Window and siding replacement in Imperial
What the code and the permit desk actually require here — and what the houses in Imperial tend to be hiding behind the siding.
- People
- 4,407
- Homes
- 1,817
- Size
- 6.03 square miles
- From downtown
- About 20 miles south
- ZIP codes
- 63052
Imperial CDP was originally known as West Kimmswick and today surrounds (but does not include) the separately incorporated city of Kimmswick; its eastern edge is the Mississippi River / Illinois state line.
Imperial
Median home age is about 32 years.
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. 48.6% of the homes in Jefferson 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.
Next door
Imperial shares a boundary with Arnold, Barnhart and Kimmswick. 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 Imperial
Siding replacement No permit
Jefferson County Code Sec. 500.400 (Additions, Insertions, Deletions and Changes), amending IRC R105.2 Work Exempt from Permit, lists as exempt: 'Replacement of siding.' Flat, unconditioned, no square-footage or material limit published. This sits directly alongside the roofing exemption earlier research found: 'Single family residential roof replacement, replacement roofing that involves the shingles, the underlayment and/or the sheathed decks.' Imperial is unincorporated, so the county governs - there is no city building department and no municipal layer on top of this.
Window replacement, same opening No permit Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required
Sec. 500.400's amended R105.2 exempts 'Replacement of doors and/or windows provided opening size and operation do not change.' Two conditions, not one - Jefferson County is the only jurisdiction in this metro that also conditions the exemption on operation not changing, so swapping a double-hung for a casement in the same rough opening falls outside the exemption even though the opening is unchanged. Enlarging or reducing an opening, or cutting a new one, is likewise outside the exemption and requires a permit. Ordinance No. 23-0465, effective 11-16-2023.
A replacement window here has to be U-0.35 or lower
Jefferson County Code Sec. 500.010 Adoption of Technical Codes adopts, by reference: International Building Code 2015, International Residential Building Code 2015, International Fire Code 2015, International Fuel Gas Code 2015, International Mechanical Code 2015, International Energy Conservation Code 2015, International Plumbing Code 2015, National Electric Code 2014 / Jefferson County Electrical Code 2017, International Swimming Pool and Spa Code 2015. The IECC is separately carried as Chapter 500 Article VII. Ordinance history: originally Ord. No. 11-0248 Sec. 1 (Art. I Sec. 1), 8-9-2011, amended by Ord. No. 17-0431 (9-28-2017), Ord. No. 17-0472 (10-27-2017) and Ord. No. 18-0499 (12-10-2018). Stated purpose: 'adoption of nationally recognized standard codes is necessary for the promotion of the public health, safety and welfare of Jefferson County, Missouri.'.
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
Jefferson County licenses named trades only. Chapter 500 Article I licensing sections: 500.070 Plumbing License, 500.080 On-Site Sewer System Installer License, 500.090 Sprinkler Fitter License, 500.100 Lawn Irrigation Installer License, 500.120 On-Site Soil Evaluator License, 500.130 On-Site Sewer System Designer License, 500.140 Electrical License, 500.160 Communications License, 500.180 Mechanical License. There is no general contractor, home improvement, siding, window or roofing licence. Sec. 500.190 provides for Homeowner Permits. Because siding and same-opening window replacement are permit-exempt in the first place, a siding/window contractor working unincorporated Jefferson County needs neither a county licence nor a permit.
Local quirks
A residing-and-windows job in Imperial needs no county building permit at all, provided the window openings and operation are unchanged. The 'operation do not change' clause is unique to Jefferson County within this group and is the trap: a like-for-like size swap that changes the window's operating type loses the exemption. Note also the split electrical adoption - NEC 2014 as modified by a locally written Jefferson County Electrical Code 2017. Permits and payments run through the Citizen Portal at civicgov4.com/mo_jeffersoncounty/portal; Code Enforcement is at 729 Maple Street, Hillsboro.
Who to call
- Building dept
- 636-797-5555
- Official
- Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.
- Permits
- Department page
Work we have done in Imperial
No completed job in Imperial on the books. Every other page on this site is sourced, so this one stays honest too.
Where these facts came from
Everything on this page about Imperial was read off a published source. Where a question has no published answer we have said so rather than filling the gap.
Sources: ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · jeffcomo.gov
Thinking about it in Imperial?
A measurement and a written scope costs you nothing and takes about an hour.
Tell us about the house
We answer the phone. If we miss you, we call back.