Window and siding replacement in Portland

Portland at a glance

People

68,854

Homes

36,559

Size

21.5 square miles

ZIP codes

04101, 04102, 04103, 04104, 04108, 04109, 04112, 04123, 04124, 04019

Founded or incorporated

1786

Maine's largest city sits on a peninsula in Casco Bay, and its limits take in Peaks, Great Diamond, Little Diamond, Cushing and Cliff islands. Casco Bay Lines ferries run year-round to the populated islands, with an auto ferry to Peaks Island for most of the schedule. The Great Fire of July 4, 1866 destroyed most of the downtown commercial buildings and hundreds of homes, and much of the old city now lies in historic districts such as the Western Promenade, Stroudwater and the Portland Waterfront.

The houses in Portland

76% of the homes in Portland are older than 1980 and 46% older than 1940; the median one dates from 1946; 36% are detached houses and 47% 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.

39% of the homes in Portland have three or more bedrooms. The median owned home is worth about $489,600 by its owner's estimate, the figure to weigh any siding or window quote against.

Half the homes in Portland were built before 1946, which makes its housing about 30 years older than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 47% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $489,600 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 36% of the homes, below the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home

4.9

Heated with gas / electricity

39% / 21%

Townhouses and other attached homes

5%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

27%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

33%

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 Portland, 46% 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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Munjoy Hill, West End, Old Port, East End, Deering Center, Bayside, Parkside, Stroudwater, North Deering, Peaks Island, Great Diamond Island and Cliff Island.

Historic districts

Portland has 11 listed: Portland Waterfront Historic District, Western Promenade Historic District, Spring Street Historic District, Deering Street Historic District, Stroudwater Historic District, Fort McKinley Historic District, Hamblen Development Historic District, Sagamore Village Historic District, Westbrook College Historic District, Congress Street Historic District and India Street Historic District. A National Register listing on its own does not limit what you fit; a local district or landmark designation can, and in several towns here a change of siding material or window sash needs a certificate before the permit. Which towns' rules bind, and how.

Next door

Portland shares a boundary with South Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Long Island, Chebeague Island and Casco Bay.

The rules in Portland

What the permit costs

Where a permit is needed, the city charges $25 for the first $1,000 of work and $15 for each added $1,000, plus an $82 historic review fee for exterior work in a historic district; starting before the permit is issued can double the fee (fee schedule revised July 2026).

Local quirks

Inside any of Portland's historic designations, an exterior alteration needs historic preservation approval before work starts and before any permit is issued (Land Use Code section 16.5.1). Ordinary maintenance that changes nothing about the design, material or outer appearance, such as in-kind replacement, is exempt, and so is work not readily visible at pedestrian height from a public way. Trading clapboards for vinyl, or original wood sash for a different window, changes the material, so it goes to review. The city's islands, Peaks, Great Diamond, Little Diamond, Cliff and Cushing, use the same permit office and rules.

Who to call

Building dept

207-874-8703

Official

Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.

Permits

Department page

How Portland compares with its neighbors

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Portland

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

Common questions about Portland

Where these facts came from

Sources: content.civicplus.com · content.civicplus.com · content.civicplus.com · content.civicplus.com · content.civicplus.com · portlandmaine.gov · portlandmaine.gov · portlandmaine.gov · portlandmaine.gov · portlandmaine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov