Hiring a roofer inside Kansas City, Missouri

Jackson County's storm record

From 2016 through 2025, NOAA's Storm Events Database records 114 hail events of 1 inch or larger in Jackson County, 28 of them at 1.75 inches or more, across 29 separate days (NCEI). The county also logged 275 thunderstorm wind events and 15 tornadoes (NCEI).

• The largest hail of the decade, 3 inches, was reported at the Jackson County Sheriff's Office near Sibley on May 26, 2016, and stones reached 2.75 inches at Lone Jack on July 19, 2018.
• On September 18, 2010, hail up to 5.5 inches fell around the Independence Mall area, shattering skylights at the mall and leaving numerous vehicles in the parking lot with extensive hail damage.
• A hailstorm on April 3, 2011 left more than a thousand homes in Lee's Summit with damage to roofs, gutters and siding, with an estimated $7 million in losses.
• On March 6, 2017, a supercell that moved from eastern Kansas into the southern metro produced an EF3 tornado near Tarsney Lakes, with 12 injuries.

Jackson County is included in FEMA's major disaster declarations DR-4238 for the storms of spring 2015 and DR-4451 for those that began April 29, 2019.

What the city requires

Kansas City, Missouri, licenses contractors itself. According to the city's contractor licensing page, a company first gets a business license from the Finance Department, a qualified supervisor then earns a Certificate of Qualification in the trade, and only then can the business apply for its contractor license.

For roofing, the permit rules turn on the deck. The city's Code Questions page says:

• Replacing roofing material and underlayment, with no more than 32 square feet of new decking, does not require a permit.
• Replacing more than 32 square feet of decking requires a building permit, and the contractor must hold a current KCMO business license.
• Repairing or replacing rafters or other structural elements requires a scope-of-work review or a formal plan submittal, and the contractor needs a Residential Contractors license as well as the business license.

The city's list of permit-exempt work carries the same line in code form: reroofing a one- or two-family house with a light roof covering is exempt, but the exemption does not include replacing roof sheathing or deck, or structural changes. Exempt work still has to meet the Building and Rehabilitation Code.

The Residential Building Contractor license, according to the city's Information Bulletin 152, is required to construct, structurally alter or enlarge a one- or two-family house, and the company must employ a full-time manager who holds a Residential Building Supervisor certificate earned by passing a residential building exam. The city's licensed contractor search groups companies by license type and has no separate roofing category, so check the Residential Building Contractor list when a job includes structural work.

Independence, Lee's Summit and Blue Springs are separate cities, so ask each one's building department what it requires before a roofer starts.

Missouri's law on insurance-paid roofs

Missouri's RSMo 407.725 applies to anyone in the business of repairing or replacing roof systems, or doing other exterior work, on homes and commercial buildings:

1. A contractor may not advertise or promise to pay or rebate any part of your insurance deductible to win the job.
2. If you sign a contract to be paid from a property insurance claim, you may cancel before midnight on the fifth business day after the insurer tells you in writing that all or part of the claim is not a covered loss.
3. Before you sign, the contractor must give you a boldface cancellation statement and a completed Notice of Cancellation form, and after a cancellation it must return your payments and deposits within 10 days.
4. A contractor may not represent you or negotiate on your behalf on an insurance claim for roof repair or replacement.

Any violation is treated as an unfair practice under Missouri's merchandising practices act. The National Roofing Directory's Missouri roofing licensing page and Missouri storm center cover the rest of the state, and our home page compares these rules with the Kansas side.

Roofers in Kansas City and eastern Jackson County

The National Roofing Directory lists roofers in Kansas City, Missouri, roofers in Independence and roofers in Lee's Summit.

Frequently asked questions

Does Kansas City, Missouri, license roofers?

Not as a separate trade. A roofer needs a KCMO business license when a job requires a building permit, such as replacing more than 32 square feet of decking, and a Residential Contractors license when the work touches rafters or other structure, according to the city.

Can a roofer offer to cover my deductible in Missouri?

No. RSMo 407.725 bars contractors from advertising or promising to pay or rebate all or part of an insurance deductible as an inducement to buy their goods or services.

How large has hail been in Jackson County?

The largest stone in the county's record since 2000 is the 5.5-inch hail reported around the Independence Mall on September 18, 2010. In the last decade the biggest was 3 inches, near Sibley in 2016.