and check them at the ridge and eaves, where wind works on them hardest, and we close the panel ends with foam closures.
Can you add grab bars and a step-free shower in a Wallis bathroom?
Yes, through Veteran ADA Remodeling. Grab bars get set into solid blocking inside the wall, the shower floor is sloped to a linear drain so there is no curb, and doorways are widened where a chair needs to pass. We measure the doorway and the turning space before drawing anything, and where the bathroom is small, we show you the layout options on paper first.
What should a Wallis barndominium floor plan settle before the steel is ordered?
Where the porch faces, where the shop bay goes, how large the clear spans are and where plumbing runs under the slab. Changes after the steel is ordered are slow and expensive, so we settle those on paper and you sign off on the drawing.
Can you roof a new garage in Wallis to match my house?
Yes. Architectural Shingle Installation on the new roof, with the color and profile matched to the house as closely as current products allow. We bring samples to compare against your existing roof in daylight, since color looks different on a sample board than on a slope.
Close by
We also work in Simonton, Orchard, East Bernard, South Frydek, Sealy. The whole list is on the Austin County page.
We are based in Cypress and work across twelve counties around Houston. Leland Cannon retired from the Army as a First Sergeant; Geoff Schardien served in the Air Force. The scope you get is in writing, and the person who wrote it answers the phone.