Two towns, one crew: Belmont and Arlington, about 20–30 minutes out from Chestnut Hill
Siding Repair & Replacement in Belmont & Arlington, MA
Belmont and Arlington are cape, colonial and two-family towns, and most of those houses are wood. Siding repair in Belmont and Arlington is mostly rot: shingles soft under a window, clapboard split at a corner board, vinyl on a two-family hiding wet boards. One crew cuts out the rot, fits new wood, primes and paints; we re-side only when rot has reached every wall.
- Belmont Hill to East Arlington: about 20–30 minutes from Chestnut Hill
- New cedar woven in, then primed and painted by the same hands
- Cedar shingle and clapboard first; vinyl and fiber cement too
- Ice dams and dryer vents: the leaks we open most walls for
- 24-hour emergency response to storm damage
Houses in Belmont and Arlington
East Arlington and the flatter streets of Belmont near Cushing Square have pre-war two-families, many with clapboard under vinyl or aluminum. Arlington Heights and the hillier parts of Belmont have capes and colonials from the 1920s through the 1950s, mostly cedar shingle or clapboard under many coats of paint. Belmont Hill has the biggest houses in the two towns: older colonials alongside newer builds, some sided in fiber cement. Under 1980s vinyl there is often the original clapboard, and that clapboard is what rots.
What we fix most often here
- Rot on capes and colonials. Bottom courses, boards under the sills, corner boards, the wall by the dryer vent. We cut out the rot, weave in new cedar or fit back-primed clapboard, prime and paint; see wood and cedar siding repair and painting.
- Ice-dam damage. Ice dams push water behind the top courses and down inside the wall. We open the wall below the eave, dry it, add housewrap and re-side that section.
- Loose and cracked vinyl. Cracked panels, loose runs that rattle in wind, J-channel pulled off the window on the two-families. We replace and rehang.
Repair or replace? A cape with rot on the north wall and sound shingles elsewhere is a siding repair. A colonial with clapboard soft on every wall is a replacement; we talk through wood, vinyl and fiber cement for it.
Permits and historic districts
If your house sits in a historic district, check with the town’s historical commission before you change the material on a street-facing wall; repairing in kind rarely raises a question.
Both towns usually want a building permit for a full re-side and usually none for a small patch. We say which one your job is. Most capes and colonials here went up before 1978, which decides how we strip and cut.
How it works
- Photo first. Send a shot of the bad wall to (857) 245-9588. A first opinion, repair or replacement, follows by phone.
- Walk the walls. An awl in the shingles and clapboard, and a search for where the water gets in.
- Free written estimate. You get the carpentry, the paint and the materials listed, with the schedule we expect to keep.
- Repair, paint, cleanup. Carpentry, then primer and finish coat on the new wood, then the scraps picked up and hauled off.
Where in Belmont and Arlington
In Belmont we work Belmont Hill, Cushing Square and the streets between; in Arlington, Arlington Heights, East Arlington and the center, all about 20–30 minutes from our base in Chestnut Hill. Cambridge (about 20–25 minutes) and Watertown (about 15 minutes) are on the way; every town we cover is on the service area page. Ice dams start at the roof: other exterior services covers roofing and gutters.
Quickest is to call or text (857) 245-9588; the form to get a free estimate works just as well.
Questions homeowners ask
Our Arlington Heights cape has cedar shingles. Can you replace just the rotted ones?
Yes. Rot in cedar shingles usually runs in a band, under a sill, along the bottom course, around a vent, so we take out that band plus the course above it, where the nails of the bad shingles sit, and weave new shingles into the same lines.
We have a two-family in East Arlington with vinyl siding. Repair it or re-side?
Count the walls. If one or two walls are hurt and the vinyl elsewhere still flexes, it is a repair. If a panel cracks when you press it and the seams have opened on all four sides, re-siding is the honest answer, and on a two-family we check the clapboard underneath before we quote either one.
After you fix the clapboard on our Belmont colonial, who paints it?
We do; you will not need to line up a painter. Bare cedar and new clapboard get primer on every face before they go on the wall, so priming is part of the carpentry, and the finish coat follows once the primer has cured.
Is there a warranty on a shingle repair in Belmont or Arlington?
Yes. Vinyl panels and fiber cement boards also carry the manufacturer's limited warranty.
Get a free estimate
Tell us what you see on the wall, or just leave a phone number and we will call back. Calls and texts: (857) 245-9588, also on WhatsApp. E-mail: [email protected].
Based at 115 Grove St, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. Open 8:00 AM – 9:00 PM every day.