Texas
Supplements written for Texas roofs, hail alley and the Gulf
Dallas and Fort Worth generate more hail loss than any other metro in the country, and the roofs taking it are steep, tall, and cut up. Four hundred miles south the same company is writing a coastal wind assembly with a certification process attached. One state, two entirely different estimates, and a code answer that changes by city limit.
By Kyle Hamrick, Founder
The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, and Texas is one of the states where that license is held. That matters on a Texas file for a narrow and specific reason: the person writing your scope has sat on the carrier side of the desk and knows which arguments a desk adjuster is authorized to approve without escalating.
The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, with claims experience across many states, writing for contractors nationwide. What we bring to a Texas file is code mechanism, carrier behavior, and claim pattern, confirmed for the address rather than assumed from a statewide rule.
Licensed independent adjuster in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Alabama, writing for contractors nationwide. More about Kyle.
What actually damages roofs in Texas, and what it does to the estimate
North Texas: the hail alley metroplex
Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton counties sit under the single most productive hail corridor in the United States for insured loss. Storms come off the dryline, organize over the metroplex in the late afternoon, and drop stones onto the densest concentration of high value residential roofing in the state. Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Arlington, and Denton take it repeatedly, and so do the same roofs, which is its own claim problem.
The geometry is the part carriers underpay. North Texas production building favors steep pitch and vertical presence: 7/12 and steeper is routine, two story elevations are the norm, and rooflines are broken into hips, dormers, and valleys that multiply cut and waste. Steep charges, high charges, and the added labor on a chopped up field are separate lines in a real estimate, and they are the first three things missing from a fast one.
Hail also does its clearest talking on things that are not shingles. Gutter aprons, ridge vents, turbines, furnace flues, garage doors, window screens, and air conditioner condenser fins register impact when a weathered shingle field reads ambiguously. The roof claim inspection checklist is the field sequence that makes sure that evidence is documented before the adjuster arrives, because none of that evidence survives the tear off.
The Gulf coast: Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, the Valley
The coastal counties are a wind assembly problem, not a hail problem, and the whole estimate changes shape. Design wind speeds rise, the fastening schedule rises with them, product approval starts mattering on every component, and the inspection and certification process in the catastrophe area adds a step with real cost attached. A price list default written for an inland assembly is the wrong document to be working from.
Named storms set the pattern. Rita, Ike, and Harvey each produced the same sequence: a fast first estimate covering visible field damage, nothing covering the assembly the jurisdiction requires when that roof is actually rebuilt, and interior loss surfacing weeks later once tarps came off and ceilings finished failing. Harvey came ashore near Rockport and then sat over Harris County, which is why Corpus Christi files and Houston files from the same storm look nothing alike.
West Texas and the Panhandle: wind first, hail second
Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, and Abilene sit on open country with nothing upwind to slow anything down. Sustained wind and straight line gust events do damage that leaves no bruise pattern to count, which is exactly the loss type carriers are slowest to acknowledge. Creased shingles, lifted tabs with broken seal bonds, and unseated ridge cap are the evidence, and photographing them correctly is the entire argument.
Hail out here runs large when it runs, and it lands on a housing stock that skews older and lower slope than the metroplex. That mix produces mixed peril claims with wind and hail arriving in one event, and an estimate that does not separate the two perils hands the carrier the cheaper of the two to price from.
Three code arguments that move Texas files
In Texas the code answer is a municipal answer
Residential code adoption here happens city by city rather than by one statewide mandate, and enforcement in unincorporated areas varies from rigorous to absent. That is the opposite of a weakness in a supplement. It means the argument has to name the adopting jurisdiction for that specific address, and once it does, the adjuster has nothing generic to push back with. Verify with local building dept Confirm the adopted edition and any local amendments with the building department for the address before the citation goes in writing.
The threshold at which a repair stops being a repair and becomes a replacement
The model existing building provisions carry a threshold: once the repaired portion of a roof passes a defined share of the total inside a set window, the whole assembly comes up to current code. When it applies it is usually the largest single recovery on the claim. Because Texas adopts locally, the threshold and the edition both have to be confirmed for the address rather than quoted as a statewide rule. Verify with local building dept Confirm with the local building department.
Coastal windstorm certification is a scope item, not a formality
In the designated coastal catastrophe area, roof work carries an inspection and certification process administered through the Texas Department of Insurance and the local jurisdiction. It has a cost, it has a paper trail, and it constrains how the roof gets assembled. Writing it into the scope is not padding, it is describing what the job actually requires, and leaving it out means the contractor absorbs it. The specific requirement and who may perform the inspection depend on the address and the work.
The carriers writing Texas, and the endorsements that changed the math
State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, Travelers, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, and Texas Farm Bureau carry most of the residential book. USAA is headquartered in San Antonio and concentrates around the military presence at Fort Cavazos, Joint Base San Antonio, Dyess, and Sheppard. Each of these carriers has settled habits about what it pays without a fight, and those patterns hold steadily enough that a supplement can be built to anticipate them.
The structural change in Texas is on the policy side rather than the storm side. Percentage wind and hail deductibles calculated against dwelling coverage instead of a flat dollar figure, cosmetic damage endorsements that exclude denting on metal components, and roof payment schedules that pay an aging roof at a reduced basis are now common on Texas forms. None of that is hidden, but it is routinely missed, and a supplement written without reading the declarations first can recover scope the policy then discounts back out.
Along the coast the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association carries the wind and hail peril for much of the first tier county property, while the homeowner keeps a separate policy for everything else. That splits a single loss across two carriers and two estimates, and each one has an opening to gesture at the other. On those files the entire task is drawing a clean line between what the wind did and what the water did.
After a major hail event or a landfall, the files go to catastrophe adjusters brought in on daily file counts, and speed is what they are measured on. The incentive is throughput rather than accuracy, and a file written under that pressure comes back light on scope. The reinspection supplement exists for the files that go nowhere until a carrier representative is back up on the roof with the documentation already in hand. Where a roof payment schedule or an aging adjustment cut the settlement, depreciation recovery is the separate fight.
What gets recovered on a Texas roof file
Ordered by how often the item is missing when a file reaches our desk.
Status key: In scope. Usually omitted. Code driven. Verify with the authority having jurisdiction. Every status is spelled out in words beside the item, so nothing depends on color.
Steep charges and high charges on North Texas rooflines
Usually omitted
Subdivisions across Collin, Denton, and Tarrant counties routinely run 7/12 and steeper with two story elevations. Those are separate labor lines, and an estimate built off a flat squares count carries neither.
Radiant barrier decking replaced in like kind
In scope
Newer Texas tract construction sheathes with radiant barrier panels. Replacing them with plain OSB is not like kind, and the price difference is per sheet across every sheet the tear off condemns.
Decking re-nail or replacement to the adopted fastening schedule
Verify with local building dept
Where the adopting jurisdiction has moved to a current code edition, the deck has to meet today's fastening schedule before new covering goes on. Confirm the adopted edition for that address.
Drip edge at eaves and rakes
Code driven
Current code editions require it, and a large share of the Texas roofs being replaced today were built without it. Carrier estimates written from a repair mindset leave it off.
Full replacement under the local repair provisions
Verify with local building dept
Once the repaired portion crosses the threshold the adopting jurisdiction sets, the existing building provisions stop treating it as a repair and require the whole assembly brought to current code. Texas adopts locally, so the threshold and the edition have to be confirmed with the adopting jurisdiction.
Windstorm certification inspection in the coastal catastrophe area
Verify with local building dept
Coastal rebuild work carries an inspection and certification step with its own cost and its own paper trail. Requirements and who may perform them are set by the state and the local department, so confirm for the address.
Starter course at eaves and rakes
Usually omitted
Skip it and the manufacturer wind warranty is gone. It still gets buried inside the shingle line even though it is its own material and its own labor.
Ridge vent, cap shingles at hips and ridges, and closure
Usually omitted
The ridge has to be cut open, the vent has to be set, and the cap has to be run. Carrier estimates routinely price one of those and treat the other two as free.
Impact resistant shingles replaced like kind and quality
In scope
Texas insurers have pushed impact rated shingles hard through premium credits, so a great many hail belt roofs already carry them. Replacing a rated roof with a standard three tab is a downgrade the policy does not authorize.
Detach and reset on solar arrays and attached patio covers
Usually omitted
Nobody roofs under a mounted array or an attached patio cover. The removal, the storage, and the reset are real labor and they show up on the invoice whether or not they show up on the estimate.
Interior water damage found after the tarp comes off
Usually omitted
On Gulf coast files the ceiling, insulation, and drywall loss only reveals itself once the water has run its course. None of it was observable at the moment the original estimate was drafted.
Overhead and profit on multi trade files
In scope
Roof, gutter, fence, siding, plus interior damage on a single loss makes it a general contractor coordination file. The number of trades is the test, not the dollar amount.
Each becomes a written line with a reason attached, inside a real Xactimate file. Depending on the claim it ships as a roofing supplement, an Xactimate supplement package, a supplemental estimate, or a full claim estimate written from scratch.
What happens to your file after you send it
- 01
The carrier estimate gets read line by line against the roof
Not skimmed. We pull the estimate apart against your measurements and photos, marking every line where the assembly written does not match what that roof needs in that jurisdiction.
- 02
Code and manufacturer requirements get sourced before they get argued
In Texas that means identifying the adopting jurisdiction for the address before citing anything, because a statewide claim is the fastest way to lose the argument. Fastening schedules, drip edge, and repair thresholds get confirmed rather than asserted.
- 03
The supplement is written in Xactimate and delivered as a PDF
Real file, real price list, real sketch. You get the PDF as the deliverable, and the ESX free any time you ask for it. Retail estimate work with no supplement attached delivers the ESX. Written same day or next day, submitted next day. One to three extra days on large commercial and multi structure work.
- 04
We stay on the file until the carrier answers
Follow up, desk adjuster calls, and reinspection support when the carrier sends someone back out. Response runs about three weeks as a general expectation, and the file does not close on our side because it went quiet on theirs.
Two promises, stated separately
Promise one: the fee
The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery. If a file produces no additional approved recovery, you pay nothing on that claim. That is the whole fee structure, and it applies claim by claim.
Promise two: the guarantee
Send us an average of 2 claims per week for 12 months. If that volume does not produce a minimum of six figures in additional margin for your company, we write you a $5,000 check at the end of the 12 months. The volume, the 12 month term, the six figure threshold, and the $5,000 figure are one set of terms and they always travel together.
Two different promises, no overlap. The fee describes what a single claim costs you. The guarantee describes what a year of steady volume is worth. Nothing in the fee structure is a guarantee, and the guarantee does not change the fee.
Texas questions we get from contractors
Why do Dallas and Fort Worth hail estimates come back short so consistently?
Because the metro produces more hail claims than anywhere else in the country, and volume forces speed. The estimate that comes back is usually a squares number with a shingle line, a felt line, and a starter line. What it misses is the geometry: North Texas subdivisions run pitches at 7/12 and steeper with dormers, hips, and cut up valleys, and the steep and high charges those roofs earn are separate line items that a fast estimate never opens.
Is there a single Texas building code that decides a roof supplement?
No, and that is the most useful thing to understand about writing Texas files. Residential code adoption in Texas happens at the municipal level, so the edition in force in Frisco is not automatically the edition in force in an unincorporated stretch of the same county, and some unincorporated areas run no residential enforcement at all. A code argument that cites a statewide rule gets dismissed. A code argument that cites the adopting jurisdiction for that address holds.
What is TWIA and how does it change a coastal Texas roof file?
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is the residual market for windstorm and hail along the first tier coastal counties and part of Harris County. When TWIA carries the wind peril, the wind loss and any non wind loss can sit with two different carriers on two different estimates for one roof. The supplement has to draw an unambiguous boundary between the wind loss and the non wind loss, because each carrier is looking for a reason to call it the other one.
Do you handle windstorm certification requirements in the coastal catastrophe area?
We write the inspection and certification work into the scope where the jurisdiction and the certification process require it, because on a coastal rebuild it is a real cost with a real paper trail. The certification steps and who is authorized to perform them are set by the Texas Department of Insurance and the local building department, so we confirm the requirement for that address rather than asserting a blanket rule.
Do you do what the out of state supplement shops do?
No. The North Texas market is saturated with high volume supplement operations that send the same generic package on every claim, and desk adjusters there have learned to reject it on sight. That is the competitive reality in DFW right now, and it is why an estimate has to be written against the actual roof, the actual policy, and the adopted code for the actual address. A supplement that could belong to any house gets treated like it belongs to no house.
How fast is turnaround, and what does it cost?
Estimates are written same day or next day and submitted next day. Larger commercial and multi structure files take one to three extra days, said up front. Carrier response runs about three weeks as a general expectation. The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery, and a file with no additional approved recovery owes nothing on that claim.
Texas markets
North Texas and Central Texas
- Dallas and the eastern metroplex
- Fort Worth and Tarrant County
- Austin and the Hill Country edge
- Waco and the I-35 corridor
Gulf coast and West Texas
- Houston and Harris County
- Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend
- San Antonio and Bexar County
- Lubbock and the South Plains
Files also come in from Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Arlington, Denton, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Abilene, El Paso, Galveston, and the Rio Grande Valley.
Send one file and see what came back short
Send the carrier estimate, your measurements, and the declarations page. The supplement comes back next day, written against the adopted code for that address instead of a template that could belong to any roof in the state.