Roofing work in San Antonio, counted from a dedicated permit class
San Antonio issues a Re-Roof Permit — its own permit type for replacing a roof covering. That makes roof activity here countable rather than inferred, and this is what the count says.
A permit-class count, not a text search · No cost figures — permit valuation does not support them
San Antonio conditions
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database · City of San Antonio Permits Open Data · U.S. Drought Monitor · confirmed Oct 6, 2026
How much roofing work is happening in San Antonio?
The City of San Antonio issued about 411 re-roof permits a month over the 13 months from September 2025 to September 2026 — 5,340 in total. Activity held roughly flat: the first and second halves of the window differ by −2.6% (2,512 permits to 2,446), which does not clear the ±4.9% counting-noise threshold for a monthly total this size. We do not report that as a trend.
The busiest months in the window were September 2025 (715), October 2025 (587), June 2026 (456). Every permit in this count comes from a single dedicated permit class, matched on the city's own permit-type field — not recovered from a description field, so nothing here depends on how a job was worded. This is a measure of activity and timing only — the city's permit record does not support a cost figure, and none is published here.
LIVESan Antonio re-roof permits, month by month
| Month | Permits issued | Share of window |
|---|---|---|
| 715 | 13.4% | |
| 587 | 11.0% | |
| 343 | 6.4% | |
| 269 | 5.0% | |
| 270 | 5.1% | |
| 328 | 6.1% | |
| 382 | 7.2% | |
| 420 | 7.9% | |
| 424 | 7.9% | |
| 456 | 8.5% | |
| 382 | 7.2% | |
| 394 | 7.4% | |
| 370 | 6.9% | |
| Total | 5,340 | 100.0% |
Busiest month in the window: September 2025 at 715 permits — 74% above the monthly average of 411. Quietest: December 2025 at 269.
Our own /data/san-antonio/roof-permits/ page reports a larger number over a longer window, and the two are not in conflict. That page is a per-permit archive that accumulates records as the city publishes them, starting before this window opens; this is a rolling count of the last twelve complete calendar months, recomputed each run. Different questions, different answers, both from the same Re-Roof Permit type.
LIVEWhy this count is firmer than most permit counts
San Antonio has a permit type called Re-Roof Permit, and it is the only type that rolls into this category — every permit counted here is one the city itself classified as a re-roof. Nothing is inferred from a description field, so nothing depends on how a clerk worded the job, and the count does not quietly absorb work that merely mentions a roof. That is unusual: most trade activity has to be recovered from free text, and a text match picks up whatever happens to share a word.
| City permit type | Permits | Share of records |
|---|---|---|
| Re-Roof Permit | 5,340 | 100.0% |
| All permit records | 5,340 | 100.0% |
- Classification mechanism: the city's own permit-type field. No description-text matching is used for this category in San Antonio, so the count does not depend on how a clerk worded a job.
- Mapping version trades-v2. 1 permit type is mapped to this category; 1 issued at least one permit in this window.
- Trend threshold: ±4.9%. A permit count is a count of events, so its month-to-month wobble is Poisson — the standard deviation of a monthly count averaging 411 is about 20, or 4.9%. A half-over-half change smaller than that is not reported as a trend.
- Not published from this feed: any cost, price or typical-spend figure. San Antonio's DECLARED VALUATION field is 0.00% populated on every residential and trade permit type, and declared valuation is an applicant's fee-basis statement to the city rather than a paid invoice.
What else bears on a San Antonio roofing decision
What NOAA actually recorded in Bexar County
Roof damage claims follow storms, so the honest starting point is what the record holds for this county specifically — not for the region, and not for a county next door. This is every storm event NOAA logged in Bexar County over the window it covers.
NOAA storm events recorded in Bexar County
46 — 34 flood, 12 wind
No hail was recorded in Bexar County in this window. NOAA did record hail elsewhere in the San Antonio area during the same period, in surrounding counties — which is a reason to check a roof, not evidence that one was hit.
LIVEThis source publishes on a lag: its newest record is 108 days old, which is the publisher's cadence rather than a stale feed. It describes the window it covers, not this week.
Drought moves a roof less than it moves a foundation, but it moves the timing
Dry stretches are when roofing crews are most available and least weather-delayed, and wet ones are when a small leak stops being small. This is the U.S. Drought Monitor reading for the San Antonio area — a county-level measurement, not a reading at any address.
Drought category, Bexar County
D2 — Severe Drought (45% of county)
LIVETexas licenses HVAC, electrical and mold work. It does not license roofing.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation publishes the list of occupations it regulates. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors, Electricians, and Mold Assessors and Remediators are on it. Roofing is not — so there is no TDLR licence number to ask a roofer for, the way there is for the trades either side of it. That does not make a roofer unqualified; it means a licence number is not the thing to check. What is checkable: liability and workers' compensation insurance carried in the company's own name, how long the business has traded under that name, and the manufacturer certification behind whatever workmanship warranty is offered.
What we looked for and did not publish
These readings would belong on this page. Each is missing a specific input, named here rather than left as a gap a reader has to notice.
- Roof age, or how much of the local housing stock is due for replacement. Parcel-level year-built data, and a prior re-roof date per parcel. The Bexar Appraisal District records request has not returned, and no public source records when a specific roof was last replaced.
- Hail exposure scored per ZIP or neighbourhood. A signal that varies within the metro. NOAA storm events carry a county, not a ZIP, and every other San Antonio feed we hold is metro- or county-level — so a per-ZIP hail score would be invented, not measured.
- Typical roof replacement cost, or a cost range by material. A cost source that is not permit valuation. Blocked, not merely unbuilt — measured end to end in docs/audits/round-6-permit-measurement.md.
- Insurance claim rates or average settlement for roof damage. Texas Department of Insurance loss data at county level. We ingest a TDI series for Austin only, and it is a SAMPLE feed carrying no San Antonio rows.
San Antonio roofing questions
Do you need a permit to replace a roof in San Antonio?
The city issues a dedicated Re-Roof Permit, and it issued 5,340 of them in the 13 months from September 2025 to September 2026 — so a permitted re-roof is the ordinary case here, not the exception. Whether your specific job needs one is a question for San Antonio's Development Services Department; the permit record shows what was issued, not what the rule requires.
How many roofs are replaced in San Antonio each year?
About 411 permits a month on average, 5,340 across the 13-month window. That is a count of permits the city issued, which is the closest public measure of roof replacement volume — it is not a count of roofs, since a permit can cover more than one structure and unpermitted work leaves no record.
What does a roof replacement cost in San Antonio?
We do not publish that, and this data cannot support it. San Antonio's DECLARED VALUATION field is 0.00% populated on every residential and trade permit type including Re-Roof, and declared valuation is in any case an applicant's fee-basis statement to the city rather than a paid invoice. A credible cost figure needs a different source — contractor-reported job data, insurance claim settlements, or a materials-and-labour index — none of which we hold. We would rather publish nothing than a number derived from an empty field.
Is roofing work in San Antonio seasonal?
The busiest months in the window were September 2025 (715), October 2025 (587), June 2026 (456). The quietest was December 2025 at 269 — a 2.7× spread between busiest and quietest, far beyond what counting noise explains (14σ). The volume moves through the year even though the year as a whole is flat.
How do you tell if a roof has hail damage?
From the ground, and then with someone qualified on the roof. Look for dents on gutters, downspouts, vents and any metal flashing — soft metal shows a strike before shingles do — and for granules collecting at downspout outlets. Photograph what you find with the date. What we can tell you from the public record is whether NOAA logged hail in your county in the window we hold; what we cannot tell you is whether your roof was hit, because no public dataset records that.
Does homeowners insurance cover roof replacement in Texas?
That depends on your policy and the cause, and no public dataset we hold can answer it for your home. What is worth knowing before you call: Texas policies commonly distinguish replacement cost from actual cash value, and many carry a separate wind-and-hail deductible set as a percentage of the dwelling coverage rather than a flat sum. Both change the arithmetic more than the headline price does. Your declarations page states which applies.
Do roofing contractors need a licence in Texas?
No. Texas has no state roofing licence, which makes a licence number the wrong thing to check here. See the note above for what is checkable instead.
Sources for this page
| Source | What this page uses it for |
|---|---|
| City of San Antonio Permits Open Data | Every residential trade permit issued in the window, read by permit number, permit type and issue date. Each permit is counted once: the city's file lists a permit on several rows when it covers more than one type or stage, and counting rows instead overstated the two busiest trades here by about 7%. |
| NOAA Storm Events Database (NCEI) | Storm events recorded in Bexar County, by type. Published on a two-to-four-month lag, which the page states rather than smoothing over. |
| U.S. Drought Monitor | Weekly drought category for Bexar County. |
| Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation | Which trades Texas licenses, and the absence of roofing among them. |
| Texas Home Intelligence — permit methodology | How permit types are mapped to trade categories, and why no cost figure is published from permit data. |
Also see Roofing in Austin • All San Antonio services