Vinyl Siding in Portland and Southern Maine

Hung loose, the way the panels are designed

The Vinyl Siding Institute's installation tips are short and specific, and most vinyl failures trace back to ignoring one of them:

• Nails go in the center of the nailing slot and reach at least 1 1/4 inches into something that holds a nail.
• The nail head stops about 1/32 inch off the panel, roughly the thickness of a dime, so the panel can slide.
• Siding nails sit no more than 16 inches apart, and accessories 8 to 12 inches.
• Every panel end gets 1/4 inch of room inside the channel at openings and corners.
• Panels overlap 1 inch, seams are staggered at least 2 feet apart, and nothing is face-nailed except the last nail at the top of a gable.

Cold-weather installs need more room, not less, because a panel hung in January will grow all summer. When we walk a wall that is already rippled, the first thing we check is whether the panels can still move.

Vinyl and the coastal wind

Storms here are about wind. The National Weather Service recorded a 69 mph gust in Portland on October 30, 2017, and an estimated 81 mph on Cape Elizabeth during the Patriots' Day storm of 2007. Vinyl that blows off nearly always starts where the locking edge was never fully engaged, at a corner or under a window, and then peels in strips.

What keeps it on:

• Each course fully locked into the one below without being stretched tight.
• The correct nailing pattern, including at the top course under the eaves, where trim is often skimped.
• A panel and accessory system rated for the exposure; houses on open water at Cape Elizabeth, Harpswell or Old Orchard Beach take more wind than a lot in a wooded subdivision.

A few loose courses after a storm are a repair, not a reason to re-side, provided the profile and color can still be found.

Insulated vinyl in a heating climate

Insulated vinyl has rigid foam fused or laminated to the back of each panel. It hangs flatter, resists dents better and quiets rain on the wall. It also adds some R-value outside the studs, where it covers the framing that cavity insulation cannot.

In a heating climate that matters more than in most of the country, but keep the numbers in proportion. The foam is thin, and air sealing and attic insulation usually do more for a heating bill than any cladding. Where insulated vinyl earns its price is on a house that is being re-sided anyway and has no other exterior insulation.

Two details change with the thicker panel: window and door trim has to stand proud enough to receive it, and Maine's code now asks for a moisture calculation on new walls that use less than R-10 of continuous exterior insulation unless the wall is vapor-open. That rule targets new construction, but the physics is the same on a re-side.

Vinyl in a Maine winter

Vinyl becomes stiffer and more brittle in the cold. A panel that would flex on an August afternoon can crack in January if a snowblower throws ice at it or a ladder is leaned against it. That is why a winter install needs more care in handling, and why dented or cracked panels near driveways and walks are common repairs here.

Snow banked against the bottom of the wall all winter is the other issue. The starter strip and the first course should sit high enough above grade and decks that meltwater does not wick behind them, and the barrier behind the bottom course has to lap over the foundation flashing, not tuck behind it.

Ice dams send meltwater down inside walls under the eaves. Vinyl does not cause that and cannot stop it; air sealing and attic insulation are the cure. But a re-side is the moment to check the sheathing at the top of those walls.

Where vinyl is limited

Several towns here restrict vinyl, and the rules are specific:

• Saco's historic preservation standards prohibit vinyl on a building in its districts that is not already sided with vinyl, and installing vinyl there needs a certificate of appropriateness.
• York's zoning bars vinyl and aluminum siding from building exteriors in its Village Center zones, and its Historic District Commission's guidelines are firm about artificial siding.
• Brunswick's Village Review Board reviews changes of siding and allows vinyl only as its guidelines illustrate.
• Inside Freeport's design review districts, vinyl visible from a public way goes to the Project Review Board; only matching wood, fiber cement or engineered wood skips that step.

Outside those districts vinyl is a permitted choice everywhere we have read. We check the address first; the historic districts guide has the full list.

Vinyl over old clapboards or shingles

A lot of vinyl in southern Maine went up over the original clapboards or over mid-century asbestos-cement shingles. It is a legitimate approach when the wall underneath is sound, and a bad one when it is not.

Before covering, we want to know four things: whether the old cladding is solid enough to nail through, whether there is rot behind it at the window corners and bottom courses, whether the old siding is asbestos-cement that should be tested, and how the window trim will deal with the added thickness. On a pre-1978 house, cutting back painted trim to fit new J-channel disturbs lead paint, so the lead-safe rule is on the job even when the old siding stays.

If the answer to any of those is uncertain, a few test openings settle it before the price is set.

What sets the price of a vinyl job

We do not publish a per-square-foot figure, because the wall decides more of the price than the panel does. The main factors:

• Tear-off and disposal, more involved when the old siding is painted or asbestos-cement.
• Sheathing repair, priced by the area actually found once the wall is open.
• Trim: wrapping existing window and door casings costs less than building new trim to receive a thicker panel.
• Product line: thicker panels, insulated vinyl and premium colors cost more and perform better in wind and cold.
• Height and access: a three-story gable or a house on a tight city lot takes more staging.

Any job over $3,000 gets a written contract under Maine law, with no more than one-third down and every one of these items spelled out.

Common questions about vinyl siding in Portland

Where we work

Vinyl siding across greater Portland and southern Maine: Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties, from the islands of Casco Bay to the Sebago Lake towns and the New Hampshire line. Each city has its own page with the permit rule and code edition that apply there: