This is the page this whole site exists to reach. If you have decided that standing seam is right for your house, the next decision is who puts it on, and the honest answer in this market is that the number of contractors who genuinely install standing seam is much smaller than the number who will happily quote it. Here is how to tell them apart, and here is our own position, stated plainly.
Six things to ask a metal contractor, and what a good answer sounds like
1. Show me three standing seam roofs you have installed, with addresses. Not renderings, not manufacturer photography, not a commercial job from a different division. Houses, in this metro, that you can drive past. A specialist will have them and will be pleased to be asked. Anyone who cannot produce three is quoting a product they subcontract or have not done.
2. Do you own a seaming machine, or do you hire one. Either answer can be fine, but the question tells you a great deal in a second. Follow it with: which seam profile are you quoting, and what is the manufacturer's minimum slope for it.
3. Who fabricates the trim. Ridge, rake, valley, wall and counter flashing on a metal roof are folded metal. Ask whether it is shop fabricated for your roof from matching coil or bent on site, and ask to see a sample of a corner detail.
4. What is happening to my deck. Ask whether they intend to re-sheathe over plank decking, and if not, ask what they expect the finished panel to look like. A contractor who brings up oil canning before you do is a contractor who has installed these roofs.
5. Which underlayment, and is it rated for use under metal. High temperature membranes exist because ordinary ones are not appropriate under hot panels. Get the product name in writing along with where it is applied in full.
6. Show me the two warranty documents. There are always two and they are not the same thing. One is the coating manufacturer's finish warranty, covering chalk, fade and adhesion, written by the company that made the paint. The other is the contractor's own workmanship guarantee on the installation. Read both, note who stands behind each, and note what neither of them covers.
The questions that are not for a roofer at all
Some of the most consequential questions about a metal roof cannot be answered by anyone in roofing, and you should not accept a roofer's answer to them.
| Question | Ask |
|---|---|
| Does my policy exclude cosmetic damage on a metal roof | Your insurance agent or your carrier, in writing. A roofing contractor may not represent or negotiate on your claim under RSMo 407.725 and cannot interpret your policy for you. |
| Do I need a permit, and who pulls it | The building division for your municipality, or St. Louis County if you are unincorporated. Changing roofing material triggers a permit there, as does replacing more than a quarter of the decking. In St. Charles County, call the county building division for your address rather than relying on a published summary. |
| Is this contractor licensed | The municipality. Missouri has no statewide roofing licence. Bills to create one all failed, including SB 1022 in 2016, SB 153 in 2019 and SB 326 in 2021. Ballwin and Kirkwood run their own contractor licensing, so ask which jurisdictions the contractor is registered in. |
| Will my association allow it | Your subdivision trustees or association, before you order anything. Some covenants restrict roofing material. |
| Can I claim the deductible tax credit | A tax preparer, referencing RSMo 135.445, and soon: no new credits are authorised after 15 October 2026. |
| Someone offered to help with my claim for a fee | Public adjusters are a separate licensed profession under RSMo chapter 325 with no statutory fee cap, and RSMo 325.055 bars a public adjuster from also doing the repair work. Anyone offering both is worth a second look. |
Matching, and the deadline that is longer than you were told
Missouri has no matching law for roofs. There is no matching statute and no matching regulation requiring an insurer to make an undamaged part of your roof match a repaired part. The citation that circulates for this governs automobile body parts, not roofs, and it should not be quoted at you as though it applied. Whether you are owed a uniform result depends on the wording of your own policy. The relevant Missouri authority is case law: Alessi v. Mid-Century Insurance, 464 S.W.3d 529 (Mo. App. E.D. 2015).
On deadlines: the Missouri limitation period for suing an insurer on a written contract is ten years under RSMo 516.110(1), and RSMo 431.030 makes a contractual clause purporting to shorten that period null and void. If a letter tells you that a clause in your policy gives you one year to sue, that clause has a Missouri statute pointed at it. Take that to a lawyer, not to a roofer.
Sources named above: RSMo 407.725, RSMo 135.445, RSMo 516.110(1), RSMo 431.030, RSMo chapter 325 and RSMo 325.055, and Alessi v. Mid-Century Insurance, 464 S.W.3d 529 (Mo. App. E.D. 2015). Statutes are amended. Check the current text at the Missouri revisor of statutes before relying on any of it, and take legal questions to a lawyer.