We do siding installation in Southern Maine and nothing else: vinyl, LP SmartSide, James Hardie and cedar shingles, Kittery to Brunswick. Before anyone talks color, we find out what the old siding hides.
Southern Maine homeowners hire us for siding because we pull back old siding at a corner and below a window before pricing the wall.
The siding that belongs on most southern Maine houses is vinyl. Shingled cottages, historic districts and salt-sprayed walls earn more, and our siding services compare all five.
South Portland's postwar capes and Gray's post-1970 houses suit vinyl siding replacement best. Each panel hangs on loose nails, since vinyl moves with the temperature.
Saco's historic preservation rules bar vinyl on a district building not already in vinyl, and York's district guidelines rule out artificial siding.
LP SmartSide engineered wood and James Hardie fiber cement are painted lap boards for clapboard houses like Yarmouth's and Brunswick's. Freeport's design review exempts either swap if the old reveal and profile stay.
Both need the maker's clearances and nailing. We lean to fiber cement on salt-spray walls and LP inland.
Cedar shingle siding covers many York Harbor summer cottages and belongs back on any house shingled from the start. Left unstained, it weathers silver-gray.
When a nor'easter strips a few pieces, siding repair must match the old wall's reveal and color. Where no match exists, we replace the section.
The siding services we offer in southern Maine work from the sheathing out, as our full list of services shows.
Lead may be in the paint on any house from before 1978, so the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule sets how it may be disturbed.
With your okay, we lift old siding at a corner and under a window to see the sheathing.
Work waits for a written price, a signed contract and any town permit, and 10 MRSA §1487 caps the first payment on jobs over $3,000 at one third.
Each side is finished before the next opens, and we finish by walking the house with you.
Jeff Wentworth
Owner, Southern Maine Siding · Gorham, Maine
Jeff Wentworth presses on the sills, corners and window heads himself, then writes the price.
Jeff Wentworth spent his twenties on framing crews, starting in 1996, a few towns over from the Standish farm roads where he grew up. Opening old walls to tie in additions, he kept finding rot that began where water had slipped behind the siding.
He started hanging vinyl and laying cedar shingles in 2003, and in 2011 he gave up framing for good. Siding has been the whole job ever since, from the housewrap and window flashing out to the last trim board.
Jeff lives in Gorham and still walks every house himself before anyone prices it. He tells homeowners plainly when a wall is sound enough to keep and when the old siding has to come off.
Maine does not license general contractors, so Jeff has no license to show you. What he gives you instead is a written price before any old siding comes off, and a call back on every message.
More about JeffYou choose siding installation in Southern Maine by asking each bidder what the price does if the sheathing under the siding is soft. A price that assumes a sound wall is the one likeliest to grow mid-job.
Then ask how the housewrap laps the window flashing, the hidden detail that keeps coastal walls dry from Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth to York.
For cedar, ask whether the crew follows the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau manual on exposure and nailing.
The southern Maine homeowners who usually need new siding have walls showing water damage: soft sills, peeling paint or cracked vinyl. Owners of Portland's peninsula Victorians weigh lead paint and historic review.
Siding on a southern Maine house fails first at the bottom courses, under windows and below roof edges that drop meltwater.
You should re-side a southern Maine house between spring and fall, when walls can stand open and paint cures. In Old Orchard Beach and Wells, summer fills calendars, so plan early.
New siding in southern Maine costs $1,000 to $1,250 a square in vinyl, $1,500 to $1,875 in LP SmartSide, $1,625 to $2,000 in James Hardie and about $2,500 in cedar shingles, each square covering 100 square feet of wall. These bands average many regional quotes: a budget check, not your price.
| House size | Vinyl | LP SmartSide | James Hardie | Cedar shingles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small20 to 25 squares | $20,000 to $31,000 | $30,000 to $47,000 | $32,500 to $50,000 | $50,000 to $62,500 |
| Medium25 to 32 squares | $25,000 to $40,000 | $37,500 to $60,000 | $40,500 to $64,000 | $62,500 to $80,000 |
| Large32+ squares | from $32,000 | from $48,000 | from $52,000 | from $80,000 |
Installed averages, not quotes, including removal, housewrap, flashing, trim and disposal; rot can move them.
After the material, hidden damage pushes a siding job's cost hardest: rotted sheathing, failed flashing or framing trouble. Stories, hard-to-reach walls and heavy trim follow.
Siding over the old layer costs less because it skips tear-off and disposal, and suits cement-asbestos shingles or lead-painted clapboards. Wet or rotting walls rule it out.
You cannot get a siding repair price from this page, since cost turns on piece count, wall height, hidden rot and finding a match. We price each repair from a visit, and when rot runs wide, re-siding that wall beats a patch.
After you send an estimate request, we set a visit, walk the walls with you and write you a price.
