Permitting Authorities / City of Pasadena - Permit Department
Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Pasadena, TX?
Adopted code
City of Pasadena - Permit Department
Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Pasadena, TX, issued by City of Pasadena - Permit Department. Roof work over the City's 25 percent line needs a permit: "Roof system replacement and/or repairs in excess of twenty-five (25) per cent of each roof requires permits." (City Code Section 9-60(3)a.3). The residential roofing permit is $40 per structure, application included, and covers "overlay only or replacement of like materials and any minor decking and structural work, with the approval of the building inspector or a plan reviewer." The Code also provides that "Wood shingle, shake and other combustible roofing materials are specifically prohibited in any type of roofing project with the exception of minor repairs to existing residential single-family homes." Starting without the permit is costly: under Section 9-60(3)a.8, where work begins before the permit is issued, "all such operations shall cease and the property be placed on "HOLD" until a fee equal to twice the fee that would normally be required and a twenty-five dollar ($25.00) administrative fee have been paid and a proper permit approved and issued." The City offers self-serve kiosks and in-person permit assistance from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first floor of City Hall, 1149 Ellsworth Drive, and states that no permits will be issued after 4:30 p.m. each day; the Permit Department is at 713-475-5575. After a declared local disaster, Section 9-60(3)i waives residential and commercial permit fees for repair work caused by the disaster, from the declaration until 120 days after the disaster ends unless council extends it, but the permit is still issued and is not closed out until the owner files the affidavits that section requires. Coastal windstorm insurance is a separate process that the City does not run: the City's Residential Building Application states "State Windstorm Insurance Program is in effect East of State Highway 146", and the Texas Department of Insurance, not the City, inspects and certifies work (Form WPI-8) for Texas Windstorm Insurance Association eligibility in its designated catastrophe area. Check with the homeowner's insurance agent whether the property needs a WPI-8 before the roof goes on.
Roof code checklist: Pasadena, TX
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
City of Pasadena, Texas
Address
1149 Ellsworth Drive, First Floor, Pasadena, TX 77506
Contact
- url: https://www.pasadenatx.gov/399/Permits-Licenses
- phone: 713-475-5575
- email: [email protected]
Roofing permit required
Required
Registration details
- state_level: Texas issues no state roofing contractor licence; the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation's list of licensing programs has no roofing program.
- city_level: City Code Section 9-60(3)a.24, "Annual building contractor registration fee": "All building and remodel contractors must register with the City of Pasadena Permit Department for an initial fee of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) and annual renewal fee of seventy-five dollars ($75.00). Residential contractors must provide verifiable Builder Registration proof of compliance with the Texas Residential Construction Commission program." The same subsection ties the residential registration to the state: "The annual City of Pasadena registration will be valid concurrent with the same date as the state for residential contractors" and "Loss of registration with the state or failure to maintain proper insurance will void any City of Pasadena registration and require renewal to reinstate the required registration." It exempts "Homeowners with homestead exemptions per the current tax records or an individual that is building or remodeling a personal single-family dwelling for the purpose of habitation by this same individual". The Code does not define "building and remodel contractors", and Section 9-60 names no separate roofing contractor registration; this record does not decide whether a roofing contractor falls within the section. Confirm with the Permit Department (713-475-5575) what it requires of a roofing contractor before applying.
Permit process note
Roof work over the City's 25 percent line needs a permit: "Roof system replacement and/or repairs in excess of twenty-five (25) per cent of each roof requires permits." (City Code Section 9-60(3)a.3). The residential roofing permit is $40 per structure, application included, and covers "overlay only or replacement of like materials and any minor decking and structural work, with the approval of the building inspector or a plan reviewer." The Code also provides that "Wood shingle, shake and other combustible roofing materials are specifically prohibited in any type of roofing project with the exception of minor repairs to existing residential single-family homes." Starting without the permit is costly: under Section 9-60(3)a.8, where work begins before the permit is issued, "all such operations shall cease and the property be placed on "HOLD" until a fee equal to twice the fee that would normally be required and a twenty-five dollar ($25.00) administrative fee have been paid and a proper permit approved and issued." The City offers self-serve kiosks and in-person permit assistance from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first floor of City Hall, 1149 Ellsworth Drive, and states that no permits will be issued after 4:30 p.m. each day; the Permit Department is at 713-475-5575. After a declared local disaster, Section 9-60(3)i waives residential and commercial permit fees for repair work caused by the disaster, from the declaration until 120 days after the disaster ends unless council extends it, but the permit is still issued and is not closed out until the owner files the affidavits that section requires. Coastal windstorm insurance is a separate process that the City does not run: the City's Residential Building Application states "State Windstorm Insurance Program is in effect East of State Highway 146", and the Texas Department of Insurance, not the City, inspects and certifies work (Form WPI-8) for Texas Windstorm Insurance Association eligibility in its designated catastrophe area. Check with the homeowner's insurance agent whether the property needs a WPI-8 before the roof goes on.
Adopted code
2024 International Residential Code, adopted at City Code Section 9-62 with the City's amendments at Section 9-63, by Ordinance No. 2025-198 (October 21, 2025); the same ordinance adopts the 2024 International Building Code (Sections 9-60 and 9-61) and the 2024 International Existing Building Code (Sections 9-64 and 9-65), the latter for commercial and multifamily work only. The ordinance provides a ninety-day grace period from adoption, and the City's Permits & Licenses page gives February 2, 2026 as the date the 2024 codes took effect. The City's Residential Building Application (revised 03/17/2026) requires residential submittals to comply with the "2024 EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE AND LOCAL ORDINANCES." Texas Local Government Code Section 214.212 adopts the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012 as the municipal residential code of Texas cities and lets a city adopt local amendments by ordinance after a public hearing; Ordinance No. 2025-198 recites that notice was published and a public hearing held under that subchapter.
Drip edge
Required — Pasadena does not write this rule, and the code text is not restated here. The City adopts the 2024 International Residential Code at City Code Section 9-62 by Ordinance No. 2025-198 (October 21, 2025), with its amendments at Section 9-63. Those amendments, all 22 items, were read in full: none reaches Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the adopted code's drip-edge provision for asphalt shingles (Section R905.2.8.5) applies in the city unmodified. The operative ICC wording, which sets where drip edge goes and how it is lapped and fastened, sits behind the ICC paywall; a roofer needing the exact wording should read the section in the code itself or ask the Permit Department.
About drip edgeImpact-resistant roofing
Not required — Neither Ordinance No. 2025-198 (adopting the 2024 International Residential Code at City Code Section 9-62, with the City's amendments at Section 9-63) nor the roofing provisions of the City's building fee schedule at Section 9-60(3) amends Chapter 9's impact-rating provisions; no UL 2218 or Class 4 impact requirement appears in the City's adopted code amendments. The one roofing-material rule the City writes is about combustibility, not hail: "Wood shingle, shake and other combustible roofing materials are specifically prohibited in any type of roofing project with the exception of minor repairs to existing residential single-family homes." The Texas Department of Insurance's windstorm program for coastal insurance eligibility is a wind standard, not a hail impact rating. An insurance discount for impact-rated shingles is a matter between the homeowner and the carrier, not a Pasadena code requirement.
Repair permit threshold
"Roof system replacement and/or repairs in excess of twenty-five (25) per cent of each roof requires permits." (City Code Section 9-60(3)a.3, as enacted by Ordinance No. 2025-198, October 21, 2025.) A full reroof exceeds that line, so it needs a permit; the Code sets the permit line at 25 percent of each roof and names no separate exemption for smaller roof repairs. The same subsection prices the residential roofing permit: "The permit fee for any residential roofing repair or replacement shall be forty dollars ($40.00) for each structure inclusive of the application. This is for overlay only or replacement of like materials and any minor decking and structural work, with the approval of the building inspector or a plan reviewer." The City's amended list of work exempt from a residential permit (Section R105.2 as amended by City Code Section 9-63) does not name roof work, and the City's Residential Building Application (revised 03/17/2026) carries its own "ROOF" construction-type box.
Roof layer limit / recover
One overlay, then tear off, and it is the adopted code's rule, not a City rule. Pasadena adopts the 2024 International Residential Code at City Code Section 9-62 by Ordinance No. 2025-198 (October 21, 2025). Its amendments at Section 9-63, all 22 items, were read in full and contain no provision at Section R908 (Reroofing) and nothing else in Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), and Texas has no statewide amendment to the reroofing section. In the 2024 edition the bar sits at Section R908.4 (Roof recover), whose exceptions block bars a roof recover "Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may therefore be recovered; a second existing layer forces a tear-off. The City's fee schedule is consistent with that: its $40 residential roofing permit "is for overlay only or replacement of like materials" (City Code Section 9-60(3)a.3), and it states no layer count of its own. The City's amendment to the Existing Building Code's roof-recover section (Section 9-65) does not reach one- and two-family dwellings, which Section 9-64 sends to the Residential Code.
Deck & sheathing requirements
Not set by the City for ordinary reroofs, and the ICC text is not restated here. The City adopts the 2024 International Residential Code at City Code Section 9-62 by Ordinance No. 2025-198 (October 21, 2025); its amendments at Section 9-63, read in full, touch neither roof sheathing nor Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the adopted code's own sheathing and roof-covering substrate provisions apply unmodified. What the City does say about decking is in its permit fee schedule: the $40 residential roofing permit "is for overlay only or replacement of like materials and any minor decking and structural work, with the approval of the building inspector or a plan reviewer" (City Code Section 9-60(3)a.3). More than minor decking or structural work falls outside that description, so tell the Permit Department before replacing decking or framing.
Sales & use tax
8.25% combined (6.25% state + 1.50% City of Pasadena + 0.50% Pasadena Crime Control District), the Texas local-rate cap, per the Texas Comptroller's local sales tax rate table for the quarter beginning July 2026 (sheet "Jul26"), which shows no county rate for Pasadena. Under Comptroller guidance for real property repair and remodeling, "Labor to repair, remodel, or restore residential real property is not taxable"; on the lump-sum contract typical of residential re-roofing, "you pay tax on all your supplies, materials, equipment, and taxable services when you buy them. You don't charge your customer tax" (Comptroller Pub. 94-116, Real Property Repair and Remodeling, comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/publications/94-116.php) -- so the combined rate above is the roofer's own cost basis on materials purchased, not a rate charged to the homeowner.
Local roofing hub
More roof permit pages in Texas
Related guides
The permitting authority for the City of Pasadena in Harris County, Texas. The City's Permit Department issues building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits, including residential roofing permits, and registers building contractors, from the first floor of City Hall at 1149 Ellsworth Drive.
Hail reports near Pasadena, TX
- Reports, last 24 months
- 4
- Largest, last 24 months
- 1.25 in Apr 30, 2026
- Most recent
- Apr 30, 2026 1.25 in
- Reports, last 5 years
- 19
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 Pasadena, TX (Census point). Data through Sep 30, 2026. A report is an observation, not a damage record.
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