Wichita, KS
There is no Kansas Building Code. There is a Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance, and it names drip edge directly
No state agency in Kansas publishes a residential building code, so a citation that just says "Kansas code" is citing something that does not exist. What actually governs a re-roof at a Wichita address is the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, adopted jointly by the City and the County and enforced by the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department. That ordinance adopted the 2018 International Residential Code, and its Section R905.2.8.5 states without condition that a drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. A first estimate missing the rake run is missing part of a code requirement that is easy to name and easy to check.
By Kyle Hamrick, Founder
A citation that names "Kansas code" and stops has named nothing a Wichita building department can look up. The document that actually governs the address is the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, and naming it correctly is the difference between an argument that holds and one that gets waved off.
The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, with claims experience across many states, writing for contractors nationwide. What we bring to a Wichita file is code mechanism, carrier behavior, and claim pattern, confirmed for the address rather than assumed from a statewide rule. More about Kyle.
One ordinance, one edition, one section number
Kansas leaves the decision to the city, and Wichita and Sedgwick County made it jointly
The Kansas Office of the State Fire Marshal enforces exactly one code mandatory across the entire state, the Kansas Fire Prevention Code, and it governs fire safety rather than general residential construction. There is no statewide residential building code standing behind it. The City of Wichita and the Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners closed that gap for their own jurisdiction by adopting a single joint document, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, enforced by the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department.
That joint code adopted the International Residential Code, 2018 edition. Unlike a metro that splits across several separate city and county documents, an address inside Wichita and an address in unincorporated Sedgwick County both answer to the same ordinance, which makes the citation itself simple to get right and just as simple to get wrong by naming a state code that does not exist instead.
R905.2.8.5 is unconditional in the edition Wichita actually adopted
Drip edge requirements are not uniform across every version of the IRC in force somewhere in the country. Some jurisdictions run an edition where this section was deleted outright and later restored only on a manufacturer-instruction condition. The 2018 edition, the one the Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance actually adopted, carries no such condition. Section R905.2.8.5 states plainly that a drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs, full stop.
Checking which edition governs before citing a section is not a formality here. It is the entire difference between an argument that holds on this roof and one built for a jurisdiction two code cycles away.
Older Wichita housing stock carries a different set of gaps than newer suburbs nearby
Wichita's older central-city neighborhoods carry roof assemblies, attic ventilation systems, and flashing details that predate the current Unified Building and Trade Code, while incorporated cities around the metro such as Derby, Andover, Maize, and Goddard have grown largely under more recent construction. That age gap does not show up as a citywide percentage worth quoting, but it does show up address by address once a permit is pulled for full replacement and the existing assembly gets measured against what is currently required rather than what stood when the house was built.
What the Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance actually says, read directly
The adopting document and the office that enforces it
The Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code is adopted by the Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners jointly with the City of Wichita, and it is enforced by the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department for both the incorporated city and the surrounding county. Verify with local building dept Confirm the current compiled edition and any local amendments directly with MABCD before citing a section number in writing.
Drip edge, named and unconditional
Section R905.2.8.5 of the adopted 2018 International Residential Code requires a drip edge at both eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Nothing in that section's 2018 text conditions the requirement on a manufacturer instruction or any other trigger. An estimate that prices eave metal only, or that treats rake metal as optional trim, has not matched what this specific ordinance requires.
How far a repair can go before it becomes a full replacement
Kansas grants no statewide rule for when a repair crosses a threshold that pulls the whole roof up to current code. Whether that threshold exists for a Wichita or Sedgwick County address, and what percentage triggers it, rides on the specific existing-building provisions inside the Unified Building and Trade Code. Verify with local building dept Get the current threshold directly from MABCD rather than importing a number that applies in a different Kansas jurisdiction.
Naming a carrier is not the same as naming the code
State Farm, Shelter, Farmers, and American Family are all active carriers in the Wichita homeowners market, alongside the national names that write across the rest of Kansas. None of that roster tells you anything about how a given adjuster on a given file will scope a given roof, and a supplement built on a claim about how an insurer behaves is standing on nothing. What is checkable is the ordinance itself: whether the estimate in front of you names the Wichita-Sedgwick code, cites the edition actually adopted, and prices drip edge at both eaves and rakes the way Section R905.2.8.5 requires. That is a documentation gap, not an accusation, and it is the same gap on every carrier's file regardless of which name is on the letterhead.
The correction is a habit, not an argument: confirm the governing document before writing a code citation, price the full perimeter rather than the visible run, and check the attic ventilation ratio against the specific square footage rather than assuming either compliance or failure. When a file has gone quiet behind an estimate that never named the governing ordinance in the first place, the reinspection supplement rebuilds the file once the correct ordinance and section are on the record. Where the dispute is about depreciation rather than scope, depreciation recovery is the separate track.
What gets recovered on a Wichita roof file
Ordered by how often the item is missing when a file reaches our desk.
Status key: In scope. Usually omitted. Code driven. Verify with the authority having jurisdiction. Every status is spelled out in words beside the item, so nothing depends on color.
Full perimeter drip edge at both eaves and rakes
Code driven
Section R905.2.8.5 of the 2018 International Residential Code, as adopted into the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, states without condition that a drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. A first estimate that prices eave metal but skips the rake run is pricing part of one code-required item rather than the whole thing.
Ridge cap and hip cap priced as a full run, not a partial patch
Usually omitted
Wind ahead of a hail-producing storm front puts uplift on the ridge first, and a Wichita roof commonly shows cracked or lifted cap on the windward elevation while the rest of the run reads intact from the ground. A ground-level survey prices the visible section and misses the elevation that actually failed.
Deck-level fastening and panel replacement checked once the field is stripped
In scope
A shingle field can absorb a heavy hail pass and still hide a cracked panel or a fastener pattern that never held the way it should have underneath it, and there is no way to see either problem from above until the tear-off crew has the sheathing exposed. Pricing built off the shingle layer alone has nothing to catch it with.
Attic ventilation brought to the current net free area ratio on permitted replacement
Verify with local building dept
Base IRC ventilation provisions set a net free ventilating area ratio for the attic space, commonly 1 to 150 of the vented area, or 1 to 300 where a vapor retarder or specific balanced arrangement applies. Where a full permit is pulled for replacement in Wichita or unincorporated Sedgwick County, an existing system that was never adequate does not get grandfathered simply because it predates the current roof. Confirm current attic square footage and existing vent count against the ratio for that specific address rather than assuming compliance either way.
Starter course at eaves and rakes priced as its own line
Usually omitted
A missing or short starter course voids the shingle manufacturer's wind warranty outright, yet a fast estimate often buries it inside the shingle field number rather than pricing the strip and the labor to set it as their own separate line, which shorts both figures at once.
Pipe boot and flashing collar replacement across the full field
Usually omitted
A boot's rubber gasket can crack from repeated hail strikes long before the split is visible from ground level or even from a photo taken during a quick walk of the roof, and a house that took a heavy pass can need every boot on it swapped even where the field otherwise looks like light cosmetic bruising. Estimates built without a hands-on pass over each penetration tend to carry zero of them.
Valley treatment matched to whether the installation is open metal or closed shingle
In scope
A valley that has taken a direct hail hit can lose its ability to move water cleanly even when the surface still photographs as sound, and the correct fix depends entirely on which valley method that roof actually uses rather than a default assumption. Writing the wrong method into the estimate leaves a water path the contractor has to make right after the fact.
Synthetic underlayment where the current adopted edition specifies it over felt
Verify with local building dept
An estimate that writes felt underlayment out of habit rather than checking what the currently adopted Wichita-Sedgwick specification actually calls for is pricing a different product than the one going on the roof, and the price difference between the two does not ride along inside the shingle line for free. Confirm the current specification with MABCD before the underlayment line is priced either way.
Permit and inspection fee for the address's governing jurisdiction
Code driven
Whether a roofing permit is required inside Wichita city limits, in a surrounding incorporated city such as Derby or Andover, or in unincorporated Sedgwick County depends on which of those offices actually reviews that parcel, and the fee schedule is set by whichever one it is rather than a single citywide number.
Detach and reset for satellite dishes and roof-mounted equipment
Usually omitted
A satellite mount or a rooftop bracket has to come off the deck before that section can be worked and go back on once it is finished, and that two-step labor cost exists whether or not the hardware itself took any damage. A quick estimate built around visible damage has no reason to price a step the equipment never signals it needs.
Interior ceiling and insulation damage found once the covering is off
Usually omitted
Wind-driven rain finding a gap at a damaged ridge or valley can run water into an attic for days before a stain appears on a ceiling below, and none of that loss was visible when the original carrier estimate was written from outside the structure.
Overhead and profit on files spanning roof, gutters, and siding from one storm
In scope
A single Wichita hailstorm regularly damages roof covering, gutters, and siding on the same house in the same pass, and it is that mix of trades under one loss, not the size of the total claim, that justifies pricing general contractor oversight into the file.
Each becomes a written line with a reason attached, inside a real Xactimate file. Depending on the claim it ships as a roofing supplement, an Xactimate supplement package, a supplemental estimate, or a full claim estimate written from scratch.
What happens to your file after you send it
- 01
The carrier estimate gets read line by line against the roof
Not skimmed. We pull the estimate apart against your measurements and photos, marking every line where the assembly written does not match what that roof needs under the code that actually governs the address.
- 02
The Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance gets cited directly, not a statewide assumption
Kansas has no statewide residential building code, so a generic citation gets dismissed on sight. We cite the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code and its adopted 2018 IRC edition specifically, section number included, before any drip edge or ventilation argument goes in writing.
- 03
The supplement is written in Xactimate and delivered as a PDF
Real file, real price list, real sketch. You get the PDF as the deliverable, and the ESX free any time you ask for it. Written same day or next day, submitted next day. One to three extra days on large commercial and multi structure work.
- 04
We stay on the file until the carrier answers
Follow-up, desk adjuster calls, and reinspection support when the carrier sends someone back to the roof. Response runs about three weeks as a general expectation, and the file does not close on our side because it went quiet on theirs.
Two promises, stated separately
Promise one: the fee
The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery. If a file produces no additional approved recovery, you pay nothing on that claim. That is the whole fee structure, and it applies claim by claim.
Promise two: the guarantee
Send us an average of 2 claims per week for 12 months. If that volume does not produce a minimum of six figures in additional margin for your company, we write you a $5,000 check at the end of the 12 months. The volume, the 12 month term, the six figure threshold, and the $5,000 figure are one set of terms and they always travel together.
Two different promises, no overlap. The fee describes what a single claim costs you. The guarantee describes what a year of steady volume is worth. Nothing in the fee structure is a guarantee, and the guarantee does not change the fee.
Wichita questions we get from contractors
Does Kansas have a building code that requires drip edge in Wichita?
Not as a statewide document, no. The only code the Kansas Office of the State Fire Marshal enforces across every jurisdiction in the state is the Kansas Fire Prevention Code, and that code addresses fire safety, not general residential construction. What actually governs a Wichita re-roof is the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, adopted jointly by the City of Wichita and the Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners and enforced by the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department. That code adopted the International Residential Code, 2018 edition. Section R905.2.8.5 of that edition states plainly that a drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs, with no condition attached. Citing this correctly means naming the Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance, not an invented statewide rule.
Why does a first estimate on a Wichita claim sometimes leave out full perimeter drip edge?
The most common reason is scope, not policy. A first estimate written fast from ground photos after a large hail event tends to price whatever the shingle field shows and treat trim items like drip edge as an afterthought, especially on rake edges where the metal is easy to miss from a ladder. The fix is not a claim about what any insurer intends, it is the documentation: naming the adopted edition, R905.2.8.5's unconditional text, and confirming coverage at both eaves and rakes on the specific roof in front of you.
What is different about Wichita's housing stock compared to newer suburban construction nearby?
Wichita's older central neighborhoods carry housing stock built well before the current Unified Building and Trade Code existed, while incorporated cities around it such as Derby, Andover, Maize, and Goddard have grown largely under more recent construction. That age gap matters for a supplement because an older roof assembly, an older attic ventilation system, and older flashing details are more likely to fall short of a current code requirement once a permit is pulled for full replacement, which is a documentation question for the specific address rather than a citywide percentage.
Does the repair-to-replacement threshold that applies elsewhere in Kansas apply in Wichita?
Kansas sets no single statewide number for when a repair stops being a repair and triggers a full replacement, and that decision is written into whichever city or county's existing-building provisions actually apply to the address. For Wichita and unincorporated Sedgwick County, the applicable provisions live inside the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code, and the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department is the office to confirm the current figure with directly rather than borrowing a percentage that governs somewhere else in the state.
How much does a supplement typically recover?
On claims where the roof is already approved for full replacement, our own closed files show a median recovery of about $4,000, with half landing between roughly $1,800 and $9,500. Claims that start denied or repair-only run far higher.
How fast is turnaround, and what does it cost?
Estimates are written same day or next day and submitted next day. Larger commercial and multi structure files take one to three extra days, said up front. Carrier response runs about three weeks as a general expectation. The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery, and a file with no additional approved recovery owes nothing on that claim.
Wichita and the Kansas market
Wichita anchors south central Kansas within the wider Kansas market, with Salina to the north running its own separate code adoption and housing-stock story with nothing to do with this one. Topeka and the Kansas City metro sit further east, each answering to their own governing document rather than a Wichita assumption. Closer in, files come from Derby, Andover, Maize, Goddard, Haysville, Valley Center, and unincorporated Sedgwick County, every one of them governed by the same Wichita-Sedgwick ordinance named on this page, unlike Overland Park on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro, which sits under its own entirely separate city code.
Send one Wichita file and let the ordinance set the argument
Send the carrier estimate with your measurements and the policy declarations. We confirm the current Wichita-Sedgwick provisions against the specific address, price the full drip edge perimeter the code actually requires, and hand back a rebuilt scope within a day.