Window and siding replacement in Brunswick

Brunswick at a glance

People

22,336

Homes

9,523

Size

46.8 square miles

From downtown

About 22 miles northeast

ZIP codes

04011

Founded or incorporated

1739

Brunswick sits at the north end of Casco Bay and at the head of tide on the Androscoggin River, whose falls powered up to 25 sawmills and Maine's first cotton mill in 1809. Bowdoin College and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House are here, and the town has four National Register historic districts.

The houses in Brunswick

In Brunswick, 48% of homes went up before 1980 and 20% before 1940; the median one dates from 1982. 52% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 71% 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.

57% of the homes in Brunswick have three or more bedrooms. The median owned home is worth about $376,300 by its owner's estimate, the figure to weigh any siding or window quote against.

Half the homes in Brunswick were built before 1982, which makes its housing about 6 years newer than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 71% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $376,300 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 52% of the homes, below the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home

5.6

Heated with gas / electricity

21% / 13%

Townhouses and other attached homes

9%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

11%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

14%

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 Brunswick, 27% 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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Cooks Corner, Brunswick Landing, Merepoint, Bunganuc Landing, Pennellville, Dyer Corner, Growstown and Harding.

Historic districts

Brunswick has 4 listed: Federal Street Historic District, Lincoln Street Historic District, Brunswick Commercial Historic District and Pennellville Historic District. 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

Brunswick shares a boundary with Topsham, Freeport, Harpswell, West Bath, Bath, Durham, Androscoggin River and Casco Bay.

The rules in Brunswick

Local quirks

In the Village Review Zone, the Village Review Board reviews changes of siding and changes to window muntin profiles, even where no building permit is needed. Its guidelines prefer repairing original wood clapboards, note that clapboards from before the 1920s came from old-growth wood, allow vinyl, aluminum and other non-wood siding as the guidelines illustrate, and bar asphalt and asbestos siding; windows replaced with identical styles and materials need no review.

Who to call

Building dept

207-725-6660

Official

Mike Pindell, Code Enforcement Officer; Taylor Lund, Code Enforcement Officer and Zoning Administrator

Permits

Department page

How Brunswick compares with its neighbors

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Brunswick

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

Common questions about Brunswick

Where these facts came from

Sources: brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · brunswickme.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov