St. Louis at a glance
Common perils
- Large hail
- Derecho winds
- Tornadoes
- Sewer backup
Housing mix
The city is built largely of brick: two-family flats, row houses and shotgun-style homes in South City, mansard-roofed Victorians in Lafayette Square and large brick homes on private streets in the Central West End.
Neighborhoods & nearby areas
- Soulard
- Tower Grove South
- The Hill
- Lafayette Square
- Central West End
- Dogtown
- Benton Park
- Bevo Mill
A city of brick, and why that matters for your claim
Few American cities are as thoroughly brick as St. Louis. The soft red brick from local clay works still holds up most of South City, from the two-family flats in Tower Grove South to the narrow shotgun homes around Soulard and Benton Park. Brick walls rarely fail in a storm, but everything attached to them does: slate and tile roofs, box gutters built into the cornice, wood porches, parapet caps and copper flashing.
That is where estimates go sideways. An insurer’s software may price a box gutter as a standard aluminum seamless run, or treat a mansard slate roof in Lafayette Square as if it were architectural shingle. Neither is a like-kind repair. Matching soft brick for a chimney rebuild or tuckpointing around a damaged parapet takes masons who know old mortar, and they charge accordingly.
Inside the walls
Plaster on wood or metal lath is the rule in pre-war city housing. Patching it with drywall can leave a visible, uneven wall, and in a multi-room loss the question becomes whether a consistent finish requires more than the stained square footage. Ornate trim, pocket doors and built-ins in the Central West End add more line items that rarely appear in a first-pass estimate.
Storms, sewers and the rivers
The region has a long storm record. The April 2001 hailstorm along the I-70 corridor and the July 2006 windstorms that left much of the area without power are still reference points for local roofers. The 2011 Good Friday tornado hit the airport and nearby north county suburbs rather than the city itself, but it shows how far severe weather reaches across the metro.
Water claims are just as common. Many older city sewers are combined systems, and heavy rain can push water back up through basement floor drains. Sewer and drain backup is usually excluded unless you bought a specific endorsement, often with its own limit. Flooding from the Mississippi or River des Peres is a separate exposure again and needs flood insurance. Earthquake damage from the New Madrid seismic zone is normally excluded unless you added earthquake coverage. Coverage questions like these are for your policy and, where needed, a Missouri attorney. Appraisal addresses the dollar amount.
Local practicalities
St. Louis is an independent city, separate from St. Louis County, with its own building division and its own permit process. Properties in local historic districts may also need design review before exterior work, which can require specific materials such as real slate or wood windows. If historic review applies to your home, the estimate should account for it, and so should the timeline.
Labor is another factor. Slate roofers, ornamental tin workers and masons who handle historic brick are a smaller pool than general roofers, and their pricing reflects it. An estimate built on generic regional averages tends to come in low.
Where we fit
If your insurer accepts the loss but its estimate looks like it was written for a different house, an estimate review is the place to start. When a claim is stuck and the policy has an appraisal clause, we can serve as your appraiser; see appraisal demand and representation for how that process runs.
We work throughout the city and inspect in person, on the roof and in the basement.
Storm history around St. Louis
- 1993Great Flood The Mississippi crested at record levels; the downtown floodwall held, but low-lying areas along the rivers flooded for weeks.
- 2001April 10 hailstorm A hailstorm along the I-70 corridor damaged roofs and vehicles across the north side and into St. Louis County.
- 2006July windstorms Back-to-back July storms with derecho-strength winds knocked out power to much of the region for days.
- 2011Good Friday tornado An April 22 tornado struck Lambert airport and the Bridgeton and Maryland Heights area of St. Louis County.
Appraisal help available in St. Louis
Every Missouri Insurance Appraiser service is available to property owners in St. Louis:
- Appraisal Demand Representation
- Homeowner Claim Appraisal
- Commercial & HOA Claim Appraisal
- Hail & Roof Damage Appraisal
- Tornado & Derecho Wind Appraisal
- Burst Pipe & Water Damage Appraisal
- Fire & Smoke Damage Appraisal
- Sinkhole & Ground Collapse Appraisal
- Ice Storm & Freeze Damage Appraisal
- Insurer Estimate Review
- Appraisal Umpire Services
Questions from St. Louis property owners
My insurer wants to replace my slate roof with shingles. Can appraisal address that?
Appraisal decides the amount of loss, and that often includes what a like-kind repair costs. Whether the policy requires matching materials is ultimately a policy-wording question, so we review the policy before advising.
Is a basement sewer backup in St. Louis covered?
Usually only if you have a water or sewer backup endorsement, and those often carry a separate limit. If you have the endorsement and dispute the amount, appraisal may help.
Does it matter that St. Louis is not in St. Louis County?
For your claim it mainly affects permits and code: the City of St. Louis has its own building division and historic district rules, which can change what a proper repair includes.
