What it actually takes to insulate a house in Richmond Heights: the energy code the city enforces and the attic R-value that comes with it, the permit position, the rebate your address qualifies for, and the vintage of the housing here.
Richmond Heights runs to about 2.3 square miles and roughly 9,096 people. It sits about 7 miles west of downtown St. Louis. That is roughly 4,612 housing units, and the attic above almost all of them is the cheapest thing in the house left to fix. The community dates back to 1913. We cover ZIP code 63117.
Our job history shows nothing in Richmond Heights so far. Plenty of sites will show you a number here anyway.
Residential development began in the 1890s-1910s: developer Frederick Neisen acquired land in 1892, and John Rankin Dyer developed 120 acres after the 1904 World's Fair; the city incorporated in 1913.
That includes Hadley Township. Housing age and construction shift across Richmond Heights, sometimes by decades within a few streets, which is why we look in the attic before quoting rather than after.
Hadley Township was a Black neighborhood established in 1907 as workers' housing for the Evens & Howard Fire Brick Co.; annexed by Richmond Heights in 1918, it survived multiple redevelopment threats but was demolished in 2014 under a blight/eminent-domain study to make way for a Menards, with a historical marker placed in 2019.
Housing of this age in Richmond Heights was built before insulation was a line item. The walls are typically empty — brick with a furred-out plaster interior, or balloon-framed timber with cavities that run uninterrupted from the sill all the way to the attic, which is why the top floor of an old house here is cold in a way that no amount of attic fibre fixes on its own. Whatever is in the attic went in later, often over the tops of the joists and often over the top of everything else that had been up there first. We expect open chases behind knee walls, plaster-and-lath ceilings that leak air at every fixture, and balloon cavities that need blocking before anything is blown. Two things we look for before quoting a house this old: loose grey-brown flakes in the attic, and cloth-covered wiring on ceramic knobs.
Richmond Heights enforces the 2024 IECC. The city's International Energy Conservation Code article adopts the International Energy Conservation Code/2024. The article carries Ordinance No. 5422 dated 7-1-2019 and Ordinance No. 5572 dated 4-21-2025, the later ordinance bringing the adopted edition up to 2024. The amendments substitute Richmond Heights entities for the code's references to the jurisdiction, the Department of Building Safety and the code official, and replace the code's means of appeals with a three-member Board of Appeals. The city also adds Section R404.5 requiring electric vehicle charging infrastructure in new residential construction.
Under that edition the required attic value for new work here is R-49, and walls R-30, or R-20 plus R-5 continuous, or R-13 plus R-10 continuous, or R-0 plus R-20 continuous. For comparison, the Department of Energy recommends R60 for an uninsulated attic in this climate zone and R49 where there are already a few inches up there.
2024 IECC residential R-value alternative table, climate zone 4. The Illinois Capital Development Board's cost-effectiveness study of the 2024 IECC residential provisions states that ceiling insulation in Table R402.1.3 was reduced from R-60 to R-49 in climate zones 4 through 8; NAHB's summary of significant changes from the 2018 to the 2024 IECC gives the climate zone 4 and 5 wood frame wall requirement as 'R-20&5ci, R-13&10ci, 30, or 0&20ci'.
There is no published answer for Richmond Heights. Neither the permit-required list nor the exemption list mentions insulation or air sealing at all. That is the normal state of affairs across this metro — only a handful of the 45 jurisdictions on this site say anything about it at all. The Building Department FAQ lists decks, fences, garages, room additions, kitchen and bathroom remodels, driveway replacement involving the public sidewalk or apron, and residential and commercial demolition as requiring permits. Insulation, air sealing and weatherization are not mentioned. The department's published application list includes no insulation or weatherization permit or guide. That silence is not permission and it is not a prohibition. We settle it with a phone call before the crew is scheduled.
The published number is 314-646-7658. The department page is here.
Permitting is on us, not on you.
Richmond Heights is on the Missouri side, which for most addresses means Ameren Missouri — and Ameren Missouri does not hand out a straight per-square-foot insulation rebate the way its Illinois sister utility does. What it runs instead is Pay As You Save: a free home energy assessment, then the work installed by a programme partner and paid back through a fixed monthly charge on the electric bill, which cannot exceed 80% of the estimated monthly saving, so the bill still comes down while it is being repaid. No loan and no credit check.
Published incentives inside that programme for the 2026 programme year are $0.20 per square foot on ceiling and attic insulation, $0.06 per square foot on air sealing, and 50% of costs up to $250 per home on duct sealing. Each one has a condition attached, and they matter:
Ameren Missouri also runs CommunitySavers, which installs attic insulation at no charge for income-eligible households. The program operates through December 31, 2026; incentives are dependent on available funds.
Spire, the gas utility on this side, lists furnace, water heater and thermostat rebates on its Missouri rebate page rather than a standalone insulation one. Its published route to attic insulation and air sealing is the same on-bill Pay As You Save programme, which it co-delivers, plus income-based weatherization. If you are a Spire customer it is worth ringing them to ask what is open this year, because that page moves.
If the household income qualifies, the work can be free rather than discounted. St. Louis County is served by Community Action Agency of St. Louis County (CAASTLC) under the Missouri low-income weatherization program — 314-863-0015, details here.
One more, by its absence: the federal 25C credit, which covered 30% of insulation and air sealing up to $1,200 a year, ended for anything placed in service after 31 December 2025. Work finished on or before that date is still claimed on that year's return; nothing done in 2026 is. It should not be in your 2026 price, whoever tells you otherwise — the rebate guide has the detail.
Richmond Heights sits in all eight counties are iecc 2021 climate zone 4 on the same map the Department of Energy uses to write its recommendations, which is why the figure it recommends for an attic here is R60 rather than something borrowed from a national advert. Heating and cooling both matter at this latitude. The energy code and rebate guide sets out the numbers behind it.
Richmond Heights borders St. Louis City. These are the ones we also cover, each with its own energy code and permit rule:
Elsewhere in St. Louis County we also cover:
Missouri sets none of this at state level, so the number that was right one municipality over is not automatically right here.
| City | Energy code | Attic R required | Permit to insulate | Building dept. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affton | 2015 IECC | R-49 | Not for an attic top-up | 314-615-5184 |
| Ballwin | Not published | — | Not published | 636-227-2129 |
| Brentwood | 2024 IECC | R-49 | Not published | 314-963-8602 |
| Chesterfield | Not published | — | Not published | 636-537-4000 |
| Clayton | 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 314-290-8463 |
| Creve Coeur | 2015 IECC | R-49 | Not published | 314-872-2500 |
| Des Peres | 2018 IRC ch. 11 | R-49 | Not published | 314-835-6130 |
| Ellisville | 2015 IRC ch. 11 | R-49 | Not published | 636-227-9660 |
| Eureka | 2018 IRC ch. 11 | R-49 | Not published | 636-938-5233 |
| Florissant | 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 314-839-7648 |
| Kirkwood | 2021 IECC | R-60 | Not published | 314-822-5823 |
| Manchester | Not published | — | Not published | 314-615-5184 |
| Maryland Heights | 2015 IECC | R-49 | Not published | 314-291-6550 |
| Mehlville | Not published | — | Not for an attic top-up | 314-615-5184 |
| Oakville | 2015 IECC | R-49 | Not for an attic top-up | 314-615-5184 |
| Unincorporated St. Louis County | 2015 IECC | R-49 | Not for an attic top-up | 314-615-5184 |
| Town and Country | 2018 IRC ch. 11 | R-49 | Not published | 314-587-2820 |
| University City | 2018 IECC | R-49 | Not published | — |
| Webster Groves | Not published | — | Not published | 314-963-5300 |
| Wildwood | Not published | — | Not for an attic top-up | 636-458-0440 |
Free assessment. We check for vermiculite and knob-and-tube before anything else, and tell you either way.
The code edition Richmond Heights enforces sets R-49 for new work. The Department of Energy separately recommends R60 for an uninsulated attic in this climate zone, and R49 where a few inches are already there.
Richmond Heights has not published a rule for it. In practice that means one call to the building department before the job starts, which is on us rather than on you.
For most addresses here the route is Ameren Missouri's Pay As You Save programme, which publishes $0.20 per square foot on ceiling and attic insulation and $0.06 per square foot on air sealing for the 2026 programme year. Both carry conditions: the attic has to start at R-20 or below and reach at least R-38, and the air sealing has to cut leakage by at least 20 percent. The incentives sit inside tier 4 of the programme and need you to have lived in the home for the past twelve months, and they are recovered through a monthly charge on the electric bill rather than paid as a cheque. Income-eligible households can get attic insulation at no charge through CommunitySavers instead. The federal 25C credit ended for work placed in service after 31 December 2025.
Not yet. We have no completed job logged in Richmond Heights, and we would rather say so than put a number on this page that is not real.
Neither state licenses insulation contractors as a trade. In Missouri there is no statewide residential code at all, and registration is imposed city by city — several metro municipalities require a contractor to be registered with them before a permit is pulled. What matters more in practice is utility programme enrolment, because that is what decides whether your rebate is real.
Energy code, permit and department details for Richmond Heights come from the jurisdiction's own published pages and codified ordinances. Rebate figures come from the utility's own published incentive tables and carry the programme year they were verified in. Housing-age figures are ACS-derived medians republished by housing-data services, so treat them as approximate. Sources: ecode360.com · richmondheights.org · richmondheights.org · cdb.illinois.gov · nahb.org · data.mo.gov · richmondheights.org · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · en.wikipedia.org · censusreporter.org · richmondheights.org · en.wikipedia.org · city-data.com · ameren.com · ameren.com · ameren.com · ameren.com · energy.gov. Adopted code editions, department phone numbers and utility rebate amounts all change — confirm with the jurisdiction or the utility before relying on anything here.