Window and siding replacement in St. Charles
What the code and the permit desk actually require here — and what the houses in St. Charles tend to be hiding behind the siding.
- People
- 72,458
- Homes
- 33,094
- Size
- 25.67 square miles
- From downtown
- About 20 miles northwest
- ZIP codes
- 63301, 63302, 63303, 63304
- Founded or incorporated
- 1809
St. Charles was Missouri's first state capital (1821-1826); its historic districts hold over a hundred structures spanning the state's early statehood period, while New Town is a modern New Urbanist-style planned development.
St. Charles
Historic riverfront/Main Street core (St. Charles Historic District, Frenchtown Historic District) has buildings mostly from the 1830s-1940s in Greek Revival, Italianate and Late Victorian styles; median house/condo built is 1985, matching a wave of rapid new-home and commercial construction since the late 1970s.
What that vintage turns up
First-generation vinyl replacements went in across this whole period and they are now hitting both of the ages that matter at once: the frames are inside the twenty-to-forty-year band and the sealed glass units are well past the eight-to-twenty-year band. That combination produces the most common call we get on houses this age — fogged glass in a frame that is still perfectly sound. The honest first answer there is replacing the glass unit, not the window.
Hardboard and wood-composite lap siding from this era is the one with the paperwork. Masonite's hardboard covered product installed between 1980 and 1998 and reached roughly four million homeowners; Louisiana-Pacific's Inner-Seal siding had its own national settlement in the mid-1990s. Both claim programmes closed years ago, so the relevance now is diagnostic rather than financial: swelling, delamination and mushrooming along the bottom edges of the boards on a house of this age is a known product history, not necessarily the owner having neglected it.
The one to watch on a house of this age
Synthetic stucco applied before about 1997 is the high-risk cohort. Roughly ninety-five per cent of American applications were the face-sealed kind, which has no way to drain what gets past it, and the failures traced back overwhelmingly to flashing that was left out. Drainable systems are a different animal and are not the problem.
Lead paint. No, for anything built after 1978 — but confirm the build year before assuming it. 25.0% of the homes in St. Charles County were built before 1980, and on anything pre-1978 the EPA renovation rule applies to both of these trades. Window replacement is never exempt from it, at any size — a single window triggers it. A whole-house re-side clears the twenty square foot exterior threshold on the first wall. What the rule actually requires of a contractor.
Neighbourhoods
We work across Frenchtown and New Town.
Historic districts
St. Charles has 2: St. Charles Historic District and Frenchtown Historic District. This matters more for windows than for almost any other kind of work. A visible change to a window on a designated property can need preservation review before a building permit will issue, and in the strictest districts in this metro the material the window is made of is written into the ordinance. Which local rules bite, and which are only advisory.
The rules in St. Charles
Siding replacement No permit
Sec. 500.050(A)(3) (IBC exemptions) is even shorter: 144 sq ft sheds and fences not over 6 feet.
Window replacement, same opening Not published Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required
Windows appear on neither of the City's two published lists - not among the projects that require permits, and not among those that do not.
A replacement window here has to be U-0.35 or lower
City Code Sec. 500.090(A): 'The 2015 Edition of the International Energy Conservation Code, except as otherwise provided in this Chapter, as published by the International Code Council, Inc.' Ordinance history shown on the section: Ord. No. 15-102 Sec. 3, 5-19-2015. The City's Adopted Building Codes page independently lists '2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)' alongside 2021 IBC/IRC/IEBC/IPC/IMC/IFGC/ISPSC and the 2020 NEC - i.e. the City runs 2021 structural codes against a 2015 energy code.
That figure comes from the 2015 edition this jurisdiction has adopted.
A window fitted here must also carry an SHGC of 0.40 or lower.
For comparison, ENERGY STAR asks for U-0.25 or lower with an SHGC of 0.40 or lower everywhere in this metro, which is stricter than every code edition in force here. And the code only bites when the sash and the glazing are replaced together — replace the glass alone in an existing sash, or add a storm window over the top, and it does not apply.
Contractor registration No
The City licenses only four trades as subcontractors. Fee schedule (Sec. 150.030, eCode 41664228) lists two-year subcontractor licenses: Drainlayer $40.00, Electrician $40.00, Plumber $60.00, Tinner (HVAC) $75.00. No siding, window, roofing or general-contractor registration is published. Separately, St. Charles county licenses 'Electricians, plumbers, mechanical (HVAC) contractors, fence installers, pool installers, drainlayers, third party inspectors, and blasters' (all must be bonded and insured) - siding and window contractors are not on the county list either.
What the permit costs
Plan examination: greater of $75.00 or cost x 0.002 (expedited x 0.004). No siding- or window-specific fee is published.
Local quirks
The applicable standards are the Secretary of the Interior's Standards: 'Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities and where possible, materials.' That is the operative constraint on replacing historic wood windows and original siding in the South Main / Frenchtown areas.
Who to call
- Building dept
- 636-949-3222
- Official
- Dale Nicolas, Building Commissioner (636-949-3597)
- Permits
- Department page
How St. Charles compares with the rest of St. Charles County
Same county, same climate, same houses. Not the same rules.
| Place | Permit to re-side | Permit for a window | Window must meet |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Charles | No | Not published | U-0.35 |
| Cottleville | Yes | No | U-0.30 |
| Lake St. Louis | Yes | Yes | U-0.35 |
| O'Fallon | No | No | U-0.30 |
| St. Peters | Yes | Yes | U-0.30 |
| Wentzville | Yes | Yes | U-0.40 |
Work we have done in St. Charles
Not yet — St. Charles is on our list rather than in our records. We will say so until that changes.
Where these facts came from
Everything on this page about St. Charles was read off a published source. Where a question has no published answer we have said so rather than filling the gap.
Sources: stcharlescitymo.gov · stcharlescitymo.gov · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · sccmo.org
Work coming up in St. Charles?
We will tell you what the rules here are, including when they work in your favour.
Tell us about the house
We answer the phone. If we miss you, we call back.