Service Areas Across the Texas Panhandle
Amarillo and 26 nearby communities and neighbourhoods. Each has its own page, because the permit authority, the ground and the local record genuinely differ from one to the next.
No obligation. Every estimate starts at the house, looking at the slab, the wall you would attach to and where the afternoon sun actually lands.
Covered patio · illustrativeWhy these pages exist
The address decides more of this job than the drawing does
Five genuinely different permitting situations, four county soil surveys and a 900 ft elevation range across one service area.
Most contractors publish a list of towns. We have written a page for each one, because in this part of Texas the differences between them are real and they change what we build.
Consider the range. Canyon has adopted the full 2021 I-Code suite and has a named building official. Pampa publishes a permit manual with its own 115 mph design wind speed, higher than the 108 mph ASCE value at Amarillo. Tulia requires a $10,000 contractor bond before anyone can work there. Fritch is running 2003-edition codes with a $15 minimum fee. Claude and several others publish no building permit programme at all, and unincorporated ground in Potter and Randall County has no county building permit for this work by law.
The ground varies as much. Dumas sits on Sherm clay that cracks over 50 cm deep. Tulia sits in a Pullman association covering 93 percent of its county. Dalhart sits on loamy soils with no shrink and swell statement in the survey. Canyon sits on Olton-Amarillo, which is better ground than Amarillo itself has. And the canyon villages south of the city sit on shallow soils where rock is often near the surface.
Every page below says where the figures came from, and says plainly where we could not verify something rather than filling the gap with a plausible sentence.
All areas
26 places, each with its own page
Canyon
Randall County. 16.7 miles south southwest of Amarillo.
Local detail →Borger
Hutchinson County. 38.7 miles northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Pampa
Gray County. 53.7 miles east northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Dumas
Moore County. 44.9 miles north of Amarillo.
Local detail →Hereford
Deaf Smith County. 42.3 miles southwest of Amarillo.
Local detail →Dalhart
Dallam and Hartley Counties. 69.3 miles north northwest of Amarillo.
Local detail →Panhandle
Carson County. 26.9 miles east northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Claude
Armstrong County. 27.6 miles east southeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Fritch
Hutchinson and Moore Counties. 31.8 miles north northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Stinnett
Hutchinson County. 46.9 miles north northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Tulia
Swisher County. 47.6 miles south of Amarillo.
Local detail →Friona
Parmer County. 63.7 miles southwest of Amarillo.
Local detail →Vega
Oldham County. 34 miles west of Amarillo.
Local detail →White Deer
Carson County. 40.3 miles east northeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Groom
Carson County. 40.9 miles east of Amarillo.
Local detail →Bushland
Potter County. 12.9 miles west of Amarillo.
Local detail →Bishop Hills
Potter County. 8.1 miles west northwest of Amarillo.
Local detail →Timbercreek Canyon
Randall County. 10.1 miles south of Amarillo.
Local detail →Palisades
Randall County. 10.2 miles south of Amarillo.
Local detail →Lake Tanglewood
Randall County. 10.7 miles south southeast of Amarillo.
Local detail →Happy
Swisher and Randall Counties. 31.7 miles south of Amarillo.
Local detail →Wolflin
Amarillo, Potter County. Inside the Amarillo city limits.
Local detail →The Colonies
Amarillo, Randall County. About 6.6 miles southwest of downtown Amarillo.
Local detail →The Greenways
Amarillo, Randall County. About 7.2 miles southwest of downtown Amarillo.
Local detail →Puckett
Amarillo, Randall County. About 5.5 miles west southwest of downtown Amarillo.
Local detail →Tradewind
Amarillo, Randall County. About 3.5 miles southeast of downtown Amarillo.
Local detail →The five situations
Which permit regime your address falls under
Full plan review
Amarillo and Canyon. Adopted 2021 codes, named officials, published fee schedules and real drawing review. Bring dimensioned plans.
A published manual
Pampa. Its own construction permit manual, its own 115 mph design wind speed and a 120 sq ft exemption threshold, all in writing.
A fee and a form
Panhandle, Fritch, Palisades and others. A permit ordinance and a fee schedule, sometimes with no adopted code edition and no inspector.
Nothing published
Claude, Vega, White Deer, Groom, Happy, Stinnett and others. We say nothing is published, not that nothing is required, and we phone before quoting.
Unincorporated county
Bushland and rural Potter and Randall County. Texas counties have no general authority to adopt or enforce a residential building code. Septic, floodplain and the state electrical code still apply.
Plus the association
Independent of all five. An architectural committee is a separate approval on its own clock, and in an association over 40 lots a denial has to come in writing with reasons.
Reference
Distance and jurisdiction, at a glance
Distances are from Amarillo unless the row says otherwise. County names reflect the jurisdiction, not necessarily the postal address.
Questions
About where we work
How many different permit rules are there across your service area?
More than most people expect, and they are genuinely different rather than variations on a theme. Amarillo and Canyon run full plan review on adopted 2021 codes. Pampa publishes its own permit manual and its own 115 mph design wind speed. Tulia requires a $10,000 contractor bond. Dalhart, Panhandle, Timbercreek Canyon and Palisades all name carports or patios in their own permit documents. Several towns publish nothing at all, and unincorporated Potter and Randall County have no county building permit for a patio cover.
That is why the first question on any job is the address, not the size.
Is there really no building permit outside city limits?
For a patio cover, that is the legal position. Texas counties have no general authority to adopt or enforce a residential building code. The narrow exception in Chapter 233 reaches only new houses on vacant lots, or additions that increase floor area or value by more than half. A patio cover on an existing house does not come close. The same chapter forbids a county from charging a fee to enforce those standards.
What still applies out there is real: septic permitting through the Amarillo Area Public Health District, floodplain rules, platting, and the state electrical code. And a place being unincorporated is not the same as it publishing nothing; each page here says which it is.
Does the soil really change that much between towns?
It changes more than the weather does. Tulia sits in an association covering 93 percent of its county with a B horizon at 45 to 60 percent clay. Dumas sits on Sherm, which cracks over 50 cm deep when dry. Dalhart sits on loamy Dallam-Perico soils with no shrink and swell statement in the survey at all. Canyon sits on Olton-Amarillo rather than Pullman, which is genuinely better ground than Amarillo has.
Each location page names the county survey and says where the mapping is uncertain rather than pretending it is settled.
Do you charge more for the further towns?
Distance affects scheduling more than price across most of this area. Dalhart at 69 miles is the farthest place we work and Bishop Hills at 8 miles the closest.
Where distance genuinely changes the number, we say so before you have spent anything rather than folding it quietly into a line item.
Next step
Tell us the address and we will tell you the process
Which of those five situations applies to you is usually the first thing we can answer, and it changes both the timeline and the cost.