Window and Siding Replacement in Kittery, ME

Kittery at a glance

Permit to re-side

Required

Window, same opening

Depends

New or bigger opening: required

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide)

Built before 1980

60%

Homes in Kittery, Census 2020–2024

People: 10,473
Homes: 5,534
Size: 17.8 square miles
From downtown: About 48 miles south
ZIP codes: 03904, 03905
Founded or incorporated: 1647

Kittery, incorporated in 1647 as the oldest town in Maine, sits at the mouth of the Piscataqua River across from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island. Kittery Point is its seaside district on the open ocean, and the town also takes in Badger's Island and part of the Isles of Shoals.

The houses in Kittery

Before 194025%

1940–195921%

1960–197914%

1980–199915%

2000 or later25%

In Kittery, 60% of homes went up before 1980 and 25% before 1940; the median one dates from 1965. 63% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 67% 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.

By the owners' own estimate, the median owned home in Kittery is worth about $468,500. 53% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Kittery were built before 1965, which makes its housing about 15 years older than across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 67% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $468,500 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 63% of the homes, below the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.8
Heated with gas / electricity: 5% / 13%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 6%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 18%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 7%
Mobile homes: 6%

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 Kittery, 25% of them, was built before 1940, so that is the house described here.

The originals are wood double-hung sashes on cords and weights: small panes on the capes and farmhouses, two-over-two or one-over-one on the Victorian, Italianate and Greek Revival houses of the shipbuilding and mill towns. Many now sit behind an aluminum storm window added decades later. The sash wood is usually old-growth and sound; the putty, the sill paint and the cords are what give out. A tuned-up sash with a tight storm in front of it is a real alternative to replacement on these houses, and inside a local historic district it is often the one the review expects.

Painted wood clapboards on the street walls, and cedar shingles on the sides, the ells and every surface of the Shingle-style summer houses along the coast, all nailed straight to board sheathing. In the cities a good share of these are two- and three-family houses. Plenty were later wrapped in asbestos-cement shingles, aluminum or vinyl to stop the painting; underneath is either clapboard worth restoring or soft bottom courses where winter snow banked against the wall for decades.

The one to watch on a house of this age

Nothing behind the boards sheds water: no house wrap and no flashing at the window heads, only paint and trim. A new window set into that wall needs a sill pan and head flashing improvised into old framing, so ask how the installer will lap it before you compare prices.

And on the 25% 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 Kittery Point, Kittery Foreside, Badger's Island, Gerrish Island, Seavey's Island, Cutts Island, Isles of Shoals, Admiralty Village, Shepherds Hill, Seapoint and Crescent Beach.

Next door

Kittery shares a boundary with Eliot, York, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, New Castle, New Hampshire, Rye, New Hampshire, Piscataqua River and Atlantic Ocean.

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

The rules in Kittery

Siding replacement Permit required

Yes, through a maintenance permit. Kittery's fee schedule treats repairs to roofs and siding on an existing home as maintenance: an application is still required, with a $25 fee, and the $12 per $1,000 fee is waived on the first $10,000 of the job.

Window replacement, same opening Conditional Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required

The land use code (section 16.2.8) requires a permit when the fair market value of the work is more than $2,000, when there is a structural alteration, or when the work needs an inspection; a new or enlarged opening is structural.

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

With 10,070 residents in the 2020 Census, Kittery 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.

What the permit costs

Maintenance work: a $25 application with the $12 per $1,000 fee waived on the first $10,000; other building permits $12 per $1,000, and after-the-fact permits cost double. Applications go through the town's online portal.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-475-1304
Official: Kearsten Metz and Carrie Varao, Code Enforcement Officers
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

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

How Kittery compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Kittery	Yes	Depends	U-0.30
Eliot	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
York	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Lebanon	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Limerick	No	No	U-0.30
Limington	No	No	U-0.30
Lyman	No	No	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Kittery

We have not logged a finished job in Kittery 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 Kittery

When were most of the homes in Kittery built?

25% went up before 1940 and 25% in 2000 or later; the median Kittery home dates from 1965, and 60% are older than 1980 (25% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Do I need a permit to re-side a house in Kittery?

Yes, for siding. Kittery's rules require a permit to re-side and to cut or enlarge an opening and make it depend on the job whether you need a permit to replace a window in the same opening. Next door in Eliot, a re-side depends on the job.

What U-factor does a replacement window need in Kittery?

Maine sets it statewide, not Kittery: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 10,070 residents in the 2020 Census, Kittery is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

How much is a building permit in Kittery?

Maintenance work: a $25 application with the $12 per $1,000 fee waived on the first $10,000; other building permits $12 per $1,000, and after-the-fact permits cost double.

Where these facts came from

Sources: ecode360.com · ecode360.com · kitteryme.gov · ecode360.com · kitteryme.viewpointcloud.com · api-east.viewpointcloud.com · kitteryme.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Kittery

What we do in Kittery

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes