The Roofing Book

Permitting Authorities / Texas / Bexar County Public Works Department / Fire Marshal's Office

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Bexar County, TX?

Adopted code

Bexar County Public Works Department / Fire Marshal's Office

No, Bexar County, TX does not require a permit for like-for-like roof replacement (Bexar County Public Works Department / Fire Marshal's Office). The County's own FAQ (Fire Marshal - New Construction FAQs) states a building permit is required in unincorporated areas only for new commercial, public-accessible, or multi-family (4+ unit) construction, placement of a pre-built building, or a "substantial improvement" to an existing building (a floodplain-style 50%-of-value test under Texas Local Government Code §233.0615) — not for routine residential repair or roof replacement. The FAQ states plainly: "Unless a residential building permit was issued on a voluntary basis, the County does not have legal authority to regulate residential construction, conduct residential construction inspections, or issue a residential Certificate of Occupancy." Legal basis: Texas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 233, Subchapter C, §§233.061–233.067. Voluntary residential permitting is available (e.g., if an HOA or mortgage lender requires a Certificate of Occupancy), but a routine reroof on an existing single-family home is not subject to a mandatory county permit. Properties inside a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) may carry additional city-enforced requirements beyond the county rules described above.

Roof code checklist: Bexar County, TX

ItemAnswerCode citeSourceVerified
Permit to replace a roofNobexar.org2026-07-20
Repair permit thresholdNot published
Layer limit / roof-overNot published
Deck & sheathingNot published
Drip edgeNot published
Ice & water shieldNot published
Mid-roof inspectionNot published
Impact-resistant (Class 4) roofingNobexar.org2026-07-31
Wind design criteriaNot published
Adopted codePublishedbexar.org2026-07-20
Contractor license / registrationNobexar.org2026-08-08
Sales & use taxPublishedcomptroller.texas.gov2026-08-08

Each row comes from the sourced record on this page; full wording is in the table below. "Not published" means no official source for that item was found when the record was last verified.

Jurisdiction
Bexar County, Texas
Jurisdiction type
county
Address
1948 Probandt St., San Antonio, TX 78214
Contact
  • url: https://www.bexar.org/1463/Building-Permits
  • phone: 210-335-6700
Roofing permit required
Not required
Contractor registration required
Not required
Permit process note
The County's own FAQ (Fire Marshal - New Construction FAQs) states a building permit is required in unincorporated areas only for new commercial, public-accessible, or multi-family (4+ unit) construction, placement of a pre-built building, or a "substantial improvement" to an existing building (a floodplain-style 50%-of-value test under Texas Local Government Code §233.0615) — not for routine residential repair or roof replacement. The FAQ states plainly: "Unless a residential building permit was issued on a voluntary basis, the County does not have legal authority to regulate residential construction, conduct residential construction inspections, or issue a residential Certificate of Occupancy." Legal basis: Texas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 233, Subchapter C, §§233.061–233.067. Voluntary residential permitting is available (e.g., if an HOA or mortgage lender requires a Certificate of Occupancy), but a routine reroof on an existing single-family home is not subject to a mandatory county permit. Properties inside a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) may carry additional city-enforced requirements beyond the county rules described above.
Adopted code
2021 International Fire and Building Codes (adopted by Commissioners Court December 12, 2023), with local amendments, plus applicable NFPA standards. The County explicitly does not enforce City of San Antonio's locally-developed amendments. This adopted code governs the commercial/ public/multi-family/new construction actually within the County's mandatory jurisdiction — not routine residential reroofing, which falls outside that jurisdiction.
Impact-resistant roofing
Not required — No Class 4 or impact-resistance requirement can attach to a reroof in unincorporated Bexar County, because the county regulates no residential construction there. The code the county does enforce — the 2021 International Fire and Building Codes, adopted by the Commissioners Court on December 12, 2023 and effective January 1, 2024 — is the commercial code family, described by the county in its own terms as governing new commercial structures, places of public assembly and access, and multi-family buildings. The county's New Construction FAQ, read in full, states that "unless a residential building permit was issued on a voluntary basis, the County does not have legal authority to regulate residential construction, conduct residential construction inspections, or issue a residential Certificate of Occupancy." The one statute that could import residential IRC standards into an unincorporated Texas county, Texas Local Government Code Section 233.153, is opt-in by commissioners court resolution under Section 233.152 and reaches new single-family and duplex construction only, so it would not govern a reroof even where a county has adopted it. Roof coverings are not addressed anywhere in the county's residential materials.
Sales & use tax
Base state sales and use tax is 6.25% statewide. Bexar County does not appear on the Texas Comptroller's list of counties that impose a Chapter 323 county sales and use tax (comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/county.php), so the county government itself adds no sales tax on top of the state rate. Unincorporated Bexar County is nonetheless covered by numerous special-purpose districts, most prominently a series of numbered Bexar County Emergency Services Districts (No. 1 through No. 12, most at 1.5%, listed individually on the Comptroller's special-purpose-district rate page, comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/spd.php) plus assorted municipal-boundary districts. Each district is coded there as covering "Other" (a sub-area), not the whole county, so no single combined rate applies to all of unincorporated Bexar County -- the actual combined rate at a given unincorporated job site depends on which, if any, of these districts cover that specific parcel, and ranges from 6.25% (state only, outside every district) up to the state's 8.25% statutory cap on combined state-plus-local sales tax. Separately, on the tax treatment of the work itself: Texas Comptroller Publication 94-116, "Real Property Repair and Remodeling," states labor to repair, remodel, or restore residential real property is not taxable, and specifically that repair or remodeling "includes reroofing." On the lump-sum contract typical of residential re-roofing, the roofing contractor pays sales tax on materials and supplies at the point of purchase and does not collect sales tax from the homeowner on the job -- so the combined rate above is the roofer's own cost basis on materials, not a rate charged to the customer.

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The permitting authority for unincorporated areas of Bexar County, Texas. Bexar County has no independent Development Services Department; the Public Works Department (building permit authorization) and the Fire Marshal's Office (permit issuance and inspection) jointly administer a narrow, statutorily-limited permitting authority confined to new commercial, public-accessible, or four-plus-unit multi-family construction, placement of pre-built buildings, and "substantial improvements" to existing structures. It does not extend to routine single-family residential construction or repair, including roof replacement. Properties within a municipality's city limits (including San Antonio's) must permit through that city instead.

Hail reports near the center of Bexar County, TX

Reports, last 24 months
12
Largest, last 24 months
1.75 in Mar 31, 2025
Most recent
May 26, 2025 1.50 in
Reports, last 5 years
47
5 most recent reports, last 5 years
DateHail sizeDistance
May 26, 20251.50 in10 mi WNW
May 26, 20251.00 in10 mi WNW
Mar 31, 20251.75 in8 mi W
Mar 31, 20251.75 in8 mi W
Mar 31, 20251.50 in7 mi WNW

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database and daily storm reports (reports since the start of the current year are preliminary), within 10 miles of the center of Bexar County, TX. Data through Oct 7, 2026, not updated since. A report is an observation, not a damage record.

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Sources

Roofing questions: Bexar County, TX

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Bexar County, TX?

No, Bexar County, TX does not require a permit to replace a roof.

Do roofing contractors need a license or registration in Bexar County, TX?

No.

What building code does Bexar County, TX use?

2021 International Fire and Building Codes (adopted by Commissioners Court December 12, 2023), with local amendments, plus applicable NFPA standards. The County explicitly does not enforce City of San Antonio's locally-developed amendments. This adopted code governs the commercial/ public/multi-family/new construction actually within the County's mandatory jurisdiction — not routine residential reroofing, which falls outside that jurisdiction.