Window and Siding Replacement in Ogunquit, ME

Ogunquit at a glance

Permit to re-side

Depends

Window, same opening

Depends

New or bigger opening: required

Window must meet

U-0.30 or lower

2021 IECC (statewide)

Built before 1980

52%

Homes in Ogunquit, Census 2020–2024

People: 1,379
Homes: 2,093
Size: 4.1 square miles
From downtown: About 34 miles southwest
ZIP codes: 03907
Founded or incorporated: 1980

Ogunquit, a village of Wells until it became its own town in 1980, is a small coastal resort with a mile-and-a-half barrier beach, the Marginal Way cliff walk and Perkins Cove, a fishing cove that became an art colony after 1898. Seaside hotels and inns went up as summer crowds grew, and the town sits right on the open Atlantic.

The houses in Ogunquit

Before 194020%

1940–195916%

1960–197916%

1980–199928%

2000 or later20%

52% of the homes in Ogunquit are older than 1980 and 20% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1978; 75% are detached houses and 94% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. 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 $875,700, and 64% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Ogunquit were built before 1978, which makes its housing about the same age as across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 94% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $875,700 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 75% of the homes, above the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.4
Heated with gas / electricity: 1% / 16%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 3%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 8%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 11%
Mobile homes: 3%

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 Ogunquit, 28% 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 20% built before 1940

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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Perkins Cove, Ogunquit Beach, Footbridge Beach, Israels Head, Oarweed Cove, Walnut Hill and Little Beach.

Next door

Ogunquit shares a boundary with Wells, York and Atlantic Ocean.

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

The rules in Ogunquit

Siding replacement Conditional

It depends on the job. Ogunquit's Building Construction ordinance (section 36-13) requires a permit for all construction and alteration but exempts repairs that involve no structural alteration and no electrical, plumbing or mechanical work, and the town's permit page lists any construction or alteration of a structure.

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

A same-size window can count as a repair under that exemption. A new or enlarged opening is a structural alteration.

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

Ogunquit, with 1,577 residents in the 2020 Census, is not required to enforce the state's code, but its own pages tie its permits to it.

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

Residential building permits cost $14 per $1,000 of value, with a $70 minimum, and fees double (up to $2,500) when work starts without a permit.

Local quirks

On a property the town has designated a historic site or landmark, any physical change to the exterior needs a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission, whether or not a building permit is needed.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-646-9326
Official: Tyler McOsker, Director of Codes and Health Officer
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

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

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

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

How Ogunquit compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Ogunquit	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Wells	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
York	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Old Orchard Beach	Yes	Not published	U-0.30
Parsonsfield	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Saco	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Sanford	Yes	Yes	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Ogunquit

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

Common questions about Ogunquit

What age of house is typical in Ogunquit?

28% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 20% before 1940; the median Ogunquit home dates from 1978, and 52% are older than 1980 (20% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

Does Ogunquit require a permit for new siding or windows?

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

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

Maine sets it statewide, not Ogunquit: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Ogunquit, with 1,577 residents in the 2020 Census, is not required to enforce the state's code, but its own pages tie its permits to it.

How much is a building permit in Ogunquit?

Residential building permits cost $14 per $1,000 of value, with a $70 minimum, and fees double (up to $2,500) when work starts without a permit.

Where these facts came from

Sources: ogunquit.gov · ecode360.com · ogunquit.gov · ogunquit.gov · ogunquit.gov · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · legislature.maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Ogunquit

What we do in Ogunquit

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes