DECKS, PATIO COVERS & FENCES IN ROWLETT, TX

The City of Rowlett puts itself about 20 minutes east of downtown Dallas, on two peninsulas reaching into Lake Ray Hubbard, and the Handbook of Texas notes that the lake borders it on the east and south. Rowlett had about 250 residents when it incorporated in 1952. After the lake was finished in 1971 a building boom followed, and the population grew from 2,500 in 1975 to 23,260 in 1990 and 44,503 in 2000. So most Rowlett homes went up after 1971, and many back yards now have fences, slabs and decks that are decades old.

The lake changes the work. The take area behind a lakefront lot belongs to the City of Dallas, so anything built past your take line needs a sublease from Rowlett and its own permit, and a deck or patio there is limited to 400 square feet and 36 inches high. Archetex plans the two pieces together: the raised deck or covered patio on the home lot, where the view is, and anything low near the water, so stairs, levels and materials line up. Inside the take line, Rowlett’s amended residential code sets a 115 mph design wind speed and requires the footings it regulates to be designed and sealed by a Texas-registered engineer.

Fences and patio covers both need a city permit in Rowlett. A residential fence permit is $40 and the city’s application caps the fence at 8 feet. Patio covers and pergolas are accessory buildings, which must be anchored for a 115 mph wind load using one of three methods the city spells out. Archetex lays fences out to the property’s real lines and grade, with gates placed where they will actually be used. For a cover, settle which of the three anchoring methods you will use before the design is final, because none of them is an old slab.

Planting and grading come into it too. Rowlett is in the Blackland Prairie, the band of dark clay that runs through the Dallas area and swells when wet and shrinks and cracks when dry, and lake lots often slope toward the shoreline. Archetex starts every Rowlett design with how the yard is used, then works out grading, drainage and how the new space connects to the house, so a deck, a cover, a fence line and the beds around them are planned as one job rather than four.