Structure & exterior findings
14 findings covering foundations, roofing, cladding and the envelope.
Foundations, roofs, cladding and the building envelope. This is where North Texas differs most sharply from anywhere else in the country, and for two reasons: the soil and the hail.
Dallas–Fort Worth sits on the Blackland Prairie, a belt of dark clay that changes volume with moisture. The dominant soil series cracks between half an inch and four inches wide at a foot of depth during dry weather, and stays cracked for ninety to a hundred and fifty cumulative days in a normal year. Anything built on it moves. That is not a defect; it is the ground.
The mistake almost everyone makes — buyers, agents, and a good deal of the repair industry — is treating movement and damage as the same word. They are not. A slab that has moved is not by that fact damaged, and a house with cracks is not by that fact a house with a foundation problem. What matters is whether the movement has produced distress that impairs the structure, and whether it is still progressing.
Roofs work the same way. In most of the country a composition roof is replaced when it wears out. Here it is usually replaced after a hail event, often years before oxidation would have ended it. That single fact reorders how roof age should be read on a North Texas house, and it is why the honest answer to "how long does a roof last here" is that nobody can tell you — it depends on storms, not on time.
The pages below cover what an inspector can observe, where the licence boundary sits, and which findings genuinely need a structural engineer rather than an opinion from whoever is quoting the repair.
| Finding | Verdict | Era | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flashing, penetrations and roof leaks | Get it evaluated | Every era | Why roofs leak at their interruptions, and why an inspection cannot chase a leak |
| Attic ventilation in Texas heat | Budget for it | Every era | How the intake and exhaust loop works, what the code arithmetic actually says, and why adding vents often makes it worse |
| Composition shingle failure modes | Budget for it | Every era | How asphalt shingles actually fail in North Texas, and what the ratings mean |
| Conventionally reinforced slabs | Budget for it | 1960s–1970s | Rebar and mesh slabs in 1960s and 1970s houses, and what they tell you |
| Foundation drainage and grading | Budget for it | Every era | The cheapest foundation work in North Texas has nothing to do with piers |
| Hail damage and roof age | Budget for it | Every era | What hail actually does to a shingle, and why an inspector cannot adjudicate it |
| Pier and beam foundations | Budget for it | Pre-1960 | The pre-1960 foundation type, and why adjustable is not the same as inferior |
| Windows and failed glazing seals | Budget for it | 1980s–1990s | What actually fails in a fogged window, why nobody can honestly quote its service life, and the three limits TREC puts on window inspection |
| Brick veneer, lintels and weep holes | Monitor | Every era | Why veneer is a drainage wall rather than structure, what weep holes are for, and how to tell a lintel crack from foundation movement |
| Expansive clay soil movement | Monitor | Every era | Why North Texas soil moves, and when movement becomes damage |
| Post-tension slab foundations | Monitor | 1980s–1990s | How post-tension slabs work, and why finding one is not a finding |
| Radiant barriers | Monitor | 2000s | What Oak Ridge actually measured, why duct condition decides the answer, and what a radiant barrier cannot do |
| Reading interior distress — cracks, doors, floors | Monitor | Every era | What sheetrock cracks, sticking doors and sloping floors actually tell you |
| Roof decking and board spacing | Monitor | Pre-1960 | Plank sheathing, skip decking and shingle layers, and what only tear-off reveals |
Every era
8 findingsFindings that turn up in North Texas houses of any age.
Pre-1960
2 findingsCast iron waste lines, plank decking, pier and beam, original service equipment.
1960s–1970s
1 findingThe panel and wiring era — Federal Pacific, Zinsco, aluminium branch circuits.
1980s–1990s
2 findingsPost-tension slabs become standard; polybutylene supply lines appear.
2000s
1 findingCPVC and PEX, radiant barriers, tighter envelopes.