Illinois
Supplements written for Illinois roofs, town by town
Most states hand you one rulebook and one argument. This one hands you several hundred. Adoption happens at the village, city, and county level, the largest city runs its own construction codes entirely, and the roof two miles up the road can be answering to a different edition than the one you are standing on. Get that question right and the code argument holds. Get it wrong and nothing else in the file matters.
By Kyle Hamrick, Founder
The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster. What ships out of here is estimating and supplement production in Xactimate, along with the file documentation behind it, for roofing contractors running storm work in any market. Adjuster licensure is held in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Alabama.
On a file out of this market the work is estimating, full stop, and it is worth stating out loud rather than leaving to inference. Nobody at this desk holds an adjuster appointment here, the claim is not adjusted from this office, and the homeowner is your client and not ours. We build the scope, establish the code basis, and put the documentation together, then keep working the file beside your office until the carrier answers.
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 Illinois file is code mechanism, carrier behavior, and claim pattern, confirmed for the address rather than assumed from a statewide rule. More about Kyle.
What actually damages roofs in Illinois, and what it does to the estimate
The central hail corridor: Champaign, Springfield, Peoria
Storms that fire on the warm side of a spring boundary organize over open farm country with nothing to interrupt them, and the stone they drop lands on the middle of the state before anything downstream of it sees a warning. Champaign, Springfield, Peoria, Decatur, Bloomington, and the county seats scattered between them take large hail on a schedule that a roofer here can plan a year around.
The housing takes it differently than metro housing does. Plan shapes are simpler, pitches are gentler, and a lot of the covering is older three tab that has already lost granules to age. That combination is exactly what a carrier needs to call a fresh loss weathering, so the file has to carry the evidence a shingle field will not supply on its own: dented gutter faces, bruised flue caps, split ridge cap, and pockmarked condenser fins photographed from angles that show depth. The roof claim inspection checklist puts that walk in an order that captures it while the roof is still up there.
The derecho corridor across the northern counties
On the tenth of August in 2020 a single organized wind complex crossed out of Iowa and ran east through the northern part of the state, carrying gusts into triple digits over Rockford, the collar counties, and the Chicago metro before it finished. It was not a tornado outbreak and it was not a hail event. It was a wall of moving air that took roofs apart along a line and then kept going.
Damage from a system like that is honest and nearly invisible at the same time. The tabs are still lying flat, so a roof photographs as intact from the ground. What actually happened is that the adhesive strip let go, the mat cracked across the fastener line when the tab folded back, and the covering is now depending on nails alone. Any summer here can produce a smaller version of the same thing, which means the northern half of the state generates a steady supply of claims where the entire dispute is whether the damage is visible enough to count.
The lakefront, and the housing stock behind it
Along the Chicago waterfront the wind arrives with a long fetch of open water behind it and nothing on shore to slow it down before it reaches the first row of buildings. Cold season gales off the lake work on tall frame housing, three story walk ups, and the low slope back sections that sit behind those front elevations, and they take the covering off in strips rather than in patches. Snow that comes in on the same wind loads a flat rear roof unevenly, which is a structural question and not a shingle question.
The building stock is the other half of the argument. The bungalow belt, the two flats, the brick and frame mix through the older wards, and the postwar rings out through the collar counties were built to requirements that no longer resemble what a permit office asks for today. Every one of those gaps becomes an obligation the day the covering is replaced, and that is the strongest structural material any file out of these neighborhoods has to work with. It is only usable once the jurisdiction issuing the permit has been named.
Three code arguments that move Illinois files
The rulebook is a local answer, and finding it is billable work
Home rule under Article VII, Section 6 of the state constitution left residential code adoption to the unit of local government, which is why there has never been one uniform residential rulebook covering the whole map. The Capital Development Board collects what each municipality and county reports adopting and keeps the directory of it, and Public Act 103-0510 amended the Capital Development Board Act to require that local codes regulate structural design at least as stringently as the model residential code. That variation is a supplement advantage once you stop fighting it: the citation names an actual adopting jurisdiction, and there is nothing generic left for a reviewer to push back against. Verify with local building dept Confirm the reported edition and any local amendment with the office issuing the permit before the citation goes in writing.
No adopted code is not the same thing as no requirement
The Illinois Residential Building Code Act at 815 ILCS 670/15 sets the floor for residential construction in jurisdictions that adopted nothing, pointing to the current edition of the model residential code, with a narrow provision letting a buyer and builder agree instead to a municipal or county residential code from within one hundred miles. On a claim that matters because the reflex answer from a reviewer is that an unincorporated address carries no obligations at all. It carries a statutory one. It just has no inspector attached, so the file has to bring the requirement and the manufacturer installation instructions itself.
Chicago is its own jurisdiction and its own document
Inside the city limits the Chicago Construction Codes govern and the Department of Buildings administers them, with Title 14R, the Chicago Building Rehabilitation Code, covering work on buildings that already exist. A citation lifted from a suburban permit office does not travel across that line, and a plan reviewer will say so in one sentence. Work on an existing building is also where the layer limits, the deck condition, and the tear off obligations live, which is the part of the file a repair priced estimate is deliberately scoped to stay underneath. Verify with local building dept Establish which department is issuing the permit before anything gets cited.
The carriers writing Illinois, and why the home field matters
State Farm, Allstate, Country Financial, American Family, Travelers, Erie Insurance, Farmers, Liberty Mutual, and Nationwide carry most of the residential book. Three of those are home teams: State Farm runs out of Bloomington, Allstate out of Northbrook, and Country Financial out of Bloomington as well, which means an unusual share of the claim decisions on these roofs are being made by people who grew up looking at them. That cuts in both directions. A package that could have been printed for any state gets recognized and dismissed in a minute, and a scope built on the actual adopting jurisdiction gets read all the way through.
The recurring carrier move on these files is the code question itself. Because adoption is local, a reviewer can ask which rule you are relying on and expect the answer to fall apart, and most of the time it does. That is the whole game on a supplement here. Come in with the adopting unit named, the edition it reported, and the provision quoted, and the conversation moves to arithmetic. Come in with a generic assertion and the file stalls for a month while somebody goes looking for the ordinance you should have pulled.
The policy side gets its own read before any scope is written. Percentage wind and hail deductibles keyed to the dwelling limit, cosmetic damage endorsements that carve out dented metal, and roof payment schedules paying out a worn covering on a discounted footing all appear on forms written here, and any of the three can hand back a recovery that was won on scope. Send the declarations page along with everything else and none of that arrives as a surprise. Where the settlement was already cut on that basis, depreciation recovery is a second front, argued on its own evidence.
Behind the standard market sits the Illinois FAIR Plan Association, the residual mechanism for property owners who cannot get a policy in the voluntary market. Those claims move on paperwork and timelines of their own, and a scope headed there has to survive a reader with no incentive to enlarge it. After a derecho or a wide hail day the standard carriers surge in catastrophe crews on daily inspection counts, and throughput is the number those crews answer to. The reinspection supplement exists for claims that sit motionless until a carrier representative climbs that roof a second time, with the complete evidence package already handed to him.
What gets recovered on an Illinois 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.
Eave membrane written to the rulebook the permit runs under
Verify with local building dept
Whether the membrane is owed, and how far up the slope it has to travel, is decided by whoever the adopting unit is at that address. Pull that answer first and the item stops being a favor somebody is asking a carrier for. Skip that step and a good argument dies on a technicality nobody needed to hand over.
Drip edge at eaves and rakes
Verify with local building dept
Frame housing here predates the requirement by decades, so tear off usually exposes bare wood at both edges. The metal only becomes billable once the file names the edition the permit office is working from, which is a research task rather than a roofing task.
Layer count limit forcing a full tear off
Verify with local building dept
Plenty of these roofs already carry a second covering laid over the first one by a previous owner. Where the adopting unit caps the number of layers, the recover the carrier priced is not legal work and the removal, the disposal, and everything the bare deck reveals all come into the file behind it.
Plank deck replacement and refastening
Verify with local building dept
The prewar frame stock across the older city neighborhoods and the river towns was decked with individual boards laid loose of one another, and a modern nail pattern finds air about a third of the time it swings. Nobody sees that condition from the ground, so it enters the claim after the covering leaves rather than before.
Starter course at eaves and rakes
Usually omitted
After an event like the 2020 derecho the wind rating on the bundle is the only thing standing between the homeowner and the next straight line gust, and no manufacturer honors that rating without a starter run. It is bought separately, hung separately, and buried inside the field shingle line anyway.
Ridge cut, vent, and cap
Usually omitted
Opening the peak with a saw, seating vent along the slot, and running cap over the top of it are three separate crews-and-clock operations. Funding one of the three and calling the ridge covered is the most common arithmetic error in a carrier estimate.
Soft metal impact documented before the roof comes off
In scope
In the central hail corridor the gutter face, the downspout elbow, the flue cap, and the condenser fins hold a legible impact record even when a weathered shingle field reads as ambiguous. That evidence disappears the morning the crew arrives, so it either gets shot and captioned on the first visit or it never existed.
Wind damage proved by lifted tabs and fractured mats
In scope
There is no test square math for a gust that lifted every tab on the west elevation and set most of them back down. The proof is a fracture line across the mat and a tab that comes up in the hand, and photographs of it need a caption explaining what the camera is looking at or a reviewer sees an old roof.
Steep and high charges on tall frame housing
Usually omitted
Two and three story frame houses, walk ups, and the cut up gable and dormer stock in the older neighborhoods put crews on staging and slow every trip up the ladder. A squares count carries none of that, and the labor difference is real money on a full elevation.
Gutter, downspout, and gutter apron
Usually omitted
Hail large enough to bruise a mat dents an aluminum trough on the same pass, and the apron behind it gets bent during removal whether or not anybody planned on replacing it. Carrier estimates written from roof photographs stop at the fascia line.
Interior ceiling, insulation, and drywall loss
Usually omitted
When a summer complex opens a field and the rain follows it in, the ceiling stain takes days to bloom and the wet insulation takes longer than that to be found. The first estimate was written before any of it surfaced, which makes it new information rather than a disagreement.
Overhead and profit on multi trade files
In scope
One storm that drops roof, gutter, siding, fence, and interior finish into the same claim requires a schedule, a supervisor, and somebody who owns the outcome when two trades want the same driveway on the same morning. The trigger is how many trades are being coordinated, not how large the bottom line looks.
None of that travels as a suggestion. Every item enters as a priced Xactimate line with its reason sitting next to it and its source named. What the package is called depends on the claim, going out 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 in that jurisdiction.
- 02
Code and manufacturer requirements get sourced before they get argued
Here that begins by identifying the unit of local government that will issue the permit and what it reported adopting, because a citation aimed at the wrong rulebook is worse than no citation at all. Membrane, edge metal, layer limits, and deck fastening each get confirmed for the address rather than asserted as a statewide rule an adjuster can knock down.
- 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. Retail estimate work with no supplement attached delivers the ESX. 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 out. 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.
Illinois questions we get from contractors
Which building code governs a roof file in this state?
Whichever one the city, village, or county at that address decided to adopt. For most of the state there has never been one residential rulebook handed down from the capital, because home rule under Article VII, Section 6 of the state constitution left adoption to the local unit. The Capital Development Board keeps the directory of what each jurisdiction reported adopting, and Public Act 103-0510 later required local codes to regulate structural design at least as stringently as the model residential code. Chicago sits outside all of that with its own Construction Codes and its own Department of Buildings. So the first billable hour on one of these files is spent finding out whose rulebook the permit will be pulled under.
If a village never adopted a building code, is the code argument dead?
No, it changes shape. The Illinois Residential Building Code Act at 815 ILCS 670/15 fills that gap for new residential construction: where the jurisdiction has adopted nothing, the current edition of the model residential code applies, and there is a narrow path where the buyer and the builder agree instead to a municipal or county residential code from within one hundred miles. That is a statutory floor rather than an inspector standing on the driveway, so the file has to carry the manufacturer installation instructions and the assembly requirement in writing. A desk adjuster who hears no local code assumes no obligation. The statute says otherwise.
What did the 2020 derecho change about wind claims here?
It taught a generation of desk adjusters that a hundred mile per hour gust can cross the northern counties without a tornado warning attached to it. That August system ran east out of Iowa across the northern part of the state and left a corridor of straight line damage: shingles creased along the nail line, seal bonds released with the tab still lying flat, ridge cap unseated, and whole fields that photograph as an intact roof. Volume like that arrives in one afternoon and gets worked by catastrophe crews on a per file quota, which is the worst possible combination for a damage type that needs deliberate documentation.
Is hail here a central Illinois problem or a Chicago problem?
Central, mostly, and the difference matters when the estimate gets written. The corridor running through Champaign, Springfield, Peoria, and the farm counties between them takes the large stone events, on housing that is lower to the ground and simpler in plan than the metro stock. Around the lakefront the peril tips toward wind: gradient gusts coming off the water hit tall frame housing and three story walk ups, so the loss shows up as uplift and displacement rather than bruising. Two different perils, two different evidence packages, and a template that treats them the same gets caught immediately.
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.
Illinois markets
Chicago metro and northern Illinois
Central Illinois and the hail corridor
- Peoria and the Illinois River towns
- Springfield and Sangamon County
- Champaign and the Urbana side
Files also come in from Joliet, Naperville, Elgin, Waukegan, Cicero, Schaumburg, Bolingbrook, Evanston, Arlington Heights, Decatur, Bloomington, Normal, Moline, Rock Island, Quincy, Belleville, and Carbondale.
Send one file and find out whose rulebook it belongs to
Give us the carrier document, the measurements, and the declarations page. What lands back the next day names the jurisdiction issuing that permit, quotes what it adopted, and prices the assembly that rulebook actually requires.