Dallas homes take a beating that most of the country never sees: hailstones the size of golf balls one afternoon, 100-plus-degree heat the next month, and clay soil underneath that never stops shifting. Alpine Exteriors works on siding, roofing and window projects across Dallas and the surrounding North Texas cities, and most of what we do here comes down to one question homeowners ask after a bad storm rolls through: is this cosmetic, or is it actually failing?
Our Dallas work splits fairly evenly between three categories. The first is storm-driven replacement — hail-dented siding, wind-lifted shingles, cracked window screens and frames after a spring supercell. The second is proactive replacement on homes built in the 1970s through 1990s, where original aluminum siding, wood trim or single-pane windows are simply at the end of their service life and costing more in energy bills and maintenance than a replacement would. The third is renovation-driven work tied to additions, patio covers or full exterior refreshes, often paired with new paint or stone accents.
We install and repair fiber cement, engineered wood and vinyl siding, install and replace asphalt shingle and standing-seam metal roofing, and handle window replacement from single units to whole-house jobs. We do not do foundation repair ourselves, but foundation movement shows up constantly in our siding and window inspections, so we'll tell you plainly when cracked stucco or a window that won't close square points to a foundation issue rather than an exterior-material problem — that's a different contractor's scope, and we'd rather say so than sell you siding that will crack again in two years.
Dallas sits inside what insurers and roofers both call "hail alley." Severe convective storms move through North Texas most heavily from March through June, and it's not unusual for a single storm to drop hail large enough to dent metal, crack vinyl siding and put holes through screens across an entire neighborhood in twenty minutes. That's the single biggest factor in material selection here: impact resistance matters more in Dallas than in most of the country. Class 4 impact-rated shingles and thicker-gauge, UV-stabilized vinyl or fiber cement siding cost more up front but hold up better and, in many cases, qualify for an insurance premium discount — worth asking your carrier about directly, since discounts vary by company and aren't guaranteed.
Straight-line wind is the other storm risk. Thunderstorm outflow winds in North Texas can gust past 60-70 mph without a tornado ever forming, and that's often enough to lift improperly fastened shingles or loose siding panels, especially on older homes where fastening patterns didn't meet current wind-rating standards.
Between storms, the bigger enemy is heat and thermal cycling. Dallas summers regularly push past 100°F for weeks at a stretch, and exterior surfaces can swing 40-50 degrees between a scorching afternoon and a cooler night. That constant expansion and contraction is hard on caulk joints, fasteners and lower-quality vinyl siding, which can warp or bow over time if it wasn't installed with proper gapping for thermal movement. It's also why we lean toward lighter-reflective color options in unshaded, west-facing exposures — dark siding on a west wall in a Dallas summer runs noticeably hotter than the same product on a shaded east side.
Finally, there's the soil. Much of Dallas sits on expansive clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and that movement transfers into the structure above it. It's not something siding or roofing fixes, but it's something we watch for — stair-step cracks in brick, siding that's pulled away from a window frame, or a roofline that's gone slightly out of plane are all foundation symptoms, not exterior-material defects, and we'll flag them rather than paper over them.
Inside Dallas proper we work regularly in Lakewood, Preston Hollow, Lake Highlands, the M Streets, Oak Cliff, Bishop Arts, and the Casa View and Pleasant Grove areas, alongside newer construction in far North Dallas near the Tollway. Older neighborhoods like Winnetka Heights and Junius Heights carry historic-district design guidelines that affect what exterior materials and colors are allowed — more on that below.
Beyond the city limits, we serve the broader North Texas metro: Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Arlington, Irving, McKinney and Denton, plus the smaller cities in between. Storm damage doesn't respect city lines — a hail swath from a single storm cell can run 20-30 miles and cross half a dozen municipalities in one pass — so we're used to pulling permits and coordinating inspections across several jurisdictions in the same week.
The City of Dallas requires a permit for roof replacement (a "re-roof" permit) and for most siding replacement that goes beyond like-for-like patching, and typically for window replacement when the rough opening size or structural framing changes — straightforward same-size window swaps are sometimes exempt, but the city's building inspection office makes that call, not the contractor. We pull the required permits as part of the job rather than leaving it to the homeowner, and we'll tell you up front if your project needs one.
If your property is in one of Dallas's designated historic districts — Winnetka Heights, Junius Heights, Wilson Block and several others — exterior changes, including siding material and window style, go through the Landmark Commission or a neighborhood conservation district review before a permit is issued. That process adds time, so if you live in one of these areas, build in extra lead time before you need the work done.
If you're filing an insurance claim for hail or wind damage, most carriers want a contractor-documented inspection and, on larger claims, an engineer's letter confirming the damage pattern is consistent with the storm date. We provide that documentation as part of storm-related jobs; it's routine here given how often Dallas gets hit.
Over the past several storm seasons we've replaced hail-damaged roofs and matching storm-cracked siding on homes throughout Lake Highlands and East Dallas, done full siding tear-offs and fiber cement re-sides on 1980s-built homes in Plano and Frisco where the original hardboard siding had reached the end of its life, and handled whole-house window replacements in Preston Hollow tied to broader renovation projects. We don't publish project photos or addresses without a homeowner's permission, but we're happy to provide references in your specific neighborhood on request.
It depends on the density and pattern of impacts, not just whether you can see a few dents. A handful of isolated hits on an otherwise sound roof can often be spot-repaired. Widespread bruising across most of the roof's surface, especially if it's compromised the shingle mat or granule coverage, usually means the whole roof needs replacing because insurers and manufacturers generally won't warranty a partial patch job on a roof that age. We do a physical inspection before recommending either option — we don't decide that from a photo.
Most standard Texas homeowners policies cover wind and hail damage, but coverage details, deductibles (often a separate percentage-based wind/hail deductible rather than a flat dollar amount), and depreciation schedules vary significantly by carrier and policy. We're not insurance adjusters and can't promise what your policy covers, but we can document damage in the format most adjusters expect and walk through the claim process with you.
Fiber cement and heavier-gauge, impact-rated vinyl generally outperform standard-grade vinyl and older aluminum siding in hail events, though no siding material is fully hail-proof against the largest stones Dallas storms can produce. Impact rating (look for UL 2218 Class 4 on the product spec) is the number worth asking about, along with the manufacturer's actual hail warranty language, since marketing claims and warranty fine print don't always match.
Often yes, though it depends on whether the replacement changes the rough opening or structural framing. The City of Dallas building inspection division makes the final determination; we pull permits as needed rather than skip the step, since unpermitted structural work can complicate a future home sale or insurance claim.
Whether you're dealing with hail damage from last month's storm, siding that's finally given out after two decades of Dallas summers, or you just want a straight answer about whether that crack near your window is cosmetic or something bigger, Alpine Exteriors will give you an honest inspection and a real cost range — not a sales pitch. Contact us to schedule a walkthrough of your Dallas property.