Roof Replacement Cost in St. Louis, and the Deductible Offer to Refuse
Revised October 25, 2026
What is the average cost to replace a roof in St. Louis?
Replacing a roof in St. Louis costs an average of $8,155, according to Angi’s St. Louis cost data, and most new roofs land between $5,433 and $11,032. Asphalt shingles run about $3 to $11 per square foot, metal $5 to $22, and slate an average of $10 to $30, so the size of the roof, its pitch and the material move the price more than anything a salesman says.
Keep reading ↓Did the roofer on your porch just offer to take care of your deductible?
Look at him for a second. Clean boots, a clipboard, a pickup idling at the curb, and your gutters still dripping from last night. The morning after hail sounds the same in Affton, in Florissant, in Webster Groves: aluminum ladders clanking against siding, a nail gun popping three streets over, the gray sand of shingle granules piled at the bottom of the downspout. He is friendly. He is quick. And the sweetener he just offered you is something Missouri law says a roofer shall not promise.
Section 407.725 of the Missouri statutes says it plainly: a contractor shall not advertise or promise to pay or rebate all or any portion of any insurance deductible as an inducement to the sale of goods or services. So the friendliest line on the porch is the one to turn down. Screenshot that sentence. Send it to the neighbor with the new yard sign stuck in his wet grass.
Then breathe, because you came here for a number, and the number is less scary than the knock on the door made it feel.
What is the average cost to replace a roof in St. Louis?
Replacing a roof in St. Louis costs an average of $8,155, according to Angi’s St. Louis cost data, and most new roofs land between $5,433 and $11,032. Asphalt shingles run about $3 to $11 per square foot, metal $5 to $22, and slate an average of $10 to $30, so the size of the roof, its pitch and the material move the price more than anything a salesman says.
The number moves most on the roof you actually have. Walk any South City block and look up at the brick two-stories, steep and close together, chimneys at every angle, and you can see why one crew bids high and another bids low. Angi’s guide puts labor at about half of the total, with materials making up the difference, so a cheap bid is almost always cheap on one of those two halves. Your job is to find out which.
And if you live in the city, here is a check worth making. A contractor working here needs a Construction Industry Contractor Graduated Business License from the License Collector, Room 104 of City Hall at 1200 Market Street. To get it, the contractor has to bring proof of workers’ compensation coverage or sign a statement saying he has it or is not required to. And every general contractor has to give the License Collector a list of the subcontractors on any job. So ask the man on your porch for his City license before he gets the ladder off the truck, and if the crew that shows up is not his, ask whose it is. The License Collector’s office answers at (314) 622-4528, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
The five-day clock your insurer’s letter starts
Here is the part nobody on the porch brings up. If you sign with a roofer and the work is meant to be paid through your homeowners policy, Missouri gives you a way back out. Under the same section 407.725, you may cancel that contract before midnight on the fifth business day after your insurer tells you in writing that all or any part of the claim is not a covered loss.
The letter is usually thin. You open it standing at the mailbox, and the words you were dreading are right there: part of the claim is not covered. That is the moment the clock starts, and it is your clock, not his. You cancel by giving written notice to the contractor at the address stated in the contract. Within ten days after that, the law says the contractor has to hand back any payments, partial payments or deposits you made. If the money does not come back, the Missouri Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Hotline is 1-800-392-8222.
He is also supposed to have told you all this already. The statute makes the contractor attach a notice of cancellation form to the contract, easy to tear off, in boldface type of at least ten points. If the paper he slid across your kitchen table has no such page, you have learned something useful about him before a single shingle comes off.
Two more lines from the same law are worth knowing before anyone sets a ladder against your gutter. A contractor shall not represent or negotiate your insurance claim on your behalf. And any violation of the section counts as an unfair practice under the Missouri merchandising practices act. None of that makes the roofer a crook. Most are not. It just means the person holding the clipboard should be selling you a roof, not a claim.
Why one bid is thousands higher on the same roof
Start with size, because it fools almost everyone. Angi’s St. Louis guide makes the point that roof size does not always match your home’s square footage: the pitch, the roof over a porch or garage, and the overhang all add to it. Stand in the yard and look up at a steep two-story in Webster Groves and you can feel it in your neck. That is more roof than the floor plan admits.
Then complexity. A roof with chimneys or skylights poking through it, gables or dormers, or sections with different pitches costs more to replace, by the same guide’s account. Every one of those is a seam, and every seam is a place for March rain to find its way into a bedroom ceiling. A crew that bids the simple version of your roof has not seen it yet.
And then the part you cannot see from the driveway: what is new and what is staying. Listen to a tear-off and you will hear it, the shriek of old step flashing being pried off brick, the thud of rotten decking hitting the dumpster. A low bid often keeps the old flashing and the old pipe boots and promises no decking at all. Ask each roofer, in writing, which pieces are new. The bids start to make sense the minute you do.
What is the 25% rule, and when does the City want a permit?
You will hear roofers say you cannot just patch it. Here is the local version of why. According to Angi’s St. Louis guide, the City of St. Louis requires a permit if you are replacing your roof with a different material, or if you need to replace more than 25% of the roof sheathing. Permit and application fees start at $44 and rise with the total project cost. The city’s Permit Section is at 1200 Market, Room 425, at (314) 622-3313. Watch the roofer pull up the first sheet of old shingles and find the boards underneath gone soft and dark. That is the moment a repair becomes a replacement.
That rule is the City’s. Ask the roofer, before you sign, who is pulling the permit and from which office. A good one answers without looking up from the tape measure.
What a bid you can actually compare will list
Lay three bids on the kitchen table and they should all name the same things. If one is missing a line, it is not cheaper. It is less finished.
Your roof, by the foot
How much does it cost to put a shingle roof on a 2000 sq ft house?
Angi’s St. Louis data puts about 2,000 square feet of roof at $4,600 to $14,400, with asphalt shingles at $3 to $11 per square foot. Ask for the roof area, not the house size: pitch, porches and overhangs can add more roof than the floor plan shows.
- Roof area, and the pitch
- How many old layers come off, and who hauls them away
- Decking: the price per sheet and how many sheets are included before a change order
- Underlayment, and where ice-and-water shield goes
- Drip edge, flashing and pipe boots, each marked new or reused
- Ventilation, intake and exhaust
- Shingle maker, product line and color
- The manufacturer’s warranty and the roofer’s own workmanship warranty, with the years written down
- The permit, and who pulls it
- Cleanup, including a magnet sweep for nails in the grass
One more line belongs on every bid, and it is the one people forget to read: the start date and how long the crew expects to be on the roof. A tear-off is loud. The house shakes a little with every sheet that drops, the dog will not stop pacing, and by noon there is a fine black grit on the porch rail. Knowing when it starts and when the dumpster leaves is worth having in writing, too.
The decking line is where surprise money hides. Nobody can see the boards until the old roof is off, so a careful roofer writes in an allowance and a per-sheet rate. When the crew finds a soft spot that gives under a boot, you already know what it costs.
People are asking
How much should a roof replacement cost in St. Louis?
Angi’s St. Louis data puts the average roof replacement at $8,155. By roof size, about 1,500 square feet of roof runs $3,500 to $10,800 and about 2,000 square feet runs $4,600 to $14,400. If a bid sits far outside the band for your roof, ask which line items explain the difference.
After the storm: keep the claim and the contract apart
Hail brings knocks on the door, and some of them come from trucks with out-of-state plates. Your insurer decides what it owes after its own adjuster has been on the roof. A roofer is there to price and build the roof. When one person starts doing both jobs, slow down.
Read the contract at the kitchen table, not on the porch with the engine running. Look for the cancellation notice. Look for a stated price, not a promise to do whatever the insurance company approves. If the roof truly needs replacing, it will still need replacing on Thursday, after you have read every page.
Waiting on an adjuster all afternoon? Here’s where to eat in Berkeley.
How to choose between three bids
Get three written bids from established local roofers and ask each one the same short list: what is new and what is reused, how much decking is included and at what rate, which underlayment goes where, what the workmanship warranty covers and for how long, and who pulls the permit. Then compare the answers, not the bottom lines.
The low bid is usually missing something. The high bid is often selling an upgrade you may or may not want. Once you can see what each price buys, the right roofer tends to be obvious, and nobody has to rush you to the signature line with the storm still dripping off the eaves.
Three bids on the same roof, and not one of them matches? Browse roofing companies across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory and put another local name on the ladder before anyone asks for a signature today.
If you’re the roofing crew that climbs up after the hail and tells the truth about what you find, the homeowner staring at granules in the downspout is your next customer, so list your business where they compare.
More guides for the same storm season:
- Storm-proofing your trees
- What tree removal costs in St. Louis
- Basement waterproofing in St. Louis
- What a St. Louis home inspection does and does not cover
- What a plumber costs in St. Louis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 25% rule for roofing?
Around here it is the line where a patch stops being a patch. According to Angi’s St. Louis guide, the City of St. Louis requires a permit if you replace more than 25% of the roof sheathing, or if you switch to a different roofing material. If you live outside the city limits, ask your roofer which office the permit comes from.
How much does it cost to put a shingle roof on a 2,000 sq ft house?
Angi’s St. Louis data puts about 2,000 square feet of roof at $4,600 to $14,400. Watch the starting number: a 2,000 square foot house can carry more roof than that once pitch, porches, garages and overhangs are counted, so ask for the roof area itself.
Is $30,000 too much for a roof?
For most St. Louis houses, yes. Angi’s St. Louis size table tops out at $6,900 to $21,600 for about 3,000 square feet of roof, so a bid like that sits above even the top of the table. Slate, at an average of $10 to $30 per square foot in the same guide, is the kind of job that can get there. Ask what the extra money buys.
How to tell if a roofer is lying?
Listen for three things Missouri law covers. A promise to pay or rebate your deductible is something section 407.725 says a contractor shall not make. An offer to negotiate your insurance claim for you is another. And on an insurance-paid job, the contract should come with a detachable notice of cancellation form. If any of those is off, keep your pen in your pocket.
Does a 20 year old roof need to be replaced?
Not on age alone. Granules piling up in the gutters, shingle edges curling, and daylight showing in the attic are what tell you, not the birthday. Have it looked at by a roofer who will put the findings in writing.
What is the cheapest time of year to get a new roof?
I could not find a St. Louis source that names the cheapest month, so I will not invent one. My advice: if the roof is not leaking, take the time to get three written bids, and do not sign anything on the porch the morning after hail.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.