Window and Siding Replacement in Cornish, ME

Cornish 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

54%

Homes in Cornish, Census 2020–2024

People: 1,803
Homes: 863
Size: 22.2 square miles
From downtown: About 29 miles west
ZIP codes: 04020
Founded or incorporated: 1794

Cornish is a small river town where the Ossipee River meets the Saco River, with a village of antique shops and restaurants near historic Thompson Park. It holds the highest ground in York County, Clark Mountain at over 1,320 feet.

The houses in Cornish

Before 194018%

1940–195919%

1960–197918%

1980–199923%

2000 or later23%

Of the homes in Cornish, 54% predate 1980 and 18% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1976. Detached single-family houses make up 81%; owners live in 82% of the occupied ones. With most of the housing older than 1980, the federal lead rule is likely on most window and siding jobs here. What the lead rule requires of a contractor.

Owners here put the median home's value at about $274,200, and 59% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Cornish were built before 1976, which makes its housing about 4 years older than across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 82% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $274,200 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 81% of the homes, above the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 6.0
Heated with gas / electricity: 0% / 4%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 1%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 7%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 2%
Mobile homes: 10%

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 Cornish, 23% 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 Cornish Village and Thompson Park.

Next door

Cornish shares a boundary with Hiram, Baldwin, Limington, Limerick and Parsonsfield.

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

The rules in Cornish

Siding replacement Not published

Cornish's Land Use Ordinance requires a building or use permit for the uses in its table and does not name siding or windows. Ask the Code Enforcement Officer 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 Cornish: U-0.30 or lower

Cornish counted 1,508 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.

What the permit costs

The town fee schedule charges $10 per $2,000 of value for renovations.

Local quirks

In Cornish's Historic District around the village center, and on the historic buildings the town lists, the materials used for windows, doors and siding are part of the review of any material change, and the Planning Board must approve before a permit to alter a listed building's exterior is issued.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-653-4608
Official: Dan Vaillancourt, Code Enforcement Officer, Building 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

Yellow clapboard house with black shutters behind a white picket fence

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

How Cornish compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Cornish	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Baldwin	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Limington	No	No	U-0.30
Limerick	No	No	U-0.30
Parsonsfield	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Dayton	No	No	U-0.30
Eliot	Depends	Depends	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Cornish

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

Common questions about Cornish

How old are most houses in Cornish?

23% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 23% in 2000 or later; the median Cornish home dates from 1976, and 54% are older than 1980 (18% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

No rule is published. Cornish'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. Cornish's Land Use Ordinance requires a building or use permit for the uses in its table and does not name siding or windows. Next door in Baldwin, a re-side depends on the job.

What window efficiency rule applies in Cornish?

Maine sets it statewide, not Cornish: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Cornish counted 1,508 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.

How much is a building permit in Cornish?

The town fee schedule charges $10 per $2,000 of value for renovations.

Where these facts came from

Sources: cornishme.com · cornishme.com · cornishme.com · cornishme.com · cornishme.com · cornishme.com · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Cornish

What we do in Cornish

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes