Window and siding replacement in Bath

Bath at a glance

People

8,815

Homes

4,796

Size

9.1 square miles

From downtown

About 28 miles northeast

ZIP codes

04530

Founded or incorporated

1781

Bath is a small city on the west bank of the Kennebec River, about 12 miles up from the open ocean, known as the City of Ships; it became a town in 1781 and a city in 1847. Shipbuilding began here in 1743, Bath Iron Works has built hundreds of ships, mostly for the Navy, and many of the older neighborhoods were built during the shipbuilding boom. The older core is a National Register district, and a city historic overlay zone reviews some exterior changes there.

The houses in Bath

79% of the homes in Bath are older than 1980 and 57% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1939 or earlier; 60% are detached houses and 64% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. With most of the housing older than 1980, the federal lead rule is likely on most window and siding jobs here. What the lead rule requires of a contractor.

Owners here put the median home's value at about $310,900, and 54% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Bath were built before 1938, which makes its housing about 39 years older than across Sagadahoc County as a whole (median 1977). Set against Sagadahoc County as a whole, owners live in 64% of occupied homes here against 78% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $310,900 here and $333,300 across the county and detached houses are 60% of the homes, below the county's 75%.

Rooms in the median home

5.8

Heated with gas / electricity

6% / 20%

Townhouses and other attached homes

4%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

16%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

21%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25035, B25024, B25003, B25077, B25041, B25018 and B25040), read through Census Reporter. These are survey estimates, not a count of every house.

The South End is the older residential area with early 1800s houses, the North End holds the densest mix of 19th-century homes built by prospering shipbuilders, many Greek Revival and Italianate, and Washington Park was built as housing for shipyard workers during World War I.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Bath, 57% of them, was built before 1940, so that is the house described here.

The originals are wood double-hung sashes on cords and weights: small panes on the capes and farmhouses, two-over-two or one-over-one on the Victorian, Italianate and Greek Revival houses of the shipbuilding and mill towns. Many now sit behind an aluminum storm window added decades later. The sash wood is usually old-growth and sound; the putty, the sill paint and the cords are what give out. A tuned-up sash with a tight storm in front of it is a real alternative to replacement on these houses, and inside a local historic district it is often the one the review expects.

Painted wood clapboards on the street walls, and cedar shingles on the sides, the ells and every surface of the Shingle-style summer houses along the coast, all nailed straight to board sheathing. In the cities a good share of these are two- and three-family houses. Plenty were later wrapped in asbestos-cement shingles, aluminum or vinyl to stop the painting; underneath is either clapboard worth restoring or soft bottom courses where winter snow banked against the wall for decades.

Neighborhoods

We work across Downtown, North End, South End and Washington Park.

Historic districts

Bath has 4 listed: Bath Historic District, Trufant Historic District, Washington Park Historic District and Historic Overlay District (local). A National Register listing on its own does not limit what you fit; a local district or landmark designation can, and in several towns here a change of siding material or window sash needs a certificate before the permit. Which towns' rules bind, and how.

Next door

Bath shares a boundary with Woolwich, Arrowsic, West Bath, Phippsburg, Brunswick and Kennebec River.

The rules in Bath

What the permit costs

Permits taken out after work has begun cost five times the normal fee, and an inspection deposit of $100 or half the permit fee, whichever is greater, is paid with the application and returned after final approval.

Local quirks

Inside Bath's Historic Overlay District, altering or covering exterior architectural details needs Historic District Review before a building permit, and the city's code asks for original materials to be kept or repaired where possible and replaced with the same material, or a substitute of the same color, shape, size and texture, so a re-side or new windows on a building there should start with a call to the city about that review.

Who to call

Building dept

207-443-8334

Official

Adam Jones, Code Enforcement Officer

Permits

Department page

How Bath compares with its neighbors

All 10 Sagadahoc County places side by side →

Work we have done in Bath

We have not logged a finished job in Bath yet. When we do, it will be listed here with what was done — we would rather show nothing than a number you cannot check.

Common questions about Bath

Where these facts came from

Sources: cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · cityofbathmaine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov