House Plans and Custom Drafting Across Texas
Texas Service Area
Texas hands residential building rules to its cities, and the cities do not agree with each other. Austin rewrote its code to invite ADUs. Dallas locks them behind a special overlay district. Houston never adopted zoning at all, so your deed restrictions decide what you can build. Drafting house plans in Texas means researching the rulebook that governs your specific lot before drawing a single wall, and that is exactly how we work.
Apex Drafting Services delivers residential drafting for Texas as a fully remote service: phone, video, and email, with plan sets delivered digitally and formatted for your local permitting office. From custom house plans in Houston to Texas ADU plans in Austin and San Antonio, every project starts with the local rules and ends with drawings your city reviewer can approve.
Texas ADU Law: No State Mandate, a Different Rulebook in Every City
Texas has no statewide ADU mandate. Accessory dwelling unit regulation is entirely city-by-city, and the gap between cities is wide. The Legislature nearly changed that: SB 673 (2025) would have preempted local ADU restrictions statewide, and it passed the Senate before dying in the House on June 2, 2025. Until a successor bill passes, your city ordinance, or in Houston your deed, is the whole story.
Austin: the most permissive
The HOME Initiative is the most permissive ADU posture in Texas, producing 1,200+ ADU permits in two years, a 340% increase.
Dallas: the most restrictive
ADUs are allowed only inside an adopted ADU Overlay District, making Dallas the most restrictive of the big Texas metros.
Houston: deed restrictions govern
Houston has no zoning code. Deed restrictions control what you can build, so ADU feasibility starts with your subdivision's paperwork, not a zoning map.
San Antonio: by-right with an affidavit
ADUs are permitted by-right once the owner files an owner-occupancy affidavit, one of the simpler paths in the state.
Because the rules shift at every city line, our ADU plans and design service begins with local research: what your city allows, what it requires, and what its reviewers expect on the page.
Texas Metros We Serve
We draft for homeowners and builders in all nine major Texas metros and their surrounding counties. Each city page digs into the local permitting picture in more depth. Texas is one of several states we cover; the full list lives on our service areas page.
Houston
No zoning code exists here. Deed restrictions decide what you can build, so plan research starts with your subdivision's paperwork instead of a zoning map.
Dallas
The toughest big Texas metro for ADUs: they are allowed only inside an adopted ADU Overlay District, and drawings need to reflect that from day one.
Fort Worth
Fort Worth runs its own permitting counter with its own review standards, separate from Dallas, and plan sets are formatted to match.
Austin
The most ADU-friendly city in Texas. The HOME Initiative has driven 1,200+ ADU permits in two years, a 340% increase.
San Antonio
ADUs are allowed by-right once the owner files an owner-occupancy affidavit, one of the simplest ADU paths in the state.
El Paso
A famously steady, unhurried market. The typical home value is just $211,055 (Zillow, up 8% in a year), and the county still permits roughly 2,000 new homes a year, 2,050 in 2025 (Census Building Permits Survey).
Corpus Christi
Every new home, addition, or major alteration must meet Texas Department of Insurance windstorm specs and earn a WPI-8 certificate for TWIA wind insurance, a stricter bar than inland Texas.
Plano
The median home here was built in 1993 and the city calls itself mostly developed in its own planning documents, so in this $518K market (Zillow) demand runs to additions and remodels.
Lubbock
Texas Tech just posted record enrollment of 42,272 students (fall 2025), and Lubbock County permitted 2,858 new housing units in 2025, up 29% in one year, while the typical home still costs only $212,602 (Zillow).
The Drafting Work Texas Projects Need Most
In states with a statewide ADU mandate, one plan strategy can travel from city to city. Texas is the opposite. The patchwork rewards research-heavy custom work: confirming what your specific city ordinance or deed restriction allows, then producing drawings the local reviewer will accept the first time.
Custom House Plans
With no statewide template to lean on, plans designed around your lot and your city's specific requirements are the surest path to approval.
Permit-Ready Drawings & As-Builts
The heart of Texas work: submission-ready sets researched against your city's checklist, plus as-built documentation for remodels and coastal windstorm-zone projects.
ADU Plans & Design
Backyard homes, garage conversions, and casitas designed to your city's exact posture, whether that is Austin's HOME rules or San Antonio's affidavit path.
And in mostly developed markets like Plano, where the median home dates to 1993, demand tilts toward home additions and remodel drafting rather than new subdivisions. Wherever your project sits on that spectrum, the drawings are built for your city's review process from the start.
How Remote Drafting Works for a Texas Project
Share your project and your city
Tell us what you want to build and where. We start by pulling the rules that govern your lot: city ordinance, overlay district, or deed restrictions.
We draft to the local standard
Plans are drawn to your city's submission requirements, with revisions handled over phone, video, and email until the set is right.
You submit with confidence
You receive digital, permit-ready files formatted for your local permitting office, ready for your builder and your reviewer.
Texas Drafting Questions, Answered
Can I build an ADU on my Texas property?
It depends entirely on your city. Texas has no statewide ADU mandate, so regulation is city-by-city. Austin is the most permissive under its HOME Initiative, San Antonio allows ADUs by-right with an owner-occupancy affidavit, Dallas requires your property to sit inside an ADU Overlay District, and in Houston deed restrictions govern because the city has no zoning code. We research the rules for your specific lot before any drafting begins.
Did Texas pass a statewide ADU law?
Not yet. SB 673 (2025) would have preempted local ADU restrictions statewide. It passed the Texas Senate but died in the House on June 2, 2025. Until the Legislature takes the issue up again, city ordinances and deed restrictions remain the controlling rules for Texas ADU plans.
Do coastal Texas homes need special plan sets?
In Corpus Christi, yes. Every new home, addition, or major alteration there must be engineered to Texas Department of Insurance windstorm specifications and earn a WPI-8 certificate to qualify for TWIA wind insurance. Coastal plan sets are drawn to a stricter standard than inland Texas, and we draft to that standard for coastal projects.
How does remote residential drafting work in Texas?
The entire process runs by phone, video call, and email. You share your goals, site details, and any existing drawings; we research your local rules, draft the plans, and deliver digital files formatted for your permitting office. No office visit is required anywhere in Texas. If you want a faster starting point, stock house plans start at $799 and can be reviewed against your city's requirements.
Get a Free Quote for Your Texas Project
Tell us what you're building and we'll scope it, confirm the timeline, and give you a firm number before any drafting starts. Every plan set is drafted to your local jurisdiction's documentation standards.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (435) 668-1095.
Get Texas-Ready House Plans
Tell us your city and your project. We will research the local rules, quote the work, and deliver permit-ready drawings, all remotely.