Right Angle Home & Outdoors is the design-build firm that Heights homeowners hire when a project has to work with expansive clay, Gulf Coast humidity, heavy rain, narrow lots and old houses. Every system on this page is planned around those conditions.
Right Angle Home & Outdoors builds decks, pergolas and patio covers, paver and permeable paver surfaces, and whole-yard projects across the Houston Heights and Greater Heights. Principals Omar Afra and Pedro Salazar lead each project, bringing in a licensed engineer when the scope requires stamped drawings. Phone: 713-496-2669.
Built in the Heights & across Houston
Photographs of completed Right Angle projects — no renderings. Where the project record names a neighborhood we name it; where it only says Houston, it says Houston.
Houston Heights · Travertine · cedar · brick
Pool surround, cedar privacy fence, brick counter and pergola in one backyard.
See the detail
Houston-area · Brazilian hardwood
A low hardwood platform built around the trunk of a mature live oak beside the pool.
See the detail
West University, Houston · Clay brick pavers
A narrow side drive in clay brick — herringbone field, soldier-course border and a gravel strip along the fence.
See the detail
West University, Houston · Hardwood · steel · cable rail
A raised front deck with a horizontal skirt, steel posts and stainless cable rail.
See the detail
Houston Heights · Concrete pavers
A tumbled grey paver field in herringbone running out to a lawn edge.
See the detail
Memorial, Houston · Artificial turf · drainage
A turf play yard with a flush drain grate under mature pines.
See the detailMore of the same work, with current photos and contact details, sits on our Google Business Profile.
Heights project atlas
Each card goes to the page where we work that scope out in detail — materials, planning constraints and how the build gets sequenced.
Whole-yard build
Pictured: pool surround, cedar privacy fence, brick counter and pergola in one backyard.
Pool surround · cedar · brick
Decks
Pier-and-beam back elevations and freestanding frames.
Hardwood · composite
Reference imageShade structures
Shade versus rain cover, attachment and wiring, and any review that applies to the address.
Cedar · aluminum
Hardscape
Base depth and edge restraint on expansive clay.
Concrete & clay pavers
Stormwater hardscape
Where runoff goes on a flat lot near the bayou.
Photo: conventional brick drive by Right Angle in West University, shown for appearance. A permeable assembly is not verified in this photo.
Paver surfaces & drainage
Documented project
What a full substructure rebuild actually involves.
Composite over rebuilt substructure
| Material | Best Use | Upkeep | Notes for the Heights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ipe / Brazilian hardwood | Decks, pool decks | Periodic oiling or let it grey | Dense and heavy; needs airflow and pre-drilled stainless fasteners |
| Garapa | Decks, screens | Periodic oiling or let it grey | Lighter color and cost than ipe; same airflow rules |
| Composite (Trex/TimberTech) | Low-maintenance decks | Washing | Can get hot in full sun; follow joist spacing and gapping rules |
| Cedar | Pergolas, fences, screens | Stain or seal on a cycle | Stable and workable; keep end grain off wet ground |
| Permeable pavers | Patios, walks, drives | Joint stone top-ups | Only drains as designed with the full open-graded assembly |
| Travertine | Pool decks, patios | Sealing optional | Stays cooler underfoot than many surfaces |
| Pressure-treated pine | Hidden framing | Stain/seal if exposed | Common for framing; ground contact rating matters |
Materials that survive Houston
What it costs in the Heights
Heights lots are narrow, access is usually one gate wide, and a good share of the budget on any given job goes underground before anything looks finished. That is why we put illustrative planning amounts on the table in the first conversation rather than the fifth.
We keep the numbers in one place instead of restating them page by page — the tools below are the source, and they get updated as our estimating assumptions change. The budget tool uses our standard per-square-foot rates; a real quote depends on your site and scope.
Pick scope and square footage and see an illustrative planning amount at our standard rates. Not a quote.
Worked illustrative amounts from the same rates, plus the site and scope factors that move a real quote.
What has to happen in what order — the schedule is where budgets are usually lost.
Shade is the whole point of a pergola here. Between roughly May and October, an uncovered Heights patio is unusable from late morning to early evening — so the real question isn't whether to build one, it's which structure and material actually survive Houston heat, humidity and storms on a narrow 1920s lot.
The default choice in the Heights, and the one that reads correctly next to bungalow and Victorian-era architecture. Cedar handles Houston humidity well and takes stain or a natural weathered finish. Plan on re-sealing every few years if you want to hold the color; left alone it silvers.
Cedar pergolas and carportsSteel lets you span farther with fewer posts — useful on tight lots where every square foot of patio counts, and where a post in the middle of a 12-foot side yard is a non-starter. Powder-coated finishes hold up in humidity with far less upkeep than wood.
Heights pergola detailsWhen you want rain protection and not just shade, a solid-roof patio cover or attached structure is the honest answer. It changes the drainage picture — the roof concentrates water, so gutters and a routed outlet get designed with the structure, not after it.
Patio covers in HoustonAdjustable louvered roofs and retractable shade let you take full sun in January and close things down in August. They're the priciest option and they add moving parts, motors and wiring to maintain — worth it for patios you use year-round, overkill for a small side-yard sitting area.
All structure optionsSun, heat and orientation. Where the structure sits matters as much as what it's made of. A west-facing Heights patio takes the worst of the afternoon load, and open-slat pergolas give partial shade at best in that exposure — that's where louvers, a solid roof, or added shade fabric earn their cost. Louver spacing, beam depth and orientation all get set against the specific patio, not from a catalog.
Rain and drainage. Any covered structure changes where water goes. Posts get set on footings that keep wood clear of the soil, and roof runoff is routed away from the house and the slab rather than dumped at the patio edge. On Heights lots with clay soil and shallow street drainage, that detail is the difference between a dry patio and a chronic wet spot — see how we handle Heights backyard drainage on clay soil.
Wind, load and footings. Houston sits in a coastal wind zone, and a pergola or patio cover is a sail if it isn't anchored properly. Post size, footing depth and connection hardware are sized for the structure's span and exposure, and larger or attached structures may warrant engineered drawings. Houston clay's shrink–swell behavior is the reason footings here go deeper than a catalog kit assumes.
Lot constraints, setbacks and review. Heights lots are narrow, often with alleys, mature pecans and detached garages competing for the same footprint. Setbacks and impervious-cover limits shape the size before aesthetics enter the conversation, and properties inside the Heights historic districts go through Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission review for visible exterior work. Requirements vary by district and by where the structure sits on the lot, so we confirm what applies to your address rather than assume. Our project sequence guide shows where review lands in the timeline.
Maintenance and lifespan. Humidity is the deciding factor over ten years. Cedar wants periodic cleaning and re-sealing; powder-coated steel and aluminum want washing and hardware checks; motorized systems add motors, tracks and fabric to the maintenance list. The materials comparison lays out the tradeoffs side by side, and the Heights materials strip above covers what we've actually specified on these streets.
What we look at on a Heights lot before anyone picks a decking board. Notes from Omar Afra, co-founder and principal, who leads project development on our 77008 and 77009 work.
Heights lots are commonly long, narrow and fenced tight to the neighbors. Material often cannot be driven to the back, so pallets break down at the curb and everything moves by hand through a single gate. We settle the access route, the spoil pile location and crew parking before a schedule is written, because a crew that cannot move material efficiently starts making convenience decisions.
The canopy is one of the best things about the neighborhood and the easiest thing to lose during construction. We decide which trees stay in the first design meeting, keep hardscape out of critical root areas where possible, hand-dig near roots instead of trenching, and favor permeable systems where a surface has to sit near a tree.
Houston clay swells wet and shrinks dry, and shallow rigid work laid directly on it moves with the seasons. Structures land on footings that reach past the most active zone, and hardscape gets a real compacted base over separation fabric so fines cannot pump up and destroy drainage.
Finished elevations and the runoff path are the first drawing, not the last. That includes roof water: downspouts dumping next to the foundation are the most common cause of the puddle a homeowner has lived with for years. Every plan should trace water end to end — where it lands, how it collects, and where it legally leaves.
Pier-and-beam floors sit high, and back elevations are often a collage of past additions. We look at what we are attaching to before attaching anything, and prefer freestanding deck frames and pergolas whenever the attachment would be marginal — it keeps new penetrations out of old wall assemblies.
Whether City historic review applies depends on the specific address and the scope of work, so we check the property on the City historic district map at the first visit. Where a Certificate of Appropriateness is required, it is separate from building permits. Deed restrictions and civic-club rules are a separate layer again. We build any review time into the schedule in week one rather than discovering it in week six.
City historic district mapCity Certificate of Appropriateness
Reviews from Houston homeowners, current photos and our contact details are on our Google Business Profile.
View our Google Business ProfileWe work primarily in 77008 (Houston Heights) and the surrounding inner loop — including Woodland Heights, Norhill, Sunset Heights, Cottage Grove (77007), Near Northside (77009), Garden Oaks (77018), and River Oaks (77019).
Founder's field notes
Before Right Angle, our co-founder worked on the restoration of a century-old wood building in the Heights and spent years building temporary infrastructure for public events — stages, power and water runs, access and load-out on a fixed date. Both are unforgiving educations: an old building has already run the experiment on water and ventilation, and an event schedule gives you nowhere to hide an unfinished detail.
That background is why our Heights conversations start with grade, drainage and sequencing rather than material samples, and why the writing below is about what fails here and why — not about what we sell.
Direct, factual answers to the questions Heights homeowners actually ask. Straight answers, no fluff.
The next useful step
Tell us what you want
this space to become.
