Patio Covers in Friona, TX
A city licence and a $15,000 surety bond are required before anyone builds here, and a caliche hardpan sits about three feet under the ground.
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.
Screen room · illustrativeFriona
Friona 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
Contractor licensing is the fact that matters here
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.
Friona has adopted the 2012 International Building Code with appendices C, J and K under Ordinance 2012.11.12, and the 2012 International Residential Code under Ordinance 2012.11.12D, both adopted 12 November 2012, along with the 2012 IFGC and 2012 IMC.
The provision that decides who can work here is the contractor licence. No building contractor may enlarge, alter, repair, improve or convert any residential dwelling or commercial building in Friona for which a building permit is required without a city licence, backed by a $15,000 corporate surety bond payable to the City, with a $10.00 annual licence fee expiring on 31 December. That requirement dates to Ordinance 9/97, adopted 6 October 1997.
The permit fee schedule itself is not published; the city states only that costs vary by purpose, job and amount of work. We confirm the current figure with City Hall before quoting rather than estimating it.
The ground
A soil series is named for this town, and it has a hardpan
Friona is one of very few towns anywhere with a USDA soil series named after it. The Friona series is classified fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Petrocalcic Paleustolls, its type location is in Parmer County, and it is of moderate extent across the Southern High Plains.
The word that matters in that classification is petrocalcic. The Friona series carries an indurated caliche hardpan, described as indurated platy caliche, strongly cemented in the lower part, at roughly 31 to 35 inches below the surface. If you have ever tried to dig a post hole here and hit something that felt like concrete, that is what you hit.
For a patio cover it is a genuine planning consideration. A footing that has to reach depth through a cemented layer takes different equipment and different time from one in loose loam, and it should be priced accordingly rather than discovered on the day.
Countywide, the Parmer general soil map shows Olton at about 54 percent, Acuff 16 percent, Pullman 14 percent, Amarillo 8.5 percent, Berda-Estacado-Bippus 6.5 percent and Estacado-Tulia 1 percent. Only a general soil map is published for Parmer County rather than a full survey manuscript, so it does not name the unit under the town, and it makes no shrink and swell statement. The Friona series description carries no shrink and swell statement either, so we will not attach that language to it.
On the record
What the record does and does not show
We could not verify a dated, town-specific severe weather event for Friona. No Friona report surfaced in the storm report queries we were able to run, and we will not present a county or regional event as a town one.
What does apply is the regional design condition. The ASCE ultimate design wind speed across this part of the Panhandle is 108 mph, most lots sit in open terrain exposure, and hail accounts for about 68 percent of all severe weather reports across the Amarillo forecast area. Friona at 4,026 ft is higher than Amarillo, with nothing upwind to slow anything down.
The market
A settled, high ownership town
Median household income at Friona is $66,801 and owner occupancy is 79.9 percent, with 1,154 owner-occupied units among 1,444 occupied. The ACS median home value is $125,500, but the margin of error is plus or minus $54,421, so treat that number as soft rather than precise.
Friona was founded in 1898 as Frio by the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company, the XIT syndicate, as a shipping station on the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railway, and renamed when the post office opened in March 1907. Its historic beef packing plant could slaughter 10,000 cattle a week, and the Friona Wheat Growers elevators held over three million bushels. In 2007 the Texas Legislature named it the Cheeseburger Capital of Texas.
What we build here
Outdoor structures in Friona
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 Friona
What does a contractor need to build in Friona?
A city licence. No building contractor may enlarge, alter, repair, improve or convert a residential or commercial building in Friona for which a permit is required without one, backed by a $15,000 corporate surety bond payable to the City, with a $10.00 annual fee expiring 31 December. That requirement dates from Ordinance 9/97 in October 1997.
Friona has adopted the 2012 IBC and 2012 IRC, both by ordinance on 12 November 2012.
Will footings be harder to dig in Friona?
Often, yes, and there is a documented reason. The Friona soil series, which is named for this town and has its type location in Parmer County, is a petrocalcic soil: it carries an indurated caliche hardpan, strongly cemented in its lower part, at roughly 31 to 35 inches below the surface.
A footing that has to reach depth through cemented caliche needs different equipment and more time than one in loose loam. We price that rather than discovering it on the day.
Is the soil in Friona expansive?
The published sources do not say so. The Friona series description carries no shrink and swell statement, and the Parmer County general soil map makes none either. Only a general soil map is published for the county rather than a full survey, so the specific unit under the town is not established.
Pullman, which is expansive, makes up about 14 percent of the county. So the answer depends on the address, and we design the footing to what the site shows rather than to a county average.
Cost
Price a cover for a Friona 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.