Window and Siding Replacement in Berwick, ME

Berwick at a glance

Permit to re-side

Not required

Window, same opening

Not required

New or bigger opening: depends

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide)

Built before 1980

31%

Homes in Berwick, Census 2020–2024

People: 8,175
Homes: 3,413
Size: 37.5 square miles
From downtown: About 38 miles southwest
ZIP codes: 03901
Founded or incorporated: 1713

Berwick, incorporated in 1713 as the ninth town in what is now Maine, sits on the Salmon Falls River and is joined by bridge to the mill city of Somersworth, New Hampshire, with which it has shared an economy since the 1800s. Diamond Hill, at 490 feet, is its highest point, and the former Prime Tanning property is the site of a mixed-use development announced in 2021.

The houses in Berwick

Before 194016%

1940–19595%

1960–197910%

1980–199932%

2000 or later37%

Of the homes in Berwick, 31% predate 1980 and 16% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1989. Detached single-family houses make up 74%; owners live in 87% of the occupied ones. A sizable share of homes here date from before 1980, the era the federal lead rule covers (homes built before 1978). What the lead rule requires of a contractor.

65% of the homes in Berwick have three or more bedrooms. The median owned home is worth about $369,100 by its owner's estimate, the figure to weigh any siding or window quote against.

Half the homes in Berwick were built before 1989, which makes its housing about 9 years newer than across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 87% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $369,100 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 74% of the homes, above the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.8
Heated with gas / electricity: 2% / 7%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 1%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 4%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 8%
Mobile homes: 13%

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.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Berwick, 37% of them, was built in 2000 or later, so that is the house described here.

Double-glazed low-e vinyl or fiberglass windows, usually installed with flashing tape over a house wrap. These rarely need replacing for age; when one fails it is usually a seal or a piece of hardware, and the maker's warranty is worth checking before anything else. Heavy frost or water on the inside of the glass in a cold snap is more often a humidity problem in a tight house than a window defect.

Vinyl, fiber cement or engineered wood over oriented strand board and a house wrap, the wall assembly the current code expects. The weak points are workmanship, not materials: tape that let go at the window corners, a missing kickout where a roof edge meets a sidewall, J-channel run tight with no room for the siding to move.

The one to watch on a house of this age

Houses built to recent Maine codes are tight, and Maine now holds new houses to a lower air-leakage limit than the national code. A tight house with too little ventilation fogs its windows all winter; before blaming the glass, check the humidity and the bath and kitchen fans.

And on the 32% built in the 1980s and 1990s

Windows of this era were often sealed to the wrap with caulk and little else. When the siding comes off, check the sheathing below each window's lower corners: that is where a failed caulk joint shows up first, as dark, soft wood.

Neighborhoods

We work across Berwick Village, Cummings and Diamond Hill.

Next door

Berwick shares a boundary with North Berwick, South Berwick, Lebanon, Somersworth, New Hampshire, Rollinsford, New Hampshire, Rochester, New Hampshire and Salmon Falls River.

Gothic-style house with carved bargeboard trim, a pointed window and diamond-pane sashes

The rules in Berwick

Siding replacement No permit

No. Berwick's Land Use Ordinance (June 2026 update) exempts repairs, replacement and normal maintenance that need no structural elements, and decorative changes, from its permit requirement, as long as the work follows the law.

Window replacement, same opening No permit Enlarging or cutting an opening Conditional

The ordinance defines decorative changes to include adding, removing or moving windows and doors, but a new opening needs a header, which is structural; ask the Code Enforcement Officer.

Maine sets this, not Berwick: U-0.30 or lower

With 7,950 residents in the 2020 Census, Berwick is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

That is the 2021 energy code’s window figure, with no solar heat gain limit.

ENERGY STAR’s own figure here is U-0.22 or lower with an SHGC of 0.17 or higher, stricter than any code edition in force. When the code applies to a replacement window, and when it does not.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-698-1101
Official: Terry Wilson, Code Enforcement Officer
Permits: Department page

What is behind the siding: every layer explained

Worker on a lift painting new shingle and lap siding on a house gable

Kitchen window with potted plants on the sill and a snowy yard outside

Red clapboard cape-style house with a center chimney, shrubs and a sunny lawn

Blue clapboard house with a front gable, a covered porch and a green lawn

How Berwick compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Berwick	No	No	U-0.30
North Berwick	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
South Berwick	No	No	U-0.30
Lebanon	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Biddeford	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Buxton	No	No	U-0.30
Cornish	Not published	Not published	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Berwick

No completed job in Berwick on the books yet, and we would rather say so than invent one.

Common questions about Berwick

How old are most houses in Berwick?

37% went up in 2000 or later and 32% in the 1980s and 1990s; the median Berwick home dates from 1989, and 31% are older than 1980 (16% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Is a permit needed to replace siding or windows in Berwick?

Not for siding. Berwick's rules require no permit to re-side and to replace a window in the same opening and make it depend on the job whether you need a permit to cut or enlarge an opening. No. Berwick's Land Use Ordinance (June 2026 update) exempts repairs, replacement and normal maintenance that need no structural elements, and decorative changes, from its permit requirement, as long as the work follows the law. Next door in North Berwick, a re-side has no published rule.

What window efficiency rule applies in Berwick?

Maine sets it statewide, not Berwick: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 7,950 residents in the 2020 Census, Berwick is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

What does the egress rule mean for windows in Berwick?

Yes. 65% of Berwick's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $369,100), and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening: at least 5.7 square feet of net clear opening (5 at a grade-floor sill), 24 inches high and 20 inches wide, with the sill no more than 44 inches above the floor (IRC R310).

Where these facts came from

Sources: berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · berwickmaine.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Berwick

What we do in Berwick

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes