On 16 May 2025 a tornado cut a 6.61-mile path through St. Louis City at up to 1,750 yards wide. Four people died, 38 were injured, and the NOAA record puts damage in the City alone at $1.6 billion. The City still runs a dedicated permitting page for properties damaged that day. If you are reading this because of that storm, or because of something smaller since, the first thing we do is find out what actually happened to your roof — not what happened to the neighborhood.
Roof Experts is the roof repair partner St. Louis MO property owners trust. We bring DFW-quality crews and materials to every St. Louis project — from TPO and metal systems to inspections and full roof repair. Need an estimate? Call Roof Experts at (469) 936-7663 or request your free roof inspection online.
Most of what we are called to in St. Louis is repairable and we will say so. Lifted shingles, a chimney counterflashing that has worked loose, a split boot, a failed parapet coping joint — those are repairs. What we will not do is patch a comprehensively damaged field, or convert a storm into a sales opportunity. You get the photographs, the marked test squares and the reasoning, and we encourage a second opinion. In a city that took a $1.6 billion tornado, that discipline matters more than usual.
In the City, a like-material re-roof with 25 percent or less sheathing replacement needs no permit; an entire new roof, a change of material, or more than 25 percent sheathing replacement does. On a repair, that threshold is genuinely reachable on the City's pre-1940 stock, so we calculate rather than assume. In a City Historic District the calculation does not matter — a permit is required for all exterior work except painting wood trim, and that is an override we check before anything else.
On St. Louis's rowhouse and masonry stock the leak is often not in the field of the roof at all — it is at the parapet, the coping, the through-wall flashing or the scupper. District standards we have read treat flat-roof replacement as general maintenance but state that any repair or reconstruction of parapets requires a permit. We diagnose the parapet as part of the roof, because on these buildings it is part of the roof, and we tell you when the roof itself is not the problem.
The City amended R802.10.2 so that truss design drawings must be prepared and sealed by a Missouri Licensed Professional Engineer. After a storm that matters: a damaged or altered truss is not something a roofing crew resolves with a sistered board and a photograph. We identify structural damage as structural damage, bring in a Missouri PE where the code requires one, and are clear with you and your carrier about which parts of the job are roofing and which are not.
We photograph test squares on multiple slopes, check the soft metals, and date damage against what NOAA actually recorded near your address. The local record has a distinctive shape: hail peaks in May but carries an unusual March secondary spike, and 14 March 2025 produced four tornadoes across St. Louis County alongside the largest concentration of severe thunderstorm-wind reports in the eleven-year record. If it is wear rather than impact, we write wear.
RSMo 407.725 lets a contractor retain compensation after a cancellation only for emergency services the insured acknowledged in writing to be necessary to prevent damage to the premises. So the written acknowledgement is not paperwork for its own sake — it is the mechanism that makes tarp and dry-in work fair to both sides. We get it signed on site, we document what is under the tarp before we cover it, and we come back with a scoped repair rather than a pressured contract.
City, County or County municipality; inside a historic district or not; in a floodway or not. Those answers change what a repair even is here. Then we get on the roof, mark test squares, photograph the damage and the sound areas, and look at parapets and flashings on any flat or near-flat section. You keep the full photo set regardless.
Impact separated from wear, storm damage from installation defect, and dates checked against the NOAA record for your address rather than the storm everyone remembers. Where structural members are involved we say so plainly, because the City's own code puts truss design in the hands of a Missouri PE.
Repair, partial replacement or full replacement, with costs and expected remaining life. We calculate the deck percentage against the 25 percent threshold and tell you which side we expect to land on. In a historic district the Cultural Resources Office application goes in early, because Preservation Board referrals run on a monthly cycle. The contract carries the boldface cancellation statement and the detachable notice form Missouri requires.
We integrate rather than patch: flashings reworked, valley linings installed to the City's amended requirements, shingles woven into the field, parapet details corrected where they are the actual source. Then we come back after the next significant weather to confirm it held. Our workmanship coverage applies to a repair exactly as to a replacement.
The hard part of a shingle repair is making it disappear. We source the closest current match, show it to you before installation, and weave rather than butt the new courses in. Where a line has been discontinued we say a true match no longer exists rather than promising one. And we keep the work inside the like-material definition where that is what preserves your permit exemption.
The City amended R905.2.8.2 with real specificity: open metal valleys lined at least 24 inches wide in a corrosion-resistant metal from the table; open valleys in two plies of mineral-surfaced roll roofing with an 18-inch bottom layer and a 36-inch minimum top layer; closed valleys in one ply of smooth roll roofing, or two plies of No. 15 paper at least 36 inches wide, or the metal or roll lining. A self-adhering polymer modified bitumen underlayment meeting ASTM D 1970 is permitted in lieu of the lining. When we open a valley, it goes back to that standard.
On a parapeted flat roof the recurring failure is the transition, not the field: coping joints, through-wall flashing, the base flashing up the parapet, and secondary drainage that was never set at the two-inch inlet height the City's amendment requires. We repair the transition properly rather than flooding it with sealant, and we tell you when a permit is needed because parapet reconstruction is involved.
Our repair work carries the same coverage as our replacement work. If a flashing we reworked, a valley we relined or a parapet detail we rebuilt fails, we come back. A repair is not a lesser job with lesser standards and it should not carry a lesser commitment.
We return after the next significant weather event to confirm the repair held, at no charge. It is also how we learn whether our own diagnosis was right, which matters to us as much as it does to you.
RSMo 407.725 applies to insured roof and exterior work regardless of size: no deductible rebates, no sales inducements, no contractor negotiating your claim, a cancellation right until midnight on the fifth business day after your insurer's written notice, a boldface notice and a detachable cancellation form, and a ten-day refund. Emergency work is compensable only where you acknowledged it in writing as necessary.
Don't see your question? Call us at (573) 370-7663 — we're happy to talk it through.
Start with the City, which maintains a dedicated permitting and approvals page for properties damaged on 16 May 2025 — that is the authoritative source for what the rebuild process requires at your address, and we point homeowners there rather than paraphrasing it. The NOAA record for the City segment gives 4 direct deaths, 38 direct injuries, a 6.61-mile path at up to 1,750 yards wide, and $1.6 billion in property damage. One honest data note: the NOAA rating field for the City segment is coded oddly, and the narrative describes an EF-3 at peak. We cite the narrative and the damage figures, not the code.
In the City it depends on scope: a like-material replacement with 25 percent or less sheathing replacement is permit-exempt, while an entire new roof, a change of material, or more than 25 percent sheathing replacement requires one. On a pre-1940 house that threshold is genuinely reachable, so we calculate rather than assume. Two overrides: a property in a City Historic District needs approval for all exterior work except painting wood trim, and work in a floodway may require a Floodway Development Permit. A County address follows the County's rules and possibly a municipality's on top.
Not as roofing work. The City amended R802.10.2 to require that truss design drawings be prepared and sealed by a Missouri Licensed Professional Engineer. So where a truss is damaged, cut or altered, the design side of that repair belongs to a PE, and we will say so rather than improvising. It is also the right answer for your claim, because a documented engineered repair is defensible and a sistered board photographed from the attic is not.
May is the peak at 67 reports across 2015–2025, but the distinctive feature is the secondary March spike at 66 — almost as large. Denver, by comparison, records no March hail at all. Wind peaks in July. St. Louis County recorded hail on 49 distinct days over the period and the City on 17, with the largest stones at 2.50 inches in the County and 2.00 inches in the City. So a March hail claim here is entirely ordinary, which is not true in every market we work.
On a lot of St. Louis houses, no. The parapet, the coping joints, the through-wall flashing and the masonry itself are frequent sources on rowhouse and flat-roof stock, and water entering there presents exactly like a roof leak inside. We diagnose the whole assembly. It also matters for permitting: district standards treat a flat-roof replacement as general maintenance but require a permit for any repair or reconstruction of parapets — so correctly identifying the source changes the paperwork as well as the fix.
You should, and Missouri's statute is the reason. Under RSMo 407.725 a contractor may retain compensation after a cancellation only for emergency services the insured acknowledged in writing to be necessary to prevent damage to the premises. So a written emergency acknowledgement protects both sides on tarp and dry-in work. What you should not sign in that moment is a full replacement contract — and any contractor pushing one while your roof is open is telling you something.
Missouri has no state roofing license, so there is no number to verify the way there is in Oklahoma. What you can check: a City of St. Louis Construction Industry Contractor Graduated Business License, which requires proof of workers' compensation coverage or a signed exemption affidavit and clearance from the Collector of Revenue. Then apply the statute as a filter — anyone offering to cover your deductible, offering a gift or referral fee as an inducement, or offering to negotiate your claim for you is describing conduct RSMo 407.725 prohibits.
Often, and we will tell you why honestly. The City's adopted table lists ice shield underlayment as not required, so it is not a code item here. But the City's own amended valley section expressly permits a self-adhering polymer modified bitumen underlayment meeting ASTM D 1970 in lieu of the lining material, and manufacturers frequently require it for warranty coverage. So it is a performance and warranty decision, made with you, rather than something we invoke the code for.
Free inspection, honest scope, real warranty. Most service work scheduled within 24–48 hours.
(573) 370-7663