Window and siding replacement in Saco

Saco at a glance

People

20,819

Homes

9,869

Size

38.6 square miles

From downtown

About 12 miles southwest

ZIP codes

04072

Founded or incorporated

1775

Saco sits on Saco Bay at the mouth of the Saco River, with beach neighborhoods such as Camp Ellis, Ferry Beach, Bay View and Kinney Shores in the salt air; the Camp Ellis shore has been eroding since a jetty was built at the river mouth in the 1860s. Downtown grew as a textile mill center around Factory Island after the railroad arrived in 1842, and Saco became a city in 1867.

The houses in Saco

Of the homes in Saco, 47% predate 1980 and 22% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1982. Detached single-family houses make up 56%; owners live in 73% of the occupied ones. 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 Saco is worth about $413,100. 57% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Saco were built before 1982, 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 73% of occupied homes here against 77% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $413,100 here and $395,700 across the county and detached houses are 56% of the homes, below the county's 70%.

Rooms in the median home

5.5

Heated with gas / electricity

8% / 14%

Townhouses and other attached homes

6%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

16%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

18%

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 Saco, 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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Camp Ellis, Ferry Beach, Bay View, Kinney Shores, Factory Island, Sandy Brook and Boothbay Park.

Historic districts

Saco has 2 listed: Saco Historic District and Biddeford-Saco Mills 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

Saco shares a boundary with Biddeford, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough, Buxton, Dayton, Saco River and Saco Bay.

The rules in Saco

What the permit costs

Alterations to one- and two-family homes, siding and replacement windows included, cost $12 per $1,000 of estimated construction cost, with a $45 minimum; the city says building permits take about 30 business days.

Local quirks

In Saco's historic districts, installing vinyl siding and replacing wooden window sash both need a certificate of appropriateness, the standards prohibit vinyl siding on buildings not already sided with vinyl, and they ask that every reasonable effort be made to preserve historic wooden sash.

Who to call

Building dept

207-284-6983

Official

David Twomey, Director of Code Enforcement

Permits

Department page

How Saco compares with its neighbors

All 29 York County places side by side →

Work we have done in Saco

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

Common questions about Saco

Where these facts came from

Sources: sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · ecode360.com · sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · sacomaine.org · ecode360.com · sacome.portal.iworq.net · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov