Liberty County, on both banks of the Trinity River

The Republic of Texas organized it as a county in 1836. Its far northeast corner carries the east fork of the San Jacinto River through Cleveland, and its high point is Davis Hill, the top of a salt dome in the north. Part of the Big Thicket National Preserve and the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge fall inside its lines. Around 1995 the local economy leaned mainly on farming and oil. Interstate 69 and U.S. 59, U.S. 90 and State Highway 146 cross it. Every town on our list here is incorporated: Liberty, Dayton, Cleveland, North Cleveland, Hardin, Ames, Kenefick, Plum Grove and Dayton Lakes.

That makes the paperwork simpler to sort out. Each of those cities handles permits inside its own limits, and we confirm with the right one before a permit-level job starts. Small cities do not all work the same way, so we never assume Dayton’s answer holds for Ames. Outside any city limits, there is no city government and no city permit rules; county floodplain, septic, driveway and culvert rules can still apply, and so can state rules. A house on acreage between towns falls in that second group, and we look it up by address. Near the Trinity or the San Jacinto, the floodplain check is the first thing we run on any addition.

The weather here is Gulf Coast weather: hail in spring, thunderstorms with straight-line wind in summer, and hurricanes or tropical storms from June to November. Flat ground and heavy rain make drainage the quiet roof problem. Gutters sized too small, downspouts that empty at the slab and valleys that pour onto a porch roof all send water where it should not go, and over a few seasons it finds the fascia, the decking and the foundation edge. On a Liberty County inspection we look at where water goes after it leaves the roof, because a new roof that drains onto rotting fascia is half a job.

Roof replacement and architectural shingle replacement cover the house whose roof has run its course, and hail damage roof replacement covers one a spring storm finished early. For a shop or a barn, R-Panel metal roofing is the plain, durable choice, and barndominium shell construction gets a steel or post-frame building closed in, roofed and dried in for an owner who wants to finish the inside on their own schedule. In the house, bathroom remodeling and kitchen remodeling handle layout changes, and home renovation refreshes rooms without moving walls. Describe the problem and we will tell you which of these, if any, it calls for.

Work we take on in Liberty County

• 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 planning Most barndominium trouble starts before construction, on a piece of land nobody checked closely enough.
• Barndominium site preparation A barndo slab is only as good as the ground under it, and the ground around Houston is flat, wet half the year and full of clay that swells and shrinks.