Window and siding replacement in Richmond Heights
What the code and the permit desk actually require here — and what the houses in Richmond Heights tend to be hiding behind the siding.
- People
- 9,096
- Homes
- 4,612
- Size
- 2.29 square miles
- From downtown
- About 7 miles west
- ZIP codes
- 63117
- Founded or incorporated
- 1913
Hadley Township was a Black neighborhood established in 1907 as workers' housing for the Evens & Howard Fire Brick Co.; annexed by Richmond Heights in 1918, it survived multiple redevelopment threats but was demolished in 2014 under a blight/eminent-domain study to make way for a Menards, with a historical marker placed in 2019.
Richmond Heights
Residential development began in the 1890s-1910s: developer Frederick Neisen acquired land in 1892, and John Rankin Dyer developed 120 acres after the 1904 World's Fair.
What that vintage turns up
No median build year is published for Richmond Heights. What follows is selected from its development history rather than from a figure, which is why no year appears on this page.
Windows of this age are wood, double-hung, and hung on cords and cast-iron weights running in pockets beside the jambs. They were built to be taken apart and repaired, and the part that fails first is the glazing putty, not the window. Once the putty goes the bottom rail and the sill start holding water, and the rot works down and outward from there. On a solid brick house the window sits in a masonry opening in a wood box frame, so replacing it is a flashing problem more than a window problem: there is no housewrap layer to lap into, which makes a site-built sill pan with a back dam the whole ballgame.
Most of what was built here before the war is solid brick, two or three wythes thick, and it cannot be sided. There is no stud, no sheathing and no cavity to work with — anything fastened to it means drilling through the one thing keeping the rain out, and the wall was designed to soak up water and dry it back out again rather than shed it. What these houses need is tuckpointing and lintel work, not cladding. The frame houses of the same age carry wood clapboard or shingle over board sheathing, and the rot on those is concentrated in the bottom two courses and the butt joints.
The one to watch on a house of this age
Steel lintels over the window and door openings rust, and rust takes up more room than steel did, so it lifts and cracks the brick courses sitting on top of it. If the brick above a window is stepping or the joint has opened, that is the lintel talking and no window will fix it.
Lead paint. Effectively certain. Anything of this age is a lead-paint job by default. 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.
Next door
Richmond Heights shares a boundary with St. Louis City. 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 Richmond Heights
Siding replacement Not published
No siding language published. The Building & Zoning page states the department 'issues permits for structures, such as for new homes, room additions, commercial building, fences, retaining walls, porches, and other remodeling jobs as well as demolition permits' — siding is not named. The Building Permit Application is described as covering 'New construction-commercial & residential; Remodeling/Additions; Demolition Permits; Decks; Sheds; Pergolas; Retaining walls; Fences; Pools; & Signs' and again does not name siding. The City's applications and guides page carries no 'when is a permit required' document.
Window replacement, same opening Not published Enlarging or cutting an opening Not published
Richmond Heights publishes no window replacement rule, and it has narrowed the model exempt list rather than expanded it. Its amendment to the 2024 IRC provides: 'Subsection R105.2 Work Exempt From Permit. Building: (page 29), Items #2 and #3 are hereby deleted without substitution,' and rewrites item #1 to read 'Other than storm shelters, one-story detached accessory structures used as tool and storage sheds, playhouses and similar uses, provided the floor area does not exceed one hundred (100) square feet.' No window or door replacement exemption is published, and the Building & Zoning FAQ page does not address siding or windows.
A replacement window here has to be U-0.28 or lower
City Code Section 500.130(A): 'The International Energy Conservation Code/2024 is hereby adopted and by this reference made a part of this Chapter as though set out in full herein.' Adopted by Ord. No. 5422 (7-1-2019) and most recently amended by Ord. No. 5572 (4-21-2025). The City's amendments to the IECC at Section 500.140(A) include construction-document and registered-design-professional requirements and, unusually, electric vehicle charging infrastructure requirements for new residential construction.
That figure comes from the 2024 edition this jurisdiction has adopted.
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
The City requires a contractor's license. Its Building & Zoning applications page publishes a 'Contractors License Application' (revised June 2025) alongside the building permit application, and City Code Chapter 505, Article III includes Section 505.110 'License Fee — Deposit — Exception — Revocation'.
What the permit costs
Building & Zoning FAQ: '$70.00 for the first $5,000 of construction costs and $7.00 per $1,000 thereafter.' Also 'Fence permits are $20.00; residential demolition permits are $50.00' and a residential occupancy permit is $20. Refundable construction deposits are required for larger work: 'The most common deposits required are for new homes ($3,000), room additions ($1,000) and house demolitions ($2,000).' Fees are set by City Code Section 505.100 (Fees — Permit, Inspection and Occupancy); IRC Subsection R108.2 is amended to point to that section.
Local quirks
Richmond Heights deletes two items from the model IRC exempt-from-permit list 'without substitution' and shrinks the accessory-structure exemption from the model 200 square feet to 100 square feet — it is the most permit-hungry jurisdiction in this metro by published text. Its code stack is oddly mixed in vintage: 2024 IRC (with the 2024 IRC Errata first printing dated May 2024), 2024 IBC, 2024 IPMC and 2024 IECC, but a 2015 International Mechanical Code, 2014 National Electrical Code and 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code. The IECC amendments add EV charging infrastructure requirements for new residential construction. There is also an 'RH Private Subdivision Form' among the building applications, indicating a private-subdivision/trustee review step.
Who to call
- Building dept
- 314-646-7658
- Official
- James Benedick, Building/Zoning Administrator (jbenedick@richmondheights.org)
- Permits
- Department page
How Richmond Heights 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond Heights | Not published | Not published | U-0.28 |
| 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 |
| Town and Country | Depends | No | — |
| Unincorporated St. Louis County | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
| University City | Depends | Yes | U-0.32 |
| Webster Groves | Yes | Yes | U-0.35 |
| Wildwood | Depends | Depends | U-0.34 |
Work we have done in Richmond Heights
None logged in Richmond Heights yet. When there is one it goes here, with the address block and what was actually done to it. An empty section is better than a number you cannot check.
Where these facts came from
Everything on this page about Richmond Heights was read off a published source. Where a question has no published answer we have said so rather than filling the gap.
Sources: richmondheights.org · richmondheights.org · richmondheights.org · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com
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