Roof replacement, leak repair and hail & storm damage for homes in St. Stephen. In St. Stephen, the 2021 IRC is in force and the median home was built in 1985. It starts with a free inspection that photographs every slope.
St. Stephen runs to about 2.7 square miles and roughly 1,462 people. It sits about 43 miles north of downtown Charleston. The community dates back to 1871. We cover ZIP code 29479.
No completed roof in St. Stephen is logged in our job records yet.
A small town in northern Berkeley County between Lake Moultrie and the Santee River, along the western edge of the Francis Marion National Forest. Settled as a parish in 1754, it later grew as a stop on the Charleston-to-Florence railroad and as a lumber town in the early 1900s.
From this stretch of building, houses in St. Stephen sit on plywood or OSB, were first roofed in three-tab shingles, and are mostly on their second roof now. Trouble tends to be at the penetrations rather than across the field: the rubber collar on a pipe boot splits years before the shingles give out, and it is the leak we trace most often. Ridge vents were hit and miss in these decades, and OSB that stays damp for a season softens in a way plywood does not, something you feel underfoot rather than see from the yard.
The Census Bureau counts 565 homes in St. Stephen, with a median year built of 1985. 22 of them (4%) went up before 1940 — 10th of 28 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 115 (20%) in 2000 or later. The 1980s were the busiest decade, adding 137 of today's homes (24%). Across Berkeley County the pre-1940 share is 1%, so St. Stephen sits above it.
The Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development puts the service life of an asphalt shingle roof at about 20 years. That puts 450 homes in St. Stephen, the 80% built before 2000, past at least one full roof life; 160 of them (28%) predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. First replacements are arriving on the 64 homes built in the 2000s, while the 51 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. Older houses are where a second layer laid over the first turns up, and that layer is what hides soft decking.
45% of homes in St. Stephen are single-family detached houses (255) and 0% attached ones such as townhouses (0). 78 homes (14%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 26 (5%) in buildings of ten units or more, where a resident rarely gets to choose the roofer. The count also takes in 206 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. 59% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 41% rented. With houses like these, the jobs we expect most are replacements on roofs from the 1970s to the 1990s.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 22 | 4% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 34 | 6% | |
| 1960s | 104 | 18% | |
| 1970s | 50 | 9% | |
| 1980s | 137 | 24% | |
| 1990s | 103 | 18% | |
| 2000s | 64 | 11% | |
| 2010s | 42 | 7% | |
| 2020 or later | 9 | 2% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 565 homes, 426 occupied. Survey estimates.
Between 2016 and 2025 there was one report of 1-inch-plus hail within 5 miles of St. Stephen’s center in the records of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. The stone was 1 inch, on April 6, 2022, about 4.6 miles east of the center. A report needs someone to see the hail and send it in, so the count is a floor, not a full tally.
Hail damage rarely shows from the ground; a storm inspection photographs each slope so you know either way.
Nothing St. Stephen publishes says whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a permit. We call the department (843-567-3597) before the job and pull whatever is required.
St. Stephen enforces the 2021 IRC. St. Stephen's construction application lists the 2021 International Residential Code, 2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Existing Building Code, 2020 National Electrical Code and 2009 International Energy Conservation Code.
The published number is 843-567-3597. The building official on record is Hank Jackson, Chief Building Official. The department page is here.
Design wind here is set by location, not one figure for the whole area: across greater Charleston the published ultimate design wind speeds run 133–150 mph, depending on where a house stands. The building department for St. Stephen can tell you which figure applies. What it does to a roof is in the roofing code guide.
St. Stephen borders Russellville and Francis Marion National Forest.
Also in Berkeley County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Stephen | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1985 |
| Unincorporated Berkeley County | Yes | 2021 IRC | — |
| Bonneau | Not published | Not published | 1984 |
| Daniel Island | Yes | 2021 IRC | — |
| Goose Creek | Yes | 2021 IRC | 2002 |
| Hanahan | Not published | 2021 IRC | 1986 |
| Ladson | Yes | 2021 IRC | 1990 |
All 10 Berkeley County cities side by side →
St. Stephen does not publish a clear answer either way. We confirm it with the building department before starting and pull whatever is required.
St. Stephen enforces the 2021 IRC. St. Stephen's construction application lists the 2021 International Residential Code, 2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Existing Building Code, 2020 National Electrical Code and 2009 International Energy Conservation Code.
Older than most people guess: the Census puts 80% of St. Stephen's homes before 2000 and 28% before 1970, with a median year built of 1985 (2020–2024 estimates). A roof usually lasts about 20 years, so the deck and the layers get checked before any quote.
Yes, once in NOAA's records: the one report of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of St. Stephen's center from 2016 through 2025 was 1 inch on April 6, 2022.
The building official on record is Hank Jackson, Chief Building Official. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
Not yet: no completed roof in St. Stephen is in our job records, so this page shows no job count.
Researched 2026-10-24; housing, Census ACS 2020–2024; hail, NOAA SPC. Sources: www.ststephensc.gov · www.ststephensc.gov · na4.documents.adobe.com · berkeleycountysc.gov · www.ststephensc.gov · en.wikipedia.org · merchants.jhssc.org · hub.catalogit.app · en.wikipedia.org · www.scstatehouse.gov · www2.census.gov · tigerweb.geo.census.gov · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
