Window and Siding Replacement in Bowdoin, ME

Bowdoin at a glance

Permit to re-side

Not published

Window, same opening

Not published

New or bigger opening: not published

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide; town need not enforce)

Built before 1980

27%

Homes in Bowdoin, Census 2020–2024

People: 3,188
Homes: 1,429
Size: 43.5 square miles
From downtown: About 32 miles northeast
ZIP codes: 04287
Founded or incorporated: 1788

Bowdoin is an inland farm town with very little open water, drained by the Little River, the Dead River and the east and west branches of the Cathance River. It grew as an agricultural community raising sheep, apples, wheat, hay and potatoes, and old cellar holes, lilacs and apple trees still mark early farmsteads along its back roads.

The houses in Bowdoin

Before 19407%

1940–19592%

1960–197918%

1980–199942%

2000 or later31%

27% of the homes in Bowdoin are older than 1980 and 7% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1992; 83% are detached houses and 85% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. 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.

By the owners' own estimate, the median owned home in Bowdoin is worth about $292,800. 75% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Bowdoin were built before 1992, which makes its housing about 15 years newer than across Sagadahoc County as a whole (median 1977). Set against Sagadahoc County as a whole, owners live in 85% of occupied homes here against 78% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $292,800 here and $333,300 across the county and detached houses are 83% of the homes, above the county's 75%.

Rooms in the median home: 6.4
Heated with gas / electricity: 0% / 9%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 0%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 0%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 0%
Mobile homes: 17%

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 Bowdoin, 42% of them, was built in the 1980s and 1990s, so that is the house described here.

Double-glazed vinyl or clad wood windows with a nailing fin, many now thirty or forty years old. The common failure is the seal between the panes: once it lets go the glass fogs between the layers and the gas fill is gone. When the frames are still square and dry, new sealed glass in the old frame is the cheaper repair; when the frames are cracked or the sills are soft, it is time for the whole unit.

The capes, colonials and raised ranches of the subdivisions that spread across the commuter towns, sided in vinyl or cedar clapboard over plywood or particle-board sheathing, with felt paper or an early house wrap behind it. The siding itself usually holds up; what to look at is what water has done at the corners, around the windows and under any deck ledger fastened through the siding.

The one to watch on a house of this age

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.

And on the 31% built in 2000 or later

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.

Neighborhoods

We work across West Bowdoin, North Bowdoin and Bowdoin Center.

Next door

Bowdoin shares a boundary with Topsham, Bowdoinham, Richmond, Litchfield, Lisbon and Sabattus.

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

The rules in Bowdoin

Siding replacement Not published

Bowdoin's town pages and its Construction Permit Application do not say which projects need a permit, and they do not mention siding or windows. Call the town office before the work starts.

Window replacement, same opening Not published Enlarging or cutting an opening Not published

Not published. Call the building department before ordering.

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

Bowdoin counted 3,136 residents in the 2020 Census, under the 4,000 mark, so it need not enforce the state's code, and its pages do not say it does; the state still counts meeting the code as the owner's responsibility.

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: 207-250-2399
Official: Dennis Douglass, Code Enforcement and Plumbing Inspector
Permits: Department page

What is behind the siding: every layer explained

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

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 Bowdoin compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Bowdoin	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Topsham	No	No	U-0.30
Bowdoinham	No	No	U-0.30
Richmond	Not published	Yes	U-0.30
Georgetown	No	No	U-0.30
Phippsburg	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
West Bath	Yes	Yes	U-0.30

All 10 Sagadahoc County places side by side →

Work we have done in Bowdoin

Not yet — Bowdoin is on our list rather than in our records. We will say so until that changes.

Common questions about Bowdoin

What age of house is typical in Bowdoin?

42% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 31% in 2000 or later; the median Bowdoin home dates from 1992, and 27% are older than 1980 (7% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Does Bowdoin require a permit for new siding or windows?

No rule is published. Bowdoin's rules say nothing on whether you need a permit to re-side, to replace a window in the same opening or to cut or enlarge an opening. Bowdoin's town pages and its Construction Permit Application do not say which projects need a permit, and they do not mention siding or windows. Next door in Topsham, a re-side needs no permit.

How energy-efficient does a new window have to be in Bowdoin?

Maine sets it statewide, not Bowdoin: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Bowdoin counted 3,136 residents in the 2020 Census, under the 4,000 mark, so it need not enforce the state's code, and its pages do not say it does; the state still counts meeting the code as the owner's responsibility.

Do bedroom windows in Bowdoin have to meet the egress rule?

Yes. 75% of Bowdoin's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $292,800), 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: bowdoinmaine.gov · bowdoinmaine.gov · bowdoinmaine.gov · bowdoinmaine.gov · bowdoinmaine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Bowdoin

What we do in Bowdoin

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes