Roofing permits in St. Louis County
Whether your reroof needs a permit turns on the pitch of the roof, how much decking is being replaced, and whether you are changing the material. Three questions, and most homeowners are never asked any of them.
The St. Louis County rule, in plain terms
For unincorporated St. Louis County, a straight like-for-like asphalt shingle replacement on a roof with a slope of four in twelve or steeper does not require a building permit. That covers a large share of ordinary residential reroofs in the county, which is why so many homeowners have had a roof replaced and never seen a permit.
A permit is required if any of three things is true.
- The slope is shallower than four in twelveLow slope assemblies are a different construction problem with different code requirements, and the county wants to see them.
- More than a quarter of the decking is being replacedAt that point it is structural work rather than a covering swap.
- The material is changingAsphalt to metal, asphalt to tile, or anything that alters the weight or the assembly.
Two of those three are discovered after the tear-off begins, which is exactly why the decking unit price and the change order process belong in the contract before anyone climbs a ladder. See what a written scope contains.
Municipal licensing sits on top of the county rule
St. Louis County is not one jurisdiction for this purpose. Dozens of incorporated municipalities sit inside it and several run their own contractor registration and their own permit desk. Ballwin and Kirkwood are two that operate their own contractor licensing, and a contractor registered with the county is not automatically registered with them.
The practical question to ask a contractor is not do I need a permit. It is: which jurisdiction is my house in, are you registered there, and are you pulling the permit if one is needed. A company that works your municipality regularly will answer instantly. A company that has to check is telling you it does not work here often.
St. Charles County: ask, do not assume
The honest answer for St. Charles County is that it needs checking
Published guidance on residential reroof permits in St. Charles County is inconsistent between sources, and the county page that should settle it has not been reliably reachable. This site is not going to state a rule it cannot verify, because a wrong permit answer costs a homeowner real money at resale.
Call the St. Charles County division that handles building permits before the work starts, ask specifically about a residential reroof at your address, and get the answer from them rather than from a contractor's assurance. If your property is inside a municipality such as St. Charles, St. Peters, O'Fallon or Wentzville, the municipality may have its own requirement in addition.
Why the permit question matters even when the answer is no
Three reasons, in order of how often they bite.
- Resale. Unpermitted structural work surfaces during a sale, and the cost of resolving it lands on the seller at the worst possible moment in the transaction.
- Insurance. An insurer assessing a later loss may ask what was done and when. A permit record is a dated, third-party account of the work that you did not have to create yourself.
- It is a filter. A contractor who wants to avoid the permit desk is usually avoiding it for reasons that have nothing to do with saving you a fee. Registration requires insurance, and the whole point of registration is that somebody checked.
What to ask before signing, in one sentence
Which jurisdiction is my address in, are you registered to work in it, is a permit required for this specific scope, and who is pulling it?Ask before signing, not after
Get the answer in the written scope alongside everything else. Permit responsibility is a contract term, and a contract term that lives only in somebody's memory of a conversation is not a term at all.
The state layer
Permits are local. Licensing, claim representation and the limitation period are state questions, and several of them are stated wrongly across this industry.
Ask what your municipality wants before anyone quotes
Slope, the percentage of decking replaced and a change of material are the three things that decide whether your reroof is permitted work, and two of them are not knowable from the driveway.
Keys pulls what the jurisdiction requires as part of the job rather than leaving it to you as an errand. If all you want is the answer for your street, the phone is faster than the form.
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