Replacement windows and new siding across greater Portland and southern Maine, built for a coast where nor'easters drive rain sideways and winters run long — with each town's permit rule looked up before anything is ordered.
Window and siding replacement across greater Portland and southern Maine: full-frame and insert windows in wood, vinyl, fiberglass and clad, and siding in vinyl, insulated vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood and cedar shingle, for the old capes and clapboard village houses as much as the newer subdivisions.
Full-frame and insert windows in wood, vinyl, fiberglass and clad, built to the U-factor and SHGC your city actually requires.
Vinyl, insulated vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood and steel, over a new water-resistive barrier lapped in the right order.
Cheapest to buy and to install, never needs painting, and one of the better claddings for keeping a wall dry. Insulated vinyl is flatter, quieter and more dent-resistant.
Fiber cement is dimensionally stable, does not feed insects and is non-combustible. Engineered wood is lighter and easier to cut, with a warmer look.
Here the damage usually comes from wind, ice and fallen limbs rather than hail. We will tell you what we see, including when we do not think there is a claim.
On a house built before 1978 the federal lead rule is on the job, and in a local historic district the ordinance can decide what a window is made of. We check what both require before anything is ordered.
Water gets into a wall at the openings. The flashing that stops it sits behind the cladding, which means the only time anyone can inspect it, correct it or replace it is while the siding is off. That is why we do both, and why we will tell you when doing both at once is cheaper than doing either one twice.
Full-frame and insert, wood, vinyl, fiberglass and clad
Vinyl, insulated vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood and steel
Siding is the visible decision. The barrier and the flashing behind it decide whether the wall is still sound in twenty years — and once the siding is back on, nobody can check them.
Rot behind siding and a failed egress measurement are not unlucky. They are the two things that turn up on these jobs, so we look for both before you sign anything.
Net clear opening on every bedroom and basement window against the egress rule. Safety glazing at every location the code names. The roof-to-wall intersections, for a kickout that is missing. The build year, which decides whether the lead rule is on the job.
Permit or no permit, which energy code edition applies, what U-factor that puts on the window, whether the city wants the contractor registered, and whether you are in a historic district that regulates what the window can be made of.
Including what happens if we open the wall and find soft sheathing — priced per square foot against the area actually found, agreed before we start, rather than discovered as a number on the final invoice.
New barrier, correct lap order, flashing at every opening and every transition, kickouts installed. Photographed as we go, because once the siding is on you have no way to check and neither does the next owner.
Every window operated. Every opening checked. On a pre-1978 house, the lead-safe compliance summary you are owed within thirty days.
Every town here holds a replacement window to the same energy code, the 2021 edition Maine adopted statewide, so there is one legal window figure across the whole area. What changes from town to town is whether a re-side or a window swap needs a permit at all, and towns of 4,000 people or fewer need not enforce the code. ENERGY STAR's figure for Maine asks for far more than the code does.
| One example of each | Adopted energy code | Window has to meet |
|---|---|---|
| Portland | 2021 IECC (statewide) | U-0.30 |
Every jurisdiction we work in is listed, with its own page and its own sources. See the whole table →
It depends on the town, and the published answers really do run both ways. Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Kennebunkport and Brunswick name a re-side as work that needs no building permit when nothing structural changes; Saco names siding on its permit list, and Falmouth, Scarborough and Wells require a permit for any alteration or repair; plenty of towns publish nothing either way. We read the rules of all 64 towns — here they are, town by town.
One figure statewide: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower, with no limit on solar heat gain, under the 2021 energy code the state adopted in April 2025, the same in every town we cover. ENERGY STAR's Northern zone, which covers all three counties, asks for U-0.22 or lower. How the code reaches a replacement window.
Not on the energy savings alone. ENERGY STAR's modeling for the Northern zone puts the saving at about $568 a year for a whole house of single-pane glass and about $282 a year for a whole house of older double-pane. Against the price of a whole-house job that is a long payback. New windows earn their keep when the old ones have failed, when rooms are drafty or the glass runs with condensation, or when the house needs a new look. The arithmetic, and the cheaper option.
Yes. About 52.8% of the homes in the Portland metro were built before 1980, and on a house built before 1978 the federal lead-safe rule covers both trades: every window replacement, whatever its size, and any re-side that disturbs painted clapboards or trim. The firm must be EPA-certified, a certified renovator directs the work, and you get EPA's pamphlet before anything starts. What that means on the job.
If the sale started with a visit or call you did not ask for, Maine gives you three full business days to cancel by mailing a written notice, and work that gets fixed to the house cannot start until that time has passed. Any home job over $3,000 also needs a written contract with no more than one-third down. What Maine requires of a contractor.
Each one has its own page, because each one has its own answer on permits, on which energy code applies, and on what that puts on the window.
See every city we cover →Tell us the address and roughly what you are looking at. We will tell you what your city requires before we tell you what it costs.
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