Fort Bend County: roofs and remodels from Sugar Land to Needville

The county was founded on December 29, 1837, organized the next year, and drawn in 1838 from pieces of Austin, Harris and Brazoria Counties. Cotton plantations made its first economy, and until the 1960s it stayed largely rural, run by railroad and oil and gas interests. Then came Quail Valley, First Colony, New Territory, Greatwood, Sienna and Cinco Ranch. Sugar Land is now the largest city that sits wholly inside the county, and Richmond, the county seat, shares the Brazos with Rosenberg next door. That mix of planned suburbs and older towns along the Brazos is what any contractor working here has to plan around.

In a planned neighborhood the roof is rarely only your call. Many of these communities have an association that approves shingle colors and sometimes the material, and a re-roof that skips the approval can end with a letter and a do-over. We ask for your association’s rules at the first visit, write the approved color into the scope, and order nothing until the approval is in hand. The weather ignores the association. Spring hail, summer straight-line wind and the Gulf season from June through November all reach Fort Bend, and each leaves a different mark. Hail bruises and pits, wind lifts and creases, and the inspection we run depends on which one came through.

Hurricane Harvey is the county’s hard lesson. In 2017 the Brazos River and Barker Reservoir overflowed, and more than 6,800 Fort Bend homes were damaged or destroyed. A roof cannot stop a flood. That record still changes how we plan anything that adds square footage or touches the floor, because floodplain status is set address by address. Sugar Land, Missouri City, Rosenberg, Richmond, Fulshear and Stafford each issue their own permits through their own offices. Cinco Ranch, Mission Bend, Pecan Grove and Fresno have no city government, so city permit rules do not apply; county rules on floodplain, septic, driveways and culverts can, along with state rules. We look that up for your address first.

The work that fits Fort Bend follows its houses. Roof replacement on a suburban home with an association color list. Hail damage roof replacement after a spring storm, with every slope photographed before anything comes off. Bathroom remodeling when a tub and shower combination should become a walk-in shower, and veteran ADA remodeling when someone at home needs grab bars, a curbless shower or wider doors. Deck installation for a backyard that has room for one. If you own land out toward Needville or Simonton and want a barn-style home on it, barndominium planning starts with the floodplain map and the site, well before anyone sketches a floor plan.

Work we take on in Fort Bend County

• Sunroom renovation Most tired sunrooms come back to life with better glass, a floor that can take the sun and a ceiling that stops cooking the room.
• Sunroom construction A sunroom in Houston is a glass room facing a sun that does not take summers off, so the glass and the cooling get decided before the framing does.
• Sunroom remodeling Remodeling a sunroom changes what the room is: a screened porch becomes a conditioned room, or a thin aluminum add-on becomes part of the house.