Check the Flood Map Before You Set a Roof Date

Many homeowners in St. Charles County think of flood maps as a question for the mortgage company. They are also a roofing question. The same map a lender uses shows whether your address sits in a mapped special flood hazard area, and in that case the permit desk may review a roof job differently than the same job two streets over. This page covers how to check the map yourself in about ten minutes, what the zone does and does not change about a reroof, and what a written bid should say once you know the answer.

Find your address on the public map

The Federal Emergency Management Agency publishes the National Flood Hazard Layer through its Flood Map Service Center, and the search box accepts a street address. The result shows a flood zone designation for your parcel. Zones beginning with A or V are special flood hazard areas. Zone X is outside the mapped high-risk area, although it can still take water during a heavy rain. Save or print the panel number that appears with the result, because the permit desk will ask for it.

Along the Missouri River bottoms and the creek corridors that drain toward it, including the Dardenne and Peruque basins, a lot can sit inside a mapped zone while the house on the next rise does not. Do not rely on a neighbor's answer. Check your own parcel, because the boundary follows ground elevation, not the street.

Two records can change the answer. A Letter of Map Amendment or Letter of Map Revision may have been issued for your property after the current panel was published. An elevation certificate may already be in the city or county file for your house. Either one is a record the permit desk can search faster than you can. Ask for both by parcel number before you assume the map is current.

What the zone changes about a reroof

A flood zone does not, by itself, stop a roof replacement or require the roof to be redesigned. Typical reroofs are maintenance on an existing structure. They do not add floor area or move the foundation. What the zone does is bring the local floodplain ordinance into the permit review. Many jurisdictions require a floodplain development permit for work in the mapped area, and some ask for a short form even when the roof is the only thing changing. The rules are local, so the permit desk for your city or the county is the authority on your address, not a general rule.

The number that decides most of these cases is the cost threshold. Under the National Flood Insurance Program, when the cost of improvements to a building in a special flood hazard area reaches half of its market value, the building is treated as a substantial improvement and has to meet current floodplain standards. That can mean elevating or floodproofing the structure. A reroof alone rarely reaches that line on a typical house. The risk is stacking work. A roof bid that travels with a new deck, a dormer, a porch rebuild and a siding job can add up inside the same permit year. Ask the permit desk how it counts work done in the same period, and get the answer in writing.

What the bid should say once you know

Once you have the zone and the permit answer, the written bid should show both. Ask the roofer to name the permit they are pulling, the office that issues it, and whether the bid assumes any floodplain paperwork. If the bid says nothing on the subject, that is a question to settle before you sign, not after the crew arrives. A line that says the permit is the owner's responsibility is something you can compare across bids, and so is a line that says the contractor will pull it.

The scope should also say how staging is handled inside the zone. Materials, a debris bin and a trailer sitting in a low yard during a wet spring raise the same storage questions as anywhere else, but a yard that drains toward the creek makes the answer matter more. Ask where the bundles will wait and where the bin will sit, and ask for both locations in the scope rather than as a verbal assurance. Keys Roofing puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, so one document can show the permit, the zone reference and the staging plan together.

Questions to put to each roofer

• Which permit will you pull for this address, and from which desk?
• Does your bid assume any floodplain development paperwork, or does it exclude it?
• If the parcel sits in a mapped zone, does any other line item in the scope change?
• Where will the bundles and the debris bin sit, and does that spot drain toward the house or away from it?
• Will you put the permit number in the written scope before we set a start date?

Ask your insurer your own question

Flood insurance is a separate policy from homeowners coverage, and a roofer cannot advise you on it. If your parcel sits in a mapped zone, ask your agent or your lender what coverage exists for the structure, and read the policy yourself. Keep the flood zone printout, the panel number and any elevation certificate in the same folder as the roof bid. That folder is the record of what was known and when, and you are the one who keeps it.

If you want a second read on the map for your address, call Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333 and ask the office what the crew needs to see on the permit before a start date is set. The map is public and the permit desk's answer is written down, so collect both before the bid is final.