We Make It Easy to Find a Siding Contractor in Scarborough, Maine

Where the siding meets the ground

Walk any street in this town and the damage is at the bottom. There is a reason for that, and it is worth understanding before you pay to replace a wall that will fail the same way again.

Cladding needs air under it and around it. Every siding material is designed to sit a distance above finished grade so water can drain away and the bottom edge can dry between wettings. Close that gap and the bottom course stays damp, which is where rot and insects start. The required distance is set by the manufacturer and by code, so ask your contractor for the number rather than eyeballing it.

Mulch is the usual culprit. A bed refreshed every spring gets a little deeper each year, and after a decade it is touching or covering the bottom course. Mulch holds water against the wall by design. It also gives carpenter ants and termites a covered route from the soil to your sheathing.

Irrigation is the second culprit. A sprinkler head aimed at the foundation soaks the same three feet of wall several mornings a week, all summer, for years. That is far more water than rain delivers, and it lands on the part of the wall least able to dry.

Splash is the third. Rain coming off a roof with no gutter, or off a hard surface next to the house, throws dirt and water back up onto the lower courses. You can usually read the height of it as a stain line.

And in this town there is a water table under all of it. Scarborough sits around the largest salt marsh in Maine, and near it the ground holds water. A wall detail that would be forgiving on a dry hill is not forgiving here, so grade clearance and drainage away from the foundation matter more than they do a few miles inland.

The instruction is simple. Before the new siding goes on, get the grade sorted, get the mulch pulled back, and get the sprinklers pointed anywhere else. Ask each bidder what clearance he intends to hold at the bottom and what he wants changed outside the house before he starts. A contractor who answers that has explained why your last siding job failed.

Two Scarboroughs, two different jobs

This is the fastest-growing town in the region, and it holds two housing stocks that ask completely different things of a siding contractor.

The subdivisions. A large share of the housing here went up after 1990, which means panel sheathing, house wrap of some kind, and framing that is consistent from one house to the next. Tear-off on those is predictable and the surprises are few.

What those houses do have is thirty years of the problems above. The landscaping matured, the beds got deeper, the irrigation went in, and the bottom courses have been wet every summer since. On a house of that age the honest scope is frequently sound walls with a compromised base, which is a much cheaper project than a full replacement if somebody actually looks.

The coastal properties. Higgins Beach, Pine Point and Prouts Neck are the opposite. Older cottage stock, salt in the air, wind off the water, and buildings that have been added to over decades. Exposure changes the specification out there: fastener corrosion resistance and the finish system matter as much as the cladding material itself, and the elevation facing the water will always need attention before the other three.

Beach-area properties can also carry flood mapping and shoreland provisions. Those rarely change a straight re-side, so confirm your parcel with Town of Scarborough code enforcement only if the project grows beyond cladding.

Sort out which Scarborough you are in before you collect quotes, because experience does not transfer evenly between them. A crew that is excellent on Oak Hill subdivisions may not be right for a Prouts Neck cottage.

Who hires a siding contractor in Scarborough, ME

Owners of 1990s and 2000s subdivision homes finding soft spots at the bottom of the wall. Coastal cottage owners at Higgins, Pine Point and Prouts Neck dealing with salt and wind. Homeowners who have painted the same rot twice and want the cause fixed.

What does the job cover here?

Stripping the old cladding and carting it away, checking and repairing what it was hiding, a weather barrier, flashing at the openings, new siding, and the trim that finishes it.

Add the ground. Grade, mulch, gutters and irrigation are part of this job whether or not they appear on the quote.

When should you side a house in Scarborough?

May through October. Installation temperatures, sealants and finishes all point at the warm months, and the good crews here fill up early.

There is one nice thing about a siding project: the house stays closed in for nearly all of it, so you live there normally throughout.

Why is Scarborough different?

Because the ground is wetter than it looks. Between the marsh and a high water table, the bottom of a wall here gets asked to do more than the same wall would inland, and that is where the money goes if nobody plans for it.

And a statewide fact worth knowing: Maine does not license general contractors or builders. Plumbers and electricians hold state licenses and nobody else does, so there is no siding credential to verify. Insurance, references, financial stability and reputation can all be checked, and my ten-step process checks each one before I give you a name.

What questions come up most in Scarborough?

Why does siding rot at the bottom first? Because that is where water collects and cannot dry. Mulch, irrigation and splash off the ground all keep the lowest courses wet.

How much clearance does siding need above the ground? There is a required distance and it comes from the manufacturer and the code your town has adopted. Ask your contractor for the number for your material.

Can I just replace the bottom few courses? Often, if the wall above is sound and you fix what caused it. Ask for that priced as an option.

Does salt air change what I should install? On the beach side it changes the fasteners and the finish system as much as the cladding. Say where the house sits when you ask.

Subdivision work lands in the lower half of these ranges. Flat lots, easy staging and predictable framing all help.

Coastal work runs higher, and the reason is specification rather than difficulty. Corrosion-resistant fasteners, a finish system chosen for salt exposure, and a house that has usually been added onto all move the number.

The top row is the one to ask about if your walls are sound above the base. Replacing a compromised bottom section and fixing the drainage that caused it is a fraction of a full replacement, and any contractor who will not price that option has already decided what he wants to sell you.