Window and Siding Replacement in Parsonsfield, ME

Parsonsfield 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

55%

Homes in Parsonsfield, Census 2020–2024

People: 1,715
Homes: 1,081
Size: 58.9 square miles
From downtown: About 32 miles west
ZIP codes: 04047, 04028
Founded or incorporated: 1785

Parsonsfield, in the far northwest corner of York County, is a hilly town whose average elevation is about 1,000 feet, with the villages of Kezar Falls and North, East and South Parsonsfield. Kezar Falls grew around a woolen mill on the Ossipee River and straddles the line with Porter, and the Federal-style Blazo-Leavitt House dates from 1812.

The houses in Parsonsfield

Before 194025%

1940–19595%

1960–197925%

1980–199920%

2000 or later25%

In Parsonsfield, 55% of homes went up before 1980 and 25% before 1940; the median one dates from 1977. 83% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 86% 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.

56% of the homes in Parsonsfield have three or more bedrooms. The median owned home is worth about $272,100 by its owner's estimate, the figure to weigh any siding or window quote against.

Half the homes in Parsonsfield were built before 1977, which makes its housing about 3 years older than across York County as a whole (median 1980). Set against York County as a whole, owners live in 86% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $272,100 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 83% of the homes, above the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.5
Heated with gas / electricity: 1% / 5%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 0%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 3%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 0%
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 Parsonsfield, 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 the 1960s and 1970s

The bottom of the wall. Panel siding that runs down close to the ground soaks up water and snowmelt, and the rim joist and sill plate behind it rot unseen. On a converted camp, check whether there is any sheathing at all before anyone prices new siding as a simple swap.

Neighborhoods

We work across Kezar Falls, Parsonsfield, North Parsonsfield, East Parsonsfield, South Parsonsfield and Maplewood.

Next door

Parsonsfield shares a boundary with Newfield, Limerick, Cornish, Porter, Hiram, Effingham, New Hampshire, Wakefield, New Hampshire and Ossipee River.

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

The rules in Parsonsfield

Siding replacement Not published

Parsonsfield's Land Use and Development Ordinance requires any permit it calls for before an existing structure is expanded, changed or replaced, and its Building Code section applies to alterations and repairs. Siding and windows are not named, so ask the Code Enforcement Office.

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 Parsonsfield: U-0.30 or lower

Parsonsfield counted 1,791 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

The town's Building Code section requires exterior walls to be covered with clapboards, wood siding, masonry, vinyl, aluminum or another approved material within 12 months, and tarred paper or felt may not serve as the finished covering.

Who to call

Official: Norman Hutchins, Code Enforcement Officer
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

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

Blue clapboard house with a front gable, a covered porch and a green lawn

How Parsonsfield compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Parsonsfield	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Newfield	No	No	U-0.30
Limerick	No	No	U-0.30
Cornish	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Saco	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Sanford	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Shapleigh	Not published	Not published	U-0.30

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Parsonsfield

We have not logged a finished job in Parsonsfield 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 Parsonsfield

When were most of the homes in Parsonsfield built?

25% went up before 1940 and 25% in the 1960s and 1970s; the median Parsonsfield home dates from 1977, and 55% are older than 1980 (25% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

No rule is published. Parsonsfield'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. Parsonsfield's Land Use and Development Ordinance requires any permit it calls for before an existing structure is expanded, changed or replaced, and its Building Code section applies to alterations and repairs. Next door in Newfield, a re-side needs no permit.

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

Maine sets it statewide, not Parsonsfield: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. Parsonsfield counted 1,791 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.

Do bedroom windows in Parsonsfield have to meet the egress rule?

Yes. 56% of Parsonsfield's homes have three or more bedrooms (median owner-estimated value $272,100), 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: parsonsfield.org · parsonsfield.org · parsonsfield.org · parsonsfield.org · parsonsfield.org · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov · www2.census.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov

Window and siding replacement in Parsonsfield

What we do in Parsonsfield

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes