Southside Place, a 1925 subdivision on 0.2 square miles
Edlo L. Crain opened Southside Place on Easter Day in 1925 and put in a pool and a park to bring buyers out. Almost a century later it is still a small bedroom community of just 0.2 square miles, with Bellaire, West University Place and Houston on every side.
Working in Southside Place
Before the houses, the land held the Harris County Poor Farm. The subdivision incorporated in June 1931 with 600 residents and had 1,835 at the 2020 census. Its businesses all sit along Bellaire Boulevard, and the rest of the city is houses. On a town this size, every job is a job next to somebody’s front door, so staging, parking and cleanup get planned before the first truck arrives. The crew parks where you tell us, the dumpster goes where it blocks the fewest driveways, and the street gets swept before we leave each afternoon.
A neighborhood that opened in 1925 has had a full century of building, tearing down and rebuilding. If your house has a newer addition on an older core, it really has two roofs, built years apart, that meet at a seam. That seam is where leaks start: the older framing settled differently, the flashing was tied into whatever was there at the time, and the shingles on each side may not even be the same product. We look hardest at that line. The attic often tells the story better than the roof does, with a change in lumber, a step in the ceiling joists or a water stain right where the two parts meet.
Southside Place is its own incorporated city, so the City of Southside Place handles permits for work inside its limits, even though the neighbors on every side belong to other cities. Schools are part of Houston ISD. We check your address against the city line first; at 0.2 square miles, that line is never far away. If your project needs anything from the city, it goes into the written scope with the time it takes, so the schedule you see is the real one.
The jobs that come up here
Roof replacement on a house with an addition is mostly about the tie-in: getting the old and new sections under one continuous layer of underlayment, with flashing done once and done right. Architectural shingle replacement is the usual material, and standing seam metal roofing suits a modern addition or a porch roof. Hail damage roof replacement covers the spring storms when they come. Where an addition has a lower, flatter roof than the main house, flat roof replacement with a proper membrane is the honest fix, because shingles on a slope that low will keep leaking however carefully they are laid.
Inside, luxury kitchen remodeling and luxury bathroom remodeling suit owners putting serious money into an older house on a small lot, and whole home remodeling suits a house whose layout needs rethinking from front to back. When there is no room left to build out, bedroom remodeling can turn an attic or a back room into a usable suite without touching the footprint. Dining room remodeling fits a formal room that gets used twice a year and could become an office or a family space. On a lot this small, every square foot inside the walls has to earn its keep, and the scope is written with that in mind.
- Architectural shingle replacement Plenty of older Houston subdivisions were built with three-tab shingles, and many of those roofs are at the end of their run.
- Flat roof replacement Most residential flat roofs we’re asked to replace failed at the same few places: a low corner that holds water, a tie-in that was caulked, a drain nobody cleared.
- Hail damage roof replacement Hail damage on a shingle is a bruise in the mat, soft when you press it, usually with the granules knocked off in a rough circle.
Plenty of roofs we look at need a repair or nothing at all. If that is yours, you will hear it from us first.
Southside Place is surrounded by other cities. Which one permits my job?
Southside Place itself, as long as your lot is inside its limits. The surrounding cities have no say over work on your house. We confirm the address before the scope is written.
My house has an addition. Why does the roof leak where the two parts meet?
Because two roofs built at different times meet there, often with flashing that was tied into the old roof as an afterthought. Movement between the two sections opens it over the years. A replacement lets us run one continuous underlayment and new flashing across the joint.
Can you work on a lot this small without blocking the street?
Yes, with planning. We schedule deliveries for times the street is quiet, keep the dumpster on your driveway where possible and load debris as we go instead of piling it in the yard. Your neighbors will know we were there, but they will still be able to get out of their driveways.
Can you replace just the roof on my addition?
Sometimes. If the main roof is sound and has years left, replacing only the addition and redoing the tie-in can make sense. If both are near the end, doing them together saves a second tear-off later and gives you one roof. We tell you which situation you are in.
Can I get more space without adding to the footprint?
Often, by using the attic. If the roof framing and headroom allow it, an attic can become a bedroom or office with insulation, a proper stair and a window. We check the framing first, because some attics are built with trusses that cannot be cut.
Close by
We also work in West University Place, Bellaire, Houston, Hunters Creek Village. The whole list is on the Harris 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.