Cedar Siding & Shingles in Chebeague Island, Maine

Cedar is the island's traditional wall. Weathered shingles on summer cottages, painted cedar clapboard on the older year-round houses, and shingled additions on newer homes are all part of how Chebeague looks from the ferry. For owners who want to keep that look, red or white cedar is still the honest choice, and it can be installed as individual shingles, as pre-assembled shingle panels, or as clapboard with the original exposure. It is also light enough to move to the island without much barge planning.

The exposure here is hard on cedar. Salt, sun and constant wind dry shingles on the south and west faces and keep the north walls damp, which is where moss, cupping and split tips show up first. Stainless steel or hot-dipped fasteners are essential near salt water, since ordinary nails streak and rust through. Back-priming or a rainscreen gap behind the shingles lets them dry between storms, and a factory-applied finish slows graying for owners who would rather not see raw weathering. Bare cedar left to silver is the lowest-effort path; stained or painted cedar needs a recoat on a schedule, and on a seasonal house that schedule has to fit around when someone can be on the island.

Census estimates count about 554 housing units in the town, and the median year built is 1938, which makes Chebeague one of the oldest housing stocks in Cumberland County. Roughly 51 percent of units predate 1940 and about 57 percent predate 1960. Building slowed sharply after that: only around 9 percent went up between 1960 and 1979, while about 20 percent date from 2000 or later. Nearly 97 percent of units are single-family detached houses, and about 71 percent of year-round households own their home. The defining number is seasonal use: about 263 units, close to half the total, are held for seasonal or occasional occupancy. Expect wood-frame capes and farmhouses from the fishing and stone-sloop era, cottages and former boarding houses from the summer-hotel years, and a newer layer of homes built since 2000.

Great Chebeague sits in the middle of Casco Bay, about 10 miles northeast of Portland, with open water on every side and no mainland ridge to break the wind. Nor'easters push rain and spray straight into east- and north-facing walls, and salt settles on siding, flashing and fasteners well back from the shore. The nearest long-term weather record is Portland International Jetport, where 1991 to 2020 normals put average snowfall at about 69 inches a year. Winters here swing across freezing again and again, so water that gets behind trim or under shingle tabs freezes, expands and opens the gap further. The town's own site keeps a disaster-relief page for the December 2023 and January 2024 storms, a reminder of how hard winter storms hit.

Building permits come from the Town of Chebeague Island Code Enforcement office, which posts its monthly permit reports online. The town's zoning ordinance says no building may be erected, structurally altered, enlarged or moved without a permit from the Code Enforcement Officer, and a new or enlarged structure needs a site plan showing the lot, buildings and yards. The town fee schedule has a separate category for decks and sheds, and fines for building without a permit start at double the fee. Shoreland overlay districts cover the waterfront, with setbacks set by the town's Shoreland Zoning Ordinance, and a dozen small islands in the town are entirely Resource Protection.

Cedar clapboards and shingles are the original New England exterior, and for shingle-style cottages, capes and historic homes nothing else looks quite right. Cedar is naturally rot-resistant and light, but it is wood: it needs airflow behind it and a finish that suits the exposure. Pre-finished shingles, such as the Maibec shingles on several projects shown on this site, arrive stained or primed on all sides, which cuts the upkeep and evens out the color.

• Walls are stripped, repaired and wrapped; where it helps drying, a ventilated or drainage layer goes behind the cedar.
• Shingles are coursed and laid out so exposure lines up at windows, doors and corners.
• Stainless or hot-dipped galvanized fasteners are used so they do not stain or corrode.
• Corners are woven or finished with boards, and trim is detailed to shed water.
• Pre-finished product is touched up at cuts; natural cedar is left to weather or finished as you choose.

• The house is a cape, shingle-style cottage or historic home where cedar belongs
• Existing shingles are cupped, split, missing or black with mildew
• A historic district or your own taste calls for real wood
• You want a natural finish that weathers to silver-gray

• Clapboard versus shingle, and grade of cedar
• Pre-finished versus natural or site-finished
• Coursing detail, corner treatment and trim
• Wall area, height and tear-off
• Any rainscreen or drainage layer behind the siding

Every job is priced from a free on-site visit. Typical ranges for the trade are on our siding page, and the details of this service are on the cedar siding and shingles overview.

Back to the Chebeague Island exterior services overview, or see every town on our Cumberland County service areas page.