Fence, Deck and Patio Cover Contractor in Garland, TX

Patio covers, decks and an older code

Garland still builds to the 2015 International Residential Code, in effect since 19 September 2016, while Plano is on the 2024 edition and Murphy on 2021.

• A patio or porch cover needs a permit whether it is attached to the house or freestanding: $150.00, plus a plan review fee of 15 cents a square foot and the surcharge.
• An attached cover meets the house’s own setbacks, which the city says are typically ten feet from the rear lot line and six from the side, measured from the posts, with up to two feet of roof overhang in the rear yard.
• No cover goes in a required yard next to a street, typically 20 feet and as much as 35.
• Detached patio structures and gazebos are accessory buildings: behind the house they sit at least three feet from the side and rear lot lines, they need a permit once they pass 20 square feet, and since 1 October 2026 the fee is a flat $150.00.
• All accessory buildings on a lot together may not exceed 30 percent of the house’s floor area, though the rule never caps them below 600 square feet, and covered patios count toward lot coverage.
• The material rule is the one to read twice: Garland’s patio cover page says unpainted wood, tin, plastic, plain concrete block, corrugated metal, canvas and vinyl are not allowed, the roof cannot be corrugated metal or plastic, and shingles need at least a 2:12 pitch. Metal patio covers must be engineered.
• A natural cedar cover therefore needs a finish the city accepts, and we confirm what counts before the drawing is final.
• On decks, Garland rewrote the model code’s exemption in its own words: its list covers a deck of 200 square feet or less that is not attached to the house and does not block the required exit door, and separately names “uncovered decks not over 30 inches above grade”.
• How those two lines read together is a question we put to Building Inspection before treating any deck as exempt.
• A retaining wall needs a permit once any part of it reaches four feet, or once it holds a surcharge such as a driveway or a structure near it.
• HOA approval is separate: Garland’s permit applications say the permit does not negate the homeowner’s responsibility to get it.

The ground under a Garland fence

A City of Garland legal notice names all three counties the city sits in, Dallas, Collin and Rockwall, but by area it is almost all Dallas County: 99.9 percent of the city’s mapped soil falls in the Dallas County soil survey.

• That soil is more mixed than Plano’s or Murphy’s.
• The USDA maps about 18 percent of Garland as Urban land, ground under buildings and pavement that it does not classify, and a quarter of the city as a complex of Houston Black clay and Urban land.
• Of the ground the survey does rate, 72 percent is high or very high for shrink-swell across the top three feet.
• Houston Black is the largest single soil at about 20 percent of the city, followed by Frio silty clay in bottomland the survey maps as frequently flooded, then Lewisville, Dalco and Branyon, Ferris on the slopes, and Heiden.
• Dalco is moderately deep and very slowly permeable and dries to cracks up to two inches wide reaching 12 inches down.
• Branyon is a very deep stream terrace clay whose cracks run up to three inches wide and 20 inches deep.
• Ferris, on the slopes, sits in the very high band as well.
• Garland’s code says nothing about post depth, so on this ground depth is the first thing to ask any bidder.

Source: Soil figures computed by us from USDA-NRCS SSURGO map units clipped to the city limits, rated by linear extensibility over the top 36 inches; these are city-level figures, not parcel-level. A specific address needs its own lookup, which we do before quoting a long run.