Window and Siding Replacement in Bowdoinham, ME

Bowdoinham 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; town need not enforce)

Built before 1980

38%

Homes in Bowdoinham, Census 2020–2024

People: 3,142
Homes: 1,370
Size: 34.4 square miles
From downtown: About 33 miles northeast
ZIP codes: 04008
Founded or incorporated: 1762

Bowdoinham lies on the west shore of Merrymeeting Bay, where several rivers meet, and is drained by the Cathance, Abagadasset, Muddy and Kennebec rivers. Its village grew at Cathance Landing on the Cathance River, where ships were built for about 144 years, from about 1768 to 1912.

The houses in Bowdoinham

Before 194015%

1940–19593%

1960–197920%

1980–199940%

2000 or later23%

Of the homes in Bowdoinham, 38% predate 1980 and 15% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1985. Detached single-family houses make up 81%; owners live in 94% 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.

Owners here put the median home's value at about $405,500, and 62% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Bowdoinham were built before 1985, which makes its housing about 8 years newer than across Sagadahoc County as a whole (median 1977). Set against Sagadahoc County as a whole, owners live in 94% of occupied homes here against 78% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $405,500 here and $333,300 across the county and detached houses are 81% of the homes, above the county's 75%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.8
Heated with gas / electricity: 0% / 11%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 0%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 0%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 5%
Mobile homes: 14%

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 Bowdoinham, 40% 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 23% 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 Bowdoinham Village, Pork Point, Abagadasset Point, Brown's Point and Center's Point.

Next door

Bowdoinham shares a boundary with Richmond, Bowdoin, Topsham, Woolwich, Merrymeeting Bay and Kennebec River.

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

The rules in Bowdoinham

Siding replacement No permit

No. Bowdoinham's Code Enforcement page exempts the maintenance, repair or replacement of a portion of a building that does not change its internal layout or external footprint, as long as the property complies with town ordinances and state law.

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

A same-size window is a replacement of a portion of the building. A new opening changes no footprint but is not named, so ask the Code Enforcement Officer.

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

Bowdoinham counted 3,047 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.

Local quirks

A building permit is required to construct, alter, relocate, demolish or replace a building or part of one, so anything beyond like-for-like repair is a conversation with the town first.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-666-5531
Official: Jason Lorrain, Code Enforcement Officer and Local Plumbing Inspector
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

Victorian clapboard house with a mansard roof, bracketed eaves and a columned front porch

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

How Bowdoinham compares with its neighbors

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

All 10 Sagadahoc County places side by side →

Work we have done in Bowdoinham

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

Common questions about Bowdoinham

How old are most houses in Bowdoinham?

40% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 23% in 2000 or later; the median Bowdoinham home dates from 1985, and 38% are older than 1980 (15% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

Not for siding. Bowdoinham'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. Bowdoinham's Code Enforcement page exempts the maintenance, repair or replacement of a portion of a building that does not change its internal layout or external footprint, as long as the property complies with town ordinances and state law. Next door in Richmond, a re-side has no published rule.

What window efficiency rule applies in Bowdoinham?

Maine sets it statewide, not Bowdoinham: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Bowdoinham counted 3,047 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 Bowdoinham have to meet the egress rule?

Yes. 62% of Bowdoinham's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $405,500), 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: bowdoinham.com · bowdoinham.com · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Bowdoinham

What we do in Bowdoinham

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes