Des Peres Roof Bids: What Each Permit Application Leaves Out

Des Peres roof bids often arrive with a permit line that looks settled. The number is there, the word "permit" sits beside it, and the page moves on. The question worth asking is smaller and more specific: what exactly does each roofer's permit application describe? Two bids can carry the same permit line and still ask the city to review two different roofs. Before you compare totals, pull each application's scope and set it next to the bid it came with.

Des Peres is a city in St. Louis County, so the permit for your roof comes from the municipal office that serves your address. Confirm which office that is by calling it yourself, and ask each roofer which one they will file with. A roofer who says "we handle the permits" without naming the office has not answered the question yet.

Roofer comparison

Put each roofer's application scope in one column. Look for four things: the roof area the application states, the shingle product named, the underlayment, and the number of layers being removed. An application that says "reroof" with no area and no material tells the city very little, and it tells you very little about what the roofer plans to install. Keys Roofing installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only, so a Keys application should name one of those two lines. Ask every other roofer the same thing and write down the answer exactly as they give it.

Check the applicant name as well. The name on the application is the name the city will call back, and it should match the name on the contract and on the truck. Ask which person signs the application and which phone number the city will reach during the review. If the only answer is an office line nobody picks up on a weekday afternoon, the comparison has changed, and you should weigh that before you weigh price.

Missouri does not license roofers at the state level, so the permit application is one of the few written places where a roofer commits to a scope with a public record attached. Treat it as a working document rather than a formality. The city reads it, the inspector compares the roof against it, and you may need it years later when you sell the house or pull a later permit.

Keep the application in the same folder as the bid and the contract. When you compare two roofers, you are really comparing three documents for each one. A bid can promise a roof that the application does not describe, and a contract can promise a warranty on a shingle the application never names. Lining the three up side by side takes about ten minutes and often shows the gap before the crew does.

What it costs

Permit fees on St. Louis County roof jobs are set by the municipal office that issues them, and some offices calculate the fee from the value of the work rather than from the square count. That means two roofers quoting the same house can show different permit amounts for reasons that have nothing to do with their crews. Ask each roofer how their permit line was figured and whether it is the current city figure or an estimate they carried forward from an older job.

Some offices charge a plan review fee that sits apart from the permit fee. Some charge a re-inspection fee if a first final inspection does not pass. Neither charge appears on every bid, and a missing line does not mean the charge will never come. Ask each roofer to list every government charge on the bid by name, and to say which ones are included in the total and which you would pay directly to the city.

Reading the cost this way keeps the comparison honest. A lower total can come from a smaller permit line that covers a smaller scope, or from a plan review line that was left off and will arrive after you have already signed. The permit line is not a discount. It is a fact about the city's paperwork, and it should match the roof being built.

Ask also how the permit fee behaves if the job changes after the application is filed. If the square count rises because the deck needs more plywood than the first measurement showed, the permit may need an amendment. Find out whether the roofer pays for that amendment, whether you do, and how long the city takes to act on it. A roofer who answers this plainly is giving you a comparison point that the price alone will not show.

What to ask

Take these questions to each roofer in the same order, and write each answer down in the roofer's own words:

1. Which municipal office will receive the permit application for my address in Des Peres, and who at that office will you call if the review stalls?
2. What roof area, shingle product and number of layers does the application list, and does it match the square count on my bid?
3. Who is named as applicant, and who signs the application?
4. Is the permit fee on my bid the current city figure, or an estimate, and how was it calculated?
5. Is there a separate plan review fee, and if so, is it on my bid?
6. If the first final inspection does not pass, who pays for the re-inspection, and how long does a re-inspection usually wait for a date?
7. When will I receive a copy of the issued permit, and where will you keep the inspection record?

Write the answers beside the question they answer, not in a separate notes file. If a roofer says the application will be filed "after you sign," ask what date they expect that to happen and put the date in writing. The filing date starts the city's review, and the roof date on your calendar should follow from it, not the other way around.

Ask each roofer who will be on site when the inspector arrives. Some roofers send a foreman, some send the estimator, and some send nobody and expect the homeowner to meet the inspector. None of these is wrong by itself, but the answer tells you who can answer a question about the roof on the day it matters.

When the application and the bid disagree

If an application lists a smaller area than the bid, or names a different shingle line, ask which document the roofer plans to follow on the day. Do not accept "the permit is just paperwork" as the answer. The permit is the city's record of what was approved, and the inspector will compare the finished roof against it. A mismatch found at final inspection causes a bigger delay than a question asked now, and it can leave the roofer and the homeowner arguing about who should have caught it.

Ask for the mismatch to be corrected in writing, both on the application and on the bid, with the date of each correction. Keep the earlier version too, so you can see what changed and when. A comparison is easier to trust when each roofer's documents tell the same story from start to finish, and when any change to the story is written down where you can find it.

Do not treat a permit disagreement as a reason to pick the roofer with the lower number. A low total built on a smaller application may leave a gap that shows up at inspection, on the homeowner's own schedule. Compare the applications as carefully as the prices, and let the paperwork settle which bid describes the roof you want.

If you want a second read on an application before you sign, Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333, and the office can walk through the scope line by line. Bring the bid, the lot address, and your list of questions, and write down each answer as it is given.