Window and Siding Replacement in Windham, ME

Windham 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

42%

Homes in Windham, Census 2020–2024

People: 19,188
Homes: 8,709
Size: 46.6 square miles
From downtown: About 12 miles northwest
ZIP codes: 04062, 04082
Founded or incorporated: 1762

Windham lies beside Sebago Lake, and North Windham grew into the town's commercial center on traffic from lake vacationers and Portland commuters. South Windham grew up as a mill village around a brick paperboard and pulp mill on the Presumpscot River.

The houses in Windham

Before 194012%

1940–19599%

1960–197921%

1980–199931%

2000 or later27%

In Windham, 42% of homes went up before 1980 and 12% before 1940; the median one dates from 1985. 79% are detached single-family houses, and owners live in 85% 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 Windham is worth about $388,900. 61% of homes have three or more bedrooms, and each bedroom needs an emergency escape opening under the egress rule.

Half the homes in Windham were built before 1985, which makes its housing about 9 years newer than across Cumberland County as a whole (median 1976). Set against Cumberland County as a whole, owners live in 85% of occupied homes here against 70% county-wide, the median owner-estimated value is $388,900 here and $451,200 across the county and detached houses are 79% of the homes, above the county's 63%.

Rooms in the median home: 5.5
Heated with gas / electricity: 4% / 10%
Townhouses and other attached homes: 6%
Homes in buildings of 2 to 4 units: 8%
Homes in buildings of 5 or more units: 4%
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 Windham, 31% 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 27% built in 2000 or later

Houses built to recent Maine codes are tight, and Maine now holds new houses to a lower air-leakage limit than the national code. A tight house with too little ventilation fogs its windows all winter; before blaming the glass, check the humidity and the bath and kitchen fans.

Neighborhoods

We work across North Windham, South Windham, Windham Center, Windham Hill, Newhall, Fosters Corner and Scotland.

Historic districts

Windham has 1 listed: Great Falls 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

Windham shares a boundary with Gorham, Standish, Westbrook, Falmouth, Cumberland, Gray, Raymond, Sebago Lake and Presumpscot River.

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

The rules in Windham

Siding replacement Conditional

It depends on the job. Windham's building code chapter requires a permit to construct, enlarge, alter or repair a building where town ordinance requires one, but no application is needed for ordinary repairs that do not cut away walls, cut structural beams or change a required means of egress. A re-side is not named either way.

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

A same-size window can count as an ordinary repair, unless it changes a bedroom's required escape opening. Cutting away a wall for a new or bigger opening needs a permit.

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

With 18,434 residents in the 2020 Census, Windham is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

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

The renovation and alteration permit is priced by project value: $50 up to $5,000, $60 from $5,000 to $10,000, and $7 per thousand above $10,000.

Who to call

Building dept: 207-894-5960
Official: Jon Rioux, Code Enforcement Director
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

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

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

How Windham compares with its neighbors

Place	Permit to re-side	Permit for a window	Window must meet
Windham	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Gorham	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Standish	Depends	Depends	U-0.30
Westbrook	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Falmouth	Yes	Yes	U-0.30
Cumberland	Not published	Not published	U-0.30
Gray	Depends	Depends	U-0.30

All 25 Cumberland County places side by side →

Work we have done in Windham

Not yet — Windham is on our list rather than in our records. We will say so until that changes.

Common questions about Windham

When were most of the homes in Windham built?

31% went up in the 1980s and 1990s and 27% in 2000 or later; the median Windham home dates from 1985, and 42% are older than 1980 (12% older than 1940). ACS 2020–2024.

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

For siding, it depends. Windham'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 Gorham, a re-side needs a permit.

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

Maine sets it statewide, not Windham: a U-factor of 0.30 or lower under the 2021 energy code Maine adopted, with no limit on solar heat gain. With 18,434 residents in the 2020 Census, Windham is over the 4,000 mark at which Maine requires a town to enforce the state's building and energy code.

Does Windham have historic districts that limit window or siding choices?

Windham has 1: Great Falls Historic District. Check a property's listing before ordering a visible window change.

How much is a building permit in Windham?

The renovation and alteration permit is priced by project value: $50 up to $5,000, $60 from $5,000 to $10,000, and $7 per thousand above $10,000.

Where these facts came from

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

Window and siding replacement in Windham

What we do in Windham

Replacement windows

Siding replacement

Vinyl siding

Fiber cement

Hail & storm damage

Older homes