Siding, Roofing, Windows & Decks in Portland, Maine

Portland has roughly 36,600 housing units, and the American Community Survey estimates a median year built of 1946. About 46 percent predate 1940 and about 61 percent predate 1960, while only about 16 percent date from 1960 to 1979 and about 11 percent from 2000 or later. Owners occupy about 47 percent of occupied homes, and single-family detached houses make up only about 36 percent of the stock, so multi-unit buildings are the norm rather than the exception. After the Great Fire of 1866 the peninsula was rebuilt largely in Victorian and Italianate styles, and wood-framed triple-deckers fill much of the older residential grid. Off the peninsula, Deering and the outer neighborhoods run to capes, colonials and mid-century houses. The census also counts nearly 1,900 seasonal units, many of them island cottages in Casco Bay.

Portland sits on a peninsula in Casco Bay, and exposure changes block to block. Houses on the eastern and western ends of the peninsula, along the harbor and on the islands take wind straight off the water, while inland neighborhoods such as Deering and Stroudwater are more sheltered. Snowfall averages about 69 inches a year, but the city has seen seasons as light as 30 inches and as heavy as 150. Severe nor'easters arrive in winter with wind-driven rain and snow that finds any gap in old clapboard, trim or window casing. Repeated freeze and thaw works on paint, caulk and shingles, and salt air on the waterfront and islands speeds corrosion of fasteners, flashing and exposed metal.

The city runs from the Old Port and its restored brick warehouses to wood-frame neighborhoods like Munjoy Hill, the West End, Parkside and East Bayside, then out to Deering Center, Rosemont, Riverton and North Deering. Stroudwater, at the meeting of the Stroudwater and Fore rivers, grew around a mast landing founded by Thomas Westbrook in 1727. The Deering Street district holds architect-designed houses from the second half of the nineteenth century. Portland also governs Peaks, Great Diamond, Little Diamond, Cushing and Cliff islands. Peaks, about three miles from downtown by Casco Bay Lines ferry, swells by thousands of people each summer.

Building permits in Portland go through the city's Permitting and Inspections Department, which handles permits, licensing and inspections in one office. A new deck is structural work and needs a building permit; ask the department whether a given roof, siding or window job needs one before work starts. Portland also has a strong historic preservation ordinance. Properties in local districts including the West End, India Street, Congress Street, Deering Street, Stroudwater and the Old Port waterfront need a certificate of appropriateness for exterior alterations, reviewed by preservation staff or the Historic Preservation Board. Waterfront and island lots may also fall under shoreland zoning.

Each page below covers one job in Portland: what the town's houses and weather mean for it, what the work involves, and what moves the price. For the full picture of a trade, see our siding, window replacement, roofing and deck building pages.