Window and siding replacement in Westbrook

Westbrook at a glance

People

20,775

Homes

9,575

Size

17.2 square miles

From downtown

About 6 miles northwest

ZIP codes

04092, 04098

Founded or incorporated

1814

A mill city on the Presumpscot River, first called Saccarappa after the falls that powered its sawmills, with a large paper mill at Cumberland Mills. It was set off from Falmouth as a town in 1814 and became a city in 1891.

The houses in Westbrook

Of the homes in Westbrook, 56% predate 1980 and 25% predate 1940; the median one dates from 1975. Detached single-family houses make up 44%; owners live in 61% 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.

Owners here put the median home's value at about $383,300, and 46% of homes have three bedrooms or more — each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Westbrook were built before 1975, which makes its housing about the same age as across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 61% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $383,300 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 44% of the homes, below the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home

5.0

Heated with gas / electricity

19% / 17%

Townhouses and other attached homes

5%

Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units

23%

Homes in buildings of 5 or more units

21%

Mobile homes

7%

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 Westbrook, 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.

Neighborhoods

We work across Cumberland Mills, Frenchtown, Prides Corner, Deer Hill, Birdland, Highland Lake, The Hamlet, Woodland, Colonial Village, Westbrook Pointe and Old Millbrook.

Historic districts

Westbrook has 1 listed: Cumberland 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

Westbrook shares a boundary with Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Gorham, Windham and Falmouth.

The rules in Westbrook

What the permit costs

Building permits cost $50 plus $15 per $1,000 of construction cost.

Local quirks

Westbrook's code FAQ spells out the bedroom escape-window rule in its own words: every sleeping room needs an operable window or door with at least 5.7 square feet of net clear opening, 24 inches high and 20 inches wide, with the sill no more than 44 inches above the floor.

Who to call

Building dept

207-854-0638

Official

Brian Stetson, Master Code Enforcement Officer

Permits

Department page

How Westbrook compares with its neighbors

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Westbrook

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

Common questions about Westbrook

Where these facts came from

Sources: public.mygov.us · westbrookmaine.gov · westbrookmaine.gov · westbrookmaine.gov · westbrookmaine.gov · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov