Siding installation in Kennebunk, ME covers three kinds of wall: Federal and Greek Revival houses on Summer Street, summer homes near the beaches and rural houses inland. Siding is all we do, and we look under the old layer before pricing.
This page explains siding installation in Kennebunk, Maine: old siding off, any rot it hid repaired, then cedar shingles, James Hardie fiber cement or LP SmartSide put up over new housewrap with every opening flashed.
Part of Kennebunk sits in what the town calls the oldest historic district in Maine, where the commission's certificate comes before work. Southern Maine Siding settles that question and opens a sill and a corner before any number is written.
The figure to keep: averaged over many Kennebunk quotes, vinyl runs about $950 to $1,200 per square installed and cedar shingles about $2,375, numbers for sizing a budget rather than a price for one house.
We read the wall first on a pre-1939 Kennebunk house because old clapboards can hide a soft sill, and the town's 2022 plan counts 1,037 homes that old.
The siding that belongs on a Kennebunk house depends on where it stands: cedar on a shingled summer home, fiber cement outside the overlay, LP inland.
A Boston and Maine branch line reached Kennebunk Beach and Lower Village in 1883, and summer homes followed. Where one was shingled, we lay new cedar shingle siding course by course over fresh housewrap.
Left natural, the shingles weather silver-gray; nor'easters drive rain for days, so window heads get flashed first.
The town's housing chapter notes that older homes outside the overlay carry no historic protection. On a clapboard house there, we often suggest James Hardie fiber cement, held off roof and ground and flashed at each opening.
Inside the overlay, the commission judges any substitute for wood case by case on profile, sheen and texture.
West of the Turnpike the town turns rural, and near the center builders have added clustered subdivisions. On those houses, LP SmartSide engineered wood gives a painted board look for less than fiber cement.
We prime every cut end and keep the bottom course clear of soil and roof shingles.
Most Kennebunk jobs mix these three.
The town's handout treats replacing loose siding as a repair needing no permit. For a full re-side we ask Kennebunk Code Enforcement and pull any permit required.
We lift siding at a sill, a corner and a window, note old paint and ask the town about the district.
The contract follows Maine's home construction contract law, so the first payment never tops one third.
Each wall is stripped, wrapped, flashed and re-sided before the next opens, then we walk the house with you.
You choose siding installation in Kennebunk, ME by first learning whether the house sits in the Historic Preservation Overlay District, which dates to 1963. There, Article 12 bars any alteration or permit until the Historic Preservation Commission issues a Certificate of Appropriateness.
Its 2002 guidelines prohibit artificial siding on historic structures and want original siding repaired, or duplicated in kind once over 50 percent is substantially deteriorated.
Outside it, pick the installer whose price names tear-off, housewrap and flashing and who follows the EPA renovation rule on houses built before 1978.
Kennebunk owners who most often need new siding hold old village houses or seasonal homes readied for winter. The 2020 census counted 863 seasonal, recreational or occasional units.
Kennebunk siding takes the worst weather near the beaches, where seawater overtops the Beach Avenue seawall in extreme high tides. Inland walls trade the salt for freeze-thaw.
A Kennebunk re-side belongs between spring and fall, booked early for an overlay house: applications are due 21 days before a meeting on the second or fourth Wednesday.
Siding installation in Kennebunk costs about $950 to $1,200 per square for vinyl, $1,425 to $1,800 for LP SmartSide, $1,550 to $1,900 for James Hardie fiber cement and about $2,375 for cedar shingles. Each band, per 100 square feet of wall, averages many local quotes: a budget test, not your price.
| House size | Vinyl | LP SmartSide | James Hardie | Cedar shingles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small20 to 25 squares | $19,000 to $30,000 | $28,500 to $44,500 | $31,000 to $47,500 | $47,500 to $59,500 |
| Medium25 to 32 squares | $24,000 to $38,000 | $36,000 to $57,000 | $39,000 to $61,000 | $59,500 to $76,500 |
| Large32+ squares | from $30,500 | from $46,000 | from $49,500 | from $76,500 |
Kennebunk installed averages, not quotes: tear-off, housewrap, flashing, trim and haul-away included, and rot found underneath moves them.
What moves a Kennebunk siding price most after the material is what hides under the old layer: soft sills, failed flashing, damaged framing. Height, trim and an overlay certificate's $50 fee follow.
New siding over the old saves the tear-off and haul-away, and suits asbestos-cement shingles or lead-painted wood best left in place. Skip it over rot, or over original siding in the overlay.
There is no repair price on this Kennebunk page because a repair can be three loose boards or a soft corner two stories up, priced from a visit. Past half a wall of rot, a new run beats a patch.
You start a Kennebunk siding project with a free estimate request: we look at the walls, then send a written price to sign before anything is ordered.
