In Manchester, 95% of the 7,423 homes were built before 2000. We replace and repair roofs here and inspect after hail, starting with a free, photographed inspection.
Manchester runs to about 5.03 square miles and roughly 18,333 people. It sits about 18 miles west of downtown St. Louis. The community dates back to 1950. We cover ZIP codes 63011, 63021 and 63088.
No completed roof in Manchester is logged in our job records yet.
Manchester was incorporated as a village in 1950 and became a fourth-class city in 1959, so essentially all of its housing is postwar.
Manchester was named by an English settler after Manchester, England. Its USPS ZIP codes carry the place names Ballwin (63011, 63021) and Valley Park (63088), a common St. Louis County quirk where postal city names do not match municipal boundaries.
From this stretch of building, houses in Manchester sit on plywood or OSB, were first roofed in three-tab shingles, and are mostly on their second roof now. Trouble tends to be at the penetrations rather than across the field: the rubber collar on a pipe boot splits years before the shingles give out, and it is the leak we trace most often. Ridge vents were hit and miss in these decades, and OSB that stays damp for a season softens in a way plywood does not, something you feel underfoot rather than see from the yard.
Manchester has 7,423 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1977. 96 of them (1%) went up before 1940 — 39th of 48 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 347 (5%) in 2000 or later. The 1970s were the busiest decade, adding 3,026 of today's homes (41%). (St. Louis County as a whole: 10% before 1940.)
Missouri's Department of Commerce and Insurance puts the useful life of a roof at usually about 25 years. By that measure, 95% of Manchester's homes — the 7,076 built before 2000 — are past their first roof, and 23% (1,672 homes) go back before 1970, two roof lives and more. Homes from the 2000s (220 in Manchester) are reaching their first replacement, while the 127 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with.
73% of homes in Manchester are single-family detached houses (5,387) and 5% attached ones such as townhouses (386). 643 homes (9%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 1,007 (14%) in buildings of ten units or more, where the roof is usually a landlord's or an association's decision. 5,457 of 7,279 occupied homes (75%) are lived in by their owners. On a housing mix like this, the likely work is replacements on roofs from the 1970s to the 1990s.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 96 | 1% | |
| 1940s | 39 | 1% | |
| 1950s | 309 | 4% | |
| 1960s | 1,228 | 17% | |
| 1970s | 3,026 | 41% | |
| 1980s | 1,600 | 22% | |
| 1990s | 778 | 10% | |
| 2000s | 220 | 3% | |
| 2010s | 71 | 1% | |
| 2020 or later | 56 | 1% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 7,423 homes, 7,279 occupied. Survey estimates.
Between 2016 and 2025 there were 16 reports of 1-inch-plus hail within 5 miles of Manchester’s center in the records of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, on 8 separate days. 2 of them were 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 1.75 inches, came on May 19, 2025, about 4.7 miles east of the center. A report needs someone to see the hail and send it in, so the count is a floor, not a full tally.
| Latest reports | Size | From center |
|---|---|---|
| May 19, 2025 | 1.75 inches | 4.7 mi E |
| May 19, 2025 | 1 inch | 4.9 mi NE |
| May 16, 2025 | 1 inch | 5 mi NE |
| May 16, 2025 | 1.25 inches | 4.2 mi N |
| May 16, 2025 | 1 inch | 4.8 mi N |
A bruised shingle can look fine for a season or two, which is why a storm inspection after a date like these is worth having.
Manchester has not published an answer on re-roof permits. The building department (314-615-5184) gets the question from us before work starts, and any permit it wants is part of our job.
Manchester does not publish the code edition it currently enforces, so this page does not name one. Editions across the metro run from the 2006 IRC to the 2024 IRC — worth asking any contractor which one they are building to.
The published number is 314-615-5184. Manchester does not publish the building official's name, so this page does not name one. Plenty of sites will show you one anyway. The department page is here.
Manchester shares the metro's figures: 115 mph design wind, 20 psf ground snow. The code guide explains both.
Also in St. Louis County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester | Not published | Not published | 1977 |
| Affton | Conditional | 2015 IRC | 1958 |
| Ballwin | Yes | 2015 I-Codes (2024 I-Codes proposed for 2026) | 1976 |
| Brentwood | Not published | 2024 IRC | 1956 |
| Chesterfield | Not published | 2015 IBC / 2015 IRC | 1982 |
| Clayton | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1954 |
| Creve Coeur | Not published | 2009 IRC | 1980 |
All 21 St. Louis County cities side by side →
Manchester does not publish a clear answer either way. We confirm it with the building department before starting and pull whatever is required.
Median year built 1977, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 7,423 homes, 7,076 were built before 2000 and 96 before 1940, so most roofs in Manchester are not the first one the house has had.
Yes. The most recent report of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Manchester's center was 1.75 inches on May 19, 2025, one of 16 such reports from 2016 through 2025.
Not yet: no completed roof in Manchester is in our job records, so this page shows no job count.
Researched 2026-09-09; housing, Census ACS 2020–2024; hail, NOAA SPC. Sources: manchestermo.gov · www.manchestermo.gov · ecode360.com · en.wikipedia.org · www.zipdatamaps.com · www.bestplaces.net · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
