Siding installation in Saco, ME runs from the large 19th-century homes on Main Street to mill-era houses along the Saco River and summer cottages at Camp Ellis and Ferry Beach. A quarter of the city's homes predate 1939, so we look for old paint and tired sheathing.
This page covers siding installation in Saco, Maine: tearing off worn siding, mending the sheathing, and installing housewrap, flashing, trim and new vinyl, cedar shingles, LP SmartSide or James Hardie fiber cement.
Saco pairs a downtown historic district, where vinyl may not replace other siding materials, with newer houses in North Saco and seaside cottages at Camp Ellis and Ferry Beach. We check each house against the district rules before recommending a material.
The figure to keep: Saco's averages across many quotes come to $975 to $1,225 per square for vinyl and about $2,425 for cedar shingles, a gauge for a budget and not a quote.
Saco's historic district changes the siding choice because its ordinance bars vinyl on any building not already in vinyl, and most exterior changes there need a Certificate of Appropriateness. We find out which side of that line your house is on first.
Our rule for Saco: cedar on a shingled house, fiber cement where painted board fits, vinyl on newer houses outside the district.
Saco's 2010 design guidelines count cedar shingles among the district's character-defining walls and picture a shingled Craftsman bungalow on Elm Street.
On such a house, cedar shingle siding keeps it true, matched to the existing course height and corner style.
Where cedar outruns the budget, we suggest James Hardie fiber cement. The city says its Commission has approved composite and alternative materials, though not always by preference.
Inside the district we ask Planning and Development before pricing it.
Saco's median house dates to 1978, and North Saco took almost half the city's housing permits from 2010 to 2020. Vinyl siding replacement suits those walls at the lowest cost per square.
We fasten it loose so it can move. In the district, vinyl goes only on a house already in vinyl.
Each Saco job draws on these three.
The city's building permit page lists vinyl siding installation as needing a permit, with a district house's certificate first. We file through the city's online portal.
We open the siding at a corner and a sill, record any old paint, and check the district map before writing a scope.
Maine's 10 MRSA §1487 requires a signed contract above $3,000 and caps the down payment at a third, and every Saco job follows it.
Each elevation is stripped, wrapped, flashed and sided before the next opens, and the old siding leaves with us.
You choose siding installation in Saco, ME by first learning whether your house sits in the downtown historic district, because that answer rules vinyl in or out.
Ask what the crew expects under old siding, since the city's 2022 plan counts 41 percent of Saco homes as built before 1970. On a pre-1978 house, the EPA's lead renovation rule governs how painted siding comes off.
Ask, too, how a Camp Ellis or Ferry Beach cottage will be wrapped and flashed, since the plan puts those neighborhoods at particular risk of regular flooding by century's end.
New siding in Saco is for owners of big old homes downtown, newer North Saco houses and the roughly 300 seasonal houses by the shore.
Saco's siding rules get strict in the downtown historic district of 225 properties, along Main, North, Elm, Beach, Cross, School, Middle and Vernon Streets, and the zoning map settles each parcel.
A Saco siding job belongs between spring and fall, with extra lead time in the district, where the Historic Preservation Commission usually meets on the second Tuesday.
Siding installation in Saco costs roughly $975 to $1,225 a square for vinyl, $1,450 to $1,825 for LP SmartSide, $1,575 to $1,950 for James Hardie fiber cement and $2,425 for cedar shingles, installed, one square being 100 square feet of wall. Each averages many quotes: a budget test, never your price.
| House size | Vinyl | LP SmartSide | James Hardie | Cedar shingles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small20 to 25 squares | $19,500 to $30,500 | $29,000 to $45,500 | $31,500 to $48,500 | $48,500 to $60,500 |
| Medium25 to 32 squares | $24,500 to $39,000 | $36,500 to $58,500 | $39,500 to $62,000 | $60,500 to $77,500 |
| Large32+ squares | from $31,000 | from $46,500 | from $50,500 | from $77,500 |
Saco averages from many quotes, not a quote, including tear-off and haul-away along with housewrap, flashing and trim. A rotted sill found at tear-off can lift a house a row.
Beyond the material, a Saco siding price rises with what tear-off finds and with Main Street's large, ornate homes, whose extra stories and trim take longer to do right.
A cover-over makes sense in Saco to skip the tear-off, chiefly when the old layer is lead-painted wood or asbestos-cement shingles. Inside the district, the guidelines discourage covering historic clapboards or shingles with synthetic siding, and we never cover rot.
No repair price appears here because a Saco repair turns on piece count, wall height, rot behind it and matching the old material. We price repairs after a visit, and damage across most of a side calls for a new side.
Your next step for new siding in Saco is a free estimate request. We visit, read the walls and the district question, and send a written price.
