Window and Siding Replacement in Bridgton, ME

Bridgton 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

41%

Homes in Bridgton, Census 2020–2024

People: 5,642
Homes: 4,620
Size: 56.9 square miles
From downtown: About 36 miles northwest
ZIP codes: 04009, 04057
Founded or incorporated: 1794

Bridgton sits between Long Lake and Highland Lake, and West Bridgton runs out to Moose Pond and Pleasant Mountain, home of the Shawnee Peak ski area. Stevens Brook, only a mile and a half long, powered a dozen mill sites through downtown.

The houses in Bridgton

Before 194011%

1940–19598%

1960–197922%

1980–199928%

2000 or later32%

Of the homes in Bridgton, 41% predate 1980 and 11% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1985. Detached single-family houses make up 74%; owners live in 83% 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 $316,600, and 62% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Bridgton were built before 1985, which makes its housing about 9 years newer than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 83% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $316,600 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 74% of the homes, above the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.1
Heated with gas / electricity: 4% / 11%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 2%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 8%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 2%
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.

The Highland Lake shoreline is heavily built up with homes and seasonal cabins.

What that vintage turns up

The largest group of homes in Bridgton, 32% 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 28% 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 North Bridgton, South Bridgton, West Bridgton and Sandy Creek.

Next door

Bridgton shares a boundary with Harrison, Naples, Sebago, Denmark, Sweden, Fryeburg, Waterford and Long Lake.

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

The rules in Bridgton

Siding replacement No permit

No, as long as the work stays inside the building's footprint and meets the code. Bridgton's Land Use Code lists repair, maintenance and improvement of a building within its existing footprint among work that needs no permit or approval, naming re-roofing, insulation, painting and replacement doors or windows among the examples.

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

Replacement windows are named on that list. A new opening that stays within the footprint falls under the same improvement wording, but anything that enlarges the building needs a building permit, so ask the Code Enforcement Officer before cutting.

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

With 5,418 residents in the 2020 Census, Bridgton 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.

Local quirks

In the shoreland zone this work must also follow the code's shoreland rules for rebuilding nonconforming buildings; the Highland Lake shoreline is heavily built up with homes and seasonal cabins.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-803-9963
Official: Brenda Day, Code Enforcement Officer and Licensed 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

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

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 Bridgton compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Bridgton	No	No	U-0.30
Harrison	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Naples	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Sebago	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Brunswick	No	Not published	U-0.30
Cape Elizabeth	No	Depends	U-0.30
Casco	Not published	Not published	U-0.30

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Bridgton

We have no finished work in Bridgton to show you yet. This fills in as jobs land, and not before.

Common questions about Bridgton

How old are most houses in Bridgton?

32% went up in 2000 or later and 28% in the 1980s and 1990s; the median Bridgton home dates from 1985, and 41% are older than 1980 (11% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

Not for siding. Bridgton'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, as long as the work stays inside the building's footprint and meets the code. Next door in Harrison, a re-side has no published rule.

What window efficiency rule applies in Bridgton?

Maine sets it statewide, not Bridgton: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 5,418 residents in the 2020 Census, Bridgton 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 Bridgton?

Yes. 62% of Bridgton's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $316,600), 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: bridgtonmaine.org · bridgtonmaine.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · bridgtonmaine.org · bridgtonmaine.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org · bridgtonmaine.org · bridgtonmaine.org · bridgtonmaine.org · bridgtonmaine.org · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Bridgton

What we do in Bridgton

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes