Window and siding replacement in Webster Groves
What the code and the permit desk actually require here — and what the houses in Webster Groves tend to be hiding behind the siding.
- People
- 24,010
- Homes
- 9,951
- Size
- 5.91 square miles
- From downtown
- About 10 miles southwest
- ZIP codes
- 63119
- Founded or incorporated
- 1896
Formed in 1896 from the merger of five communities: Webster, Old Orchard, Webster Park, Tuxedo Park, and Selma; North Webster was a historic Black community within the city.
Webster Groves
Median house/condo built is 1945; developers marketed the original Webster Park subdivision in 1892 as the 'Queen of the Suburbs', and housing here is predominantly prewar and immediate-postwar single-family homes on tree-lined streets.
What that vintage turns up
The original units are single-pane — wood double-hungs on the frame houses, and steel casements on a good number of the brick ones. Steel casements rust along the bottom of the sash and frame first, the exterior putty fails, and the sash goes out of true until there is a visible gap along the closing edge. They are worth knowing about because they are a real decision rather than an obvious one: the National Park Service documented a job repairing sixty-five of them at roughly $360 a window, which was about what replacing them would have cost, and the replacements could not match the narrow original sightlines and cut the glass area by a fifth.
This is asbestos-cement shingle country. The grey or pastel shingles with the wavy bottom edge on so many houses of this age are a Category II non-friable asbestos material, and they are perfectly inert until somebody breaks, saws, sands or power-washes them, at which point the work practice itself is what makes them regulated. Missouri exempts a single house of four units or fewer from the inspection and notification requirements, which makes the paperwork disappear and does nothing at all to the material. Get it tested before anyone touches it.
The one to watch on a house of this age
Low-slope porch roofs tying into a wall are the classic leak on this vintage, and the tie-in is exactly where a kickout flashing belongs and usually is not. Whatever is going on behind that wall has been going on for a while.
Lead paint. Near certain. These houses predate 1978 by a wide margin. 69.2% of the homes in St. Louis 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 Webster Park, Tuxedo Park, Old Orchard, Selma and North Webster.
Historic districts
Webster Groves has 1: Old Webster 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.
Next door
Webster Groves shares a boundary with Shrewsbury, Maplewood, Brentwood, Rock Hill, Glendale, Oakland, Crestwood, Affton and Marlborough. Where we have a page for a neighbour it is linked; where we do not, the rules there are still different from the rules here.
The rules in Webster Groves
Siding replacement Permit required
Webster Groves adopted the 2015 IRC exempt-work list without adding to it, and siding is not on it. A permit is required.
Window replacement, same opening Permit required Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required
Window replacement is not on either exempt list the city adopted — the only window-related entry is “window awnings.” A permit is required whether or not the opening changes.
A replacement window here has to be U-0.35 or lower
Adopted at Section 26.0020 by Ordinance 9106, 17 December 2019, with one amendment worth knowing: “Applicable revisions to the 2015 International Residential and 2015 International Building Codes shall prevail over this code” — so where the two conflict, the building code wins.
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 Yes
Chapter 20, Article XIX. “No contractor engaged in work requiring a permit shall conduct business within the City until such contractor… shall have obtained a Certificate of Registration (Business License) from the City.” Out-of-state firms are separately caught by Missouri’s transient employer statute and must show a tax clearance and a financial assurance instrument before a permit will issue. A homeowner may pull a permit for their own house, but any subcontractor doing permit-worthy work still has to be registered.
Local quirks
Architectural Review Board: the Building Inspections & Plan Review page states 'Any new construction or renovation work affecting the exterior look of the main building must be reviewed by the City's Architectural Review Board,' and the Building Permits page adds 'Applications requiring review by the ARB must be submitted by the filing deadline prior to the ARB meeting.' A re-side or a visible window change is renovation work affecting the exterior look, so ARB timing - not just permit processing - can drive the schedule. Second quirk: the online permit portal is closed to unregistered contractors and to homeowners entirely, so those applicants must apply on paper.
Who to call
- Building dept
- 314-963-5300
- Official
- Director of Planning and Development
- Permits
- Department page
How Webster Groves compares with the rest of St. Louis County
Same county, same climate, same houses. Not the same rules.
| Place | Permit to re-side | Permit for a window | Window must meet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Webster Groves | Yes | Yes | U-0.35 |
| Affton | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| Ballwin | Yes | Yes | — |
| Brentwood | Yes | Not published | U-0.28 |
| Chesterfield | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| Clayton | Yes | Yes | U-0.30 |
| Creve Coeur | Not published | No | U-0.35 |
| Des Peres | Yes | Yes | U-0.32 |
| Ellisville | Not published | Not published | — |
| Eureka | Depends | Depends | — |
| Florissant | Depends | Yes | U-0.30 |
| Kirkwood | Not published | Not published | U-0.30 |
| Manchester | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| Maryland Heights | Not published | Yes | U-0.35 |
| Mehlville | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| Oakville | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| Richmond Heights | Not published | Not published | U-0.28 |
| Town and Country | Depends | No | — |
| Unincorporated St. Louis County | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| University City | Depends | Yes | U-0.32 |
| Wildwood | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
Work we have done in Webster Groves
Nothing completed in Webster Groves so far. Rather than pad this out, we have left it blank until there is a real job to describe.
Where these facts came from
Everything on this page about Webster Groves was read off a published source. Where a question has no published answer we have said so rather than filling the gap.
Sources: library.municode.com · webstergrovesmo.gov · webstergrovesmo.gov · webstergrovesmo.gov · webstergrovesmo.gov · webstergrovesmo.gov · webstergrovesmo.gov
Getting quotes in Webster Groves?
Ask every bidder what the permit and energy rules here are. Then ask us.
Tell us about the house
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