Patio Covers in Dalhart, TX
The only city in this service area whose own permit page names carports as a permit type, and the only one with the good sense to sit on loamy soil.
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.
Attached patio cover · illustrativeDalhart
Dalhart at a glance
Every figure below comes from a named public source. Where we could not verify something, this page says so instead of filling the gap.
Population from ACS 2024 five-year estimate. Design wind and snow from ASCE 7-16 wind and snow hazard data; permit and code details from each jurisdiction's own published material.
Permits
Dalhart names carports on its own permit page
We confirm the current position for your specific address before quoting. Fee schedules and code adoptions change, and a page that was right last year is not a substitute for asking.
The Dalhart Code Department publishes the list of permits it issues, and that list includes building permits for residential and commercial work, carports, fences, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, remodels, manufactured home sites, sprinklers, sewer taps and dig fees. The page states that plans must comply with the 2015 International Building Codes.
A carport named as its own permit type on a city's own page is the single most useful permitting fact anywhere in this service area for what we do. It confirms in one line what the residential code says in principle: a carport is not a patio cover, and the two are permitted separately.
The department has a named code enforcement manager and a permit clerk, and works out of East 16th Street.
The ground
The lowest-risk soil we build on
The Dallam County soil survey maps five associations: Dallam-Perico at about 26 percent, Dallam-Vingo-Spurlock at 25 percent, Sunray-Conlen at 25 percent, Gruver-Sherm-Dumas at 19 percent, and Plack-Berthoud at 5 percent.
Dalhart sits in the eastern part of the county within the Dallam-Perico association: deep loamy soils, calcareous and noncalcareous, on nearly level to gently sloping plains. The survey makes no shrink and swell statements about it, and the association is loamy rather than the fine clay of Sherm or Pullman.
The high shrink-swell Sherm soils do exist in the county, but they are in the Gruver-Sherm-Dumas association at about 19 percent, not under the town. So Dalhart is the lowest-risk ground in this service area, which does not remove the footing requirement, but does make the footing a simpler calculation.
On the record
First town hit in the 2022 outbreak
On 1 May 2022 Dalhart was the first town hit in the outbreak that swept the Panhandle that evening, with multiple hail reports between 4:58 and 5:36 pm ranging from measured 1.00 inch up to estimated 1.75 inches.
The longer record is harsher. Since 1948 Dalhart has recorded a high of 110 degrees on 26 June 2011 and a low of minus 21 degrees on 4 January 1959, and its driest year was 2011 at 6.04 inches of precipitation. Dalhart was at the geographic centre of the 1930s Dust Bowl.
A hundred and thirty one degrees of annual temperature swing is a materials question. Aluminium expands at 23 x 10-6 per degree C, structural steel at 11 to 12.5, and pine along the grain at about 5. Over a long span in that range, the difference is visible at the fixings.
The market
Better money than the population suggests
Median household income at Dalhart is $71,630, the second highest in this service area, and median home value is $161,600. There are 3,056 households in 3,448 housing units, only about 11 percent slack, which is the tightest housing market we serve.
The employers behind that are Hilmar Cheese Company, which opened in 2007, Cargill's 21,500 acre hog production operation, other large scale pig farms, and a state prison. The city name is a portmanteau of Dallam and Hartley, and the city straddles both counties, which means two appraisal districts and two sets of property records.
Two miles south is the former Rita Blanca State Park, with Rita Blanca Canyon and Lake Rita Blanca.
What we build here
Outdoor structures in Dalhart
Patio Covers
A roof over the slab you already have. Aluminium, insulated panel or louvered, engineered for 108 mph wind and anchored for uplift.
What it involves →Covered Patios
Slab and cover together, where there is no usable patio yet. One pour, one structure, one set of footings designed as a whole.
What it involves →Outdoor Kitchens
Counter run, grill, gas, water and power under cover. The services get planned before the concrete, because afterwards is expensive.
What it involves →Questions
About building in Dalhart
Does Dalhart require a permit for a carport?
Yes, and the city says so on its own page. The Dalhart Code Department lists carports as one of the permit types it issues, alongside building, fence, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, remodel and other permits, and states that plans must comply with the 2015 International Building Codes.
That is unusual and useful. Most jurisdictions leave you to work out that a carport is permitted differently from a patio cover. Dalhart puts it in writing.
Is the ground in Dalhart easier to build on?
Generally yes. The Dallam County soil survey places Dalhart in the Dallam-Perico association, deep loamy soils on nearly level to gently sloping plains, and makes no shrink and swell statements about it.
The high shrink-swell Sherm soils are present in the county but in a different association covering about 19 percent, not under the town. Footings are still required and still designed for uplift; the calculation is simply less demanding.
Do you travel to Dalhart?
Yes. Dalhart is 69.3 miles north northwest of Amarillo, the farthest town in this service area. Distance affects scheduling more than price, and where it changes the number we say so before you have spent anything.
One local quirk worth knowing: Dalhart straddles Dallam and Hartley counties, so property records for the town sit in two appraisal districts.
Cost
Price a cover for a Dalhart address
The calculators take your dimensions, your roof type, your wall and your jurisdiction, and return a band with the permit worked out rather than guessed at.
Nearby
Other places we work
Next step
Send the address and a photo of the wall
What your exterior wall is made of, and which permit desk your address falls under, decide more about the project than the dimensions do.