Wind, ice and your siding

Coastal storms are the siding story in southern Maine. The National Weather Service's Gray office records them:

• April 16, 2007: a gust of 59 mph measured at the Portland Jetport and an estimated 81 mph on Cape Elizabeth, with a roof blown off a Portland apartment building.
• October 30, 2017: Portland gusted to 69 mph, tied for the 8th strongest gust in its records since 1872.
• December 18, 2023: three gusts of at least 58 mph at the Portland Jetport, and damaging winds that lasted much longer than usual.
• January 13, 2024: the Portland tide gauge reached 14.57 feet, a record in data back to 1912, three days after a 63 mph gust at the Jetport.

Hail is the smaller risk. From 2016 through 2025 the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center logged 18 reports of hail an inch or larger in Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York counties together, none in Sagadahoc County and none of them 1.75 inches or more. The largest stone, 1.5 inches, was reported in Cumberland County on July 20, 2025. Siding has no hail rating. The Class 1 to 4 impact classes people quote are a roofing test (UL 2218), and wall cladding has no consumer label of its own.

What wind and ice do to a wall

• Vinyl unlocks at the laps and blows off in strips, often starting at a corner or under a window.
• Cedar shingles split and lift; a few loose ones let rain in behind the course below.
• Windows leak at the head flashing when rain is driven sideways for hours, and at the sill when water backs up behind a clogged weep.
• Ice dams push meltwater back under the roof edge and down inside the wall below.

After a storm

1. Photograph everything before anything is touched, with the date.
2. Walk the windward walls first, the side the storm came from.
3. Find out what the siding is, maker, profile and color, before the claim: a discontinued product changes it.
4. Look inside too: water stains under windows and at the tops of walls show where the wall took water.

Insurance claims and Maine law

Maine licenses insurance adjusters, and its definition is broad: anyone paid to investigate, settle or report on a claim for an insured is an adjuster, and acting as one without a Maine license is against the law (24-A M.R.S. §§ 1402 and 1411). A siding or window contractor holds no such license. So our part is the plain one: we measure and photograph the damage, identify the siding and the windows, and give you a written scope you can send your insurer. The claim, the policy and the deductible stay yours, and nobody here will offer to cover or waive a deductible; Maine's insurance fraud law covers false information about a claim or a payment (24-A M.R.S. § 2186).

Where this comes into the work

• Siding repair
• Siding replacement

Sources: weather.gov · weather.gov · weather.gov · ncei.noaa.gov · spc.noaa.gov · spc.noaa.gov · efficiencymaine.com · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov