Siding Repair in St. Louis

Patch or replace: what decides it

Four questions settle most siding repairs:

• How much is damaged, and where? A few panels on one wall is a repair. Damage on several walls is heading toward a re-side.
• Is the siding still made? If you can still buy the same make, profile and color, a repair is simple. If not, see the matching section below.
• What is behind it? A torn barrier, missing flashing or soft sheathing changes the job. A repair that only replaces the face is cosmetic.
• Why did it fail? Impact damage is a parts job. Vinyl that ripples in summer has often been nailed too tight, and the cure is rehanging it, not buying new. Blistering paint on fiber cement is moisture coming from behind, so the water gets fixed first.

Then check your city. Some use a dollar line rather than a list: Ballwin wants a permit for work over $100, Collinsville exempts minor repairs under $500, and Granite City's line is $800 (permits by city).

How each siding material comes apart for a repair

• Vinyl. Panels lock into each other, so one can come out without disturbing the wall. The vinyl industry's installation manual describes it: a zip tool unlocks the panel above, the damaged panel's nails come out, the new panel locks in and is nailed, and the panel above is zipped back down. A damaged corner post can be fixed by cutting away its face and fitting a new one over what is left, with a rivet at the top on each side. New nails go in the center of the slots and are never driven tight, so the panel can still move.
• Fiber cement. Boards are normally blind-nailed, hidden under the course above, so a repair has to work around the board overhead; the maker's fastening bulletin covers face nailing for repairs. On factory-finished boards, the maker says to use touch-up paint sparingly and to replace the damaged area with new board when large areas need it. Cut edges are sealed before a board goes up.
• Engineered wood. Water gets in at cut ends and anywhere the factory coating is broken, so a repair is only as good as the sealing of its cuts (engineered wood siding).
• Painted wood. Clapboards can be replaced board by board, but for a house built before 1978, the lead rule sets the method; see the section on older houses.

Matching siding that is no longer made

Matching is the hard part of most repairs. Siding lines, profiles and colors get discontinued, and even the same product bought new can look different beside panels that have weathered for years. Start by pinning down what you have: the maker, the line, the profile and the color name. Leftover cartons in the garage or basement may carry all four.

When the original is gone, borrow from the house itself. Take matching pieces off a wall nobody looks at, such as the back of the house, a garage side or the wall behind a deck, and use them to repair the wall people do see. The hidden wall then gets the closest product still sold, where the difference will not show. The trade-off is one wall with newer siding on it, so make that choice knowingly.

Some local rules care about the match. Florissant exempts re-siding from a permit only when the new covering looks like the old one in color, texture and profile (Florissant). In St. Charles, historic properties are held to the federal preservation standards, which put repair ahead of replacement and want any replacement to look like the original in design, color and texture, in the same material where it can be had.

Hail and wind damage

Hail has its own page, because on a St. Louis claim the argument tends to be about matching more than about damage: hail damage and siding. Wind damage looks different. Vinyl panels unlock and come off, sometimes a course at a time, and whatever was behind them is suddenly out in the rain.

When panels blow off, look at how the rest of the wall was hung before snapping anything back on. The vinyl industry manual calls for panels fully locked along their bottom edge, a fastener at least every 16 inches on horizontal siding, and fasteners long enough to reach 1-1/4 inches into nailable material. It also notes that siding made under the industry's program carries a wind-load design pressure rating on the panel or its carton, so a replacement panel can be checked against the original. A repair that clips panels back over the same short or sparse nailing is waiting for the next storm.

Photograph everything before it is touched, close up and from far enough back to show which wall it is. Those pictures are yours, for your insurer, whoever does the work.

Rot found behind the siding

Taking siding off for a repair is often the first time anyone has seen that part of the wall in decades, and that is when soft sheathing turns up. It tends to sit where water is delivered: under windows and doors, below a roof-to-wall intersection with no kickout flashing, along the bottom courses near the ground or a deck, and behind downspouts.

A repair that covers rot is not a repair. Cut out the soft material back to solid wood. Find what let the water in and fix that. Replace any studs the rot has reached. Only then rebuild the water-resistive barrier and flashing, lapped so water runs out and down, and put the siding back. Fiber cement goes back with its clearances kept: two inches above a roof and six above the ground, and the maker's instructions also want the ground outside sloping away from the house, typically 6 inches over the first 10 feet.

We price rot on a repair the same way as on a re-side: by the square foot of sheathing that really has to come out, agreed before work starts rather than added to the final bill. See the siding materials guide for why the barrier behind the siding matters more than the siding itself.

Insurance: what we do, and what the law rules out

You file your claim and you deal with your insurer. Missouri law is specific about the contractor's side: a contractor doing exterior work may not represent or negotiate for a homeowner on an insurance claim, or offer or advertise to (RSMo 407.725.6). What we do is inspect, measure and photograph the damage, identify the siding, and give you written documentation and an estimate to send to your insurer.

The same statute bars a contractor from advertising or promising to pay or rebate any part of a deductible, including through discounts, credits or gifts (407.725.2). An estimate or invoice padded to cover a deductible is a false statement in support of a claim, which Missouri treats as a fraudulent insurance act (RSMo 375.991) and Illinois as insurance fraud (720 ILCS 5/17-10.5). We will not do it.

Two protections worth knowing. In Missouri, a contract signed for insurance-paid work can be cancelled if your insurer later writes to say it will not pay for some or all of it; you have up to midnight of the fifth business day after you receive that letter (407.725.3). In Illinois, when your contractor's written estimate is higher than the insurer's on a homeowners claim, the insurer has to answer promptly in writing and name a contractor who will do the work properly, or else tell you in writing that reasonable costs above its estimate will be reimbursed (50 Ill. Adm. Code 919.80).

Older houses: lead paint and asbestos-cement siding

On a house built before 1978, EPA's lead rule lets a small outside job off when the paint it disturbs adds up to 20 square feet or less, but two details catch siding repairs. When a painted part is removed, its whole area counts as disturbed, and demolition of painted surfaces never qualifies for the exemption (40 CFR 745.83). Pulling painted wood clapboards is that kind of work, so a repair on painted wood siding is likely to come under the full rule (lead paint rule). Where vinyl hangs over old painted wood, cutting into the old wood disturbs paint, and the same limits apply.

Asbestos-cement siding, common on houses here built before about 1980, is a different hazard. Left whole on the wall it is classed as non-friable; it only becomes a regulated material once it is broken, cut, sanded or pressure-washed. A shingle that looks like asbestos-cement should be tested before anyone repairs, cuts or replaces it. Missouri's exemption for a single home of four units or fewer removes paperwork, not risk, and the vinyl industry's own manual says to contact the environmental agency or building official before siding over it.

When repair stops making sense

Patching earns its keep while the damage is contained and the siding is still made, or can be borrowed from a hidden wall. It stops making sense when:

• damage is spread over several walls, or the same areas keep failing;
• the barrier behind the siding is torn or missing across large areas, which can only be fixed with the siding off;
• no match exists and no hidden wall is big enough to borrow from;
• the material is worn out everywhere rather than damaged in one spot, such as vinyl gone brittle or aluminum that has chalked and dented all over.

At that point the comparison is with siding replacement in vinyl, fiber cement or engineered wood. For scale, this region's 2025 Cost vs Value figures are $18,907 for the report's vinyl siding project and $23,470 for its fiber cement one. Either way, the written scope says which job you are getting and why.

Common questions about siding repair in St. Louis

Where we work

Siding repair across greater St. Louis, from the city and St. Louis County out to St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin Counties and across the river into the Metro East. Each city has its own page with the permit rule and code edition that apply there: