Window and Siding Replacement in Dayton, ME

Dayton 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

37%

Homes in Dayton, Census 2020–2024

People: 2,313
Homes: 872
Size: 17.9 square miles
From downtown: About 18 miles southwest
ZIP codes: 04005
Founded or incorporated: 1854

Dayton is a small town on the Saco River across from Saco and Buxton, set off from the southern part of Hollis in 1854. The Great Fires of 1947 destroyed two-thirds of Dayton, including 27 homes, four barns and the town hall.

The houses in Dayton

Before 194014%

1940–19596%

1960–197917%

1980–199936%

2000 or later28%

37% of the homes in Dayton are older than 1980 and 14% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1990; 89% are detached houses and 90% 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 Dayton is worth about $398,200. 79% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Dayton were built before 1990, which makes its housing about 10 years newer than across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 90% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $398,200 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 89% of the homes, above the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 6.2
Heated with gas / electricity: 0% / 7%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 1%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 5%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 0%
Mobile homes: 4%

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 Dayton, 36% 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 28% 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 Union Falls and Goodwins Mills.

Next door

Dayton shares a boundary with Saco, Biddeford, Arundel, Lyman, Hollis, Buxton and Saco River.

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

The rules in Dayton

Siding replacement No permit

No. Dayton's Zoning Ordinance (section 8.2) exempts repairs, replacement and normal maintenance not requiring structural elements, and decorative changes, from the building permit, and it defines decorative changes to include re-siding.

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

The definition of decorative changes also covers adding, removing or moving windows and doors, but a new opening needs structural framing; ask before cutting one.

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

Dayton counted 2,129 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

Permit fees are set each year by the Select Board.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-499-3034
Official: Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.
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 Dayton compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Dayton	No	No	U-0.30
Saco	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Biddeford	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Arundel	No	No	U-0.30
Lyman	No	No	U-0.30
Hollis	No	Not published	U-0.30
Buxton	No	No	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Dayton

We have not logged a finished job in Dayton yet. When we do, it will be listed here with what was done — we would rather show nothing than a number you cannot check.

Common questions about Dayton

What age of house is typical in Dayton?

36% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 28% in 2000 or later; the median Dayton home dates from 1990, and 37% are older than 1980 (14% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Does Dayton require a permit for new siding or windows?

Not for siding. Dayton'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. Dayton's Zoning Ordinance (section 8.2) exempts repairs, replacement and normal maintenance not requiring structural elements, and decorative changes, from the building permit, and it defines decorative changes to include re-siding. Next door in Saco, a re-side needs a permit.

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

Maine sets it statewide, not Dayton: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Dayton counted 2,129 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.

What does the egress rule mean for windows in Dayton?

Yes. 79% of Dayton's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $398,200), 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: dayton-me.gov · dayton-me.gov · dayton-me.gov · dayton-me.gov · dayton-me.gov · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Dayton

What we do in Dayton

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes